Posted: Mon Jun 12, 2017 3:14 pm@NeuPolska: It is worth remembering, taking in consideration what others have said above, that "resistant" means being able to withstand a couple of rounds, if I'm not mistaken, (in any case, definitely in the range of single digits) before shattering/breaking, after which there is little or no protection against additional hits. In the case of more powerful rounds, the stated projectile the plate is supposed to protect from may even refer to single-shot protection, if I'm not mistaken.
This may be mitigated by segmented plates or however they're called where each plate is made of multiple smaller plates so that when one is hit it doesn't affect the others. Some RL plates of primarily Russian design as far as I can remember use this design.
In any case, significant injury and even death can occur even without penetration, because the energy of the shots has to go somewhere, and that somewhere happens to be the wearer's body (the plate helps by dissipating this energy over a larger surface area, resulting basically in lower pressure on the body but over a bigger patch).
Assuming you have a 20% shot accuracy and say 5 normal 5.56 shots are required to defeat a plate, it would mean you'd have to shoot 25 rounds at the same plate to ensure a kill (assuming again that kill = armor defeat). If you'd use WC 5.56 we could assume that one shot on target would be enough, and that would amount to firing 5 shots with the same 20% shot accuracy. Now, assuming the WC 5.56 is 5 times more expensive per round than normal 5.56 you'd basically be even in terms of costs for defeating our hypothetical armor plate. The problem is that it could be 10 times more expensive. Another problem is that plain 5.56 would do just as good a job at killing unarmored targets and it would do it 5-10 times cheaper per round, and it would also do suppressive fire 5-10 times cheaper per round. Issuing different types of ammo for troops can be problematic in a number of ways, including logistically, and you don't really want your G.I.s to fumble in the heat of battle over putting in the right type of ammo in their rifles.
Notice this is all very hypothetical and rough.
Just my 2 cents and please correct me if I'm wrong.
This may be mitigated by segmented plates or however they're called where each plate is made of multiple smaller plates so that when one is hit it doesn't affect the others. Some RL plates of primarily Russian design as far as I can remember use this design.
In any case, significant injury and even death can occur even without penetration, because the energy of the shots has to go somewhere, and that somewhere happens to be the wearer's body (the plate helps by dissipating this energy over a larger surface area, resulting basically in lower pressure on the body but over a bigger patch).
Assuming you have a 20% shot accuracy and say 5 normal 5.56 shots are required to defeat a plate, it would mean you'd have to shoot 25 rounds at the same plate to ensure a kill (assuming again that kill = armor defeat). If you'd use WC 5.56 we could assume that one shot on target would be enough, and that would amount to firing 5 shots with the same 20% shot accuracy. Now, assuming the WC 5.56 is 5 times more expensive per round than normal 5.56 you'd basically be even in terms of costs for defeating our hypothetical armor plate. The problem is that it could be 10 times more expensive. Another problem is that plain 5.56 would do just as good a job at killing unarmored targets and it would do it 5-10 times cheaper per round, and it would also do suppressive fire 5-10 times cheaper per round. Issuing different types of ammo for troops can be problematic in a number of ways, including logistically, and you don't really want your G.I.s to fumble in the heat of battle over putting in the right type of ammo in their rifles.
Notice this is all very hypothetical and rough.
Just my 2 cents and please correct me if I'm wrong.
