Body armor and maces to return?

[Galabab]

Well im on all that graphine hype right now.
This new metrerial is 200 times stronger than steel. This means that a 0.5 mm strong armor would be as strong as 10 cm steel. Bullets will not be able to penetrate such an armor.
Now graphine is only made in thin layers. Im arguing under the assumption that its properties still aply in some form of compounds.

So if bullets become harmless we could still use maces to break each others bones and knock each other out

I always wondered how warfare turns out to be once materials become stronger than the means of destroying them.

[stillman]

Arms race.

That is, people will penetrate that armor. If you wear ten layers of it, they'll develop something to go through all ten, at increasingly impressive distances too, of course.

And, consider practicality. No one can really wear armor over every body part and still move well enough or do it cost efficiently enough for a reasonable number of wearers.

[Galabab]

Nah thats not true strillman i can easily cover 80% of body with real scale armor.
Plus you can probably make elastic cloth like material out of it too.

And how can you penetrate this armor if the bullets which are already almost at the limit of their power cant scratch it?

[jmervyn]

And how can you penetrate this armor if the bullets which are already almost at the limit of their power cant scratch it?

Simple - spalling will penetrate scale mail quite nicely, as well as strike exposed areas. If this stuff is as great as you're hearing, I expect the initial countermeasure will be hypervelocity fragmentation.

Still, I don't find it likely to live up to what you've heard when & if it's actually finding its way into body armor. Similar claims were made about kevlar.

[stillman]

Ok, maybe I was too jumpy. But there are all sorts of ways of defeating the armor at range. Instead of maces, why not send a rocket propelled grenade? They can always modify this and that, making the explosion hotter so it cooks people in their armor, or toxifying the air, etc. Is there anything RPGs can't do?

[Galabab]

OK what about an overall made of a compound material of graphine with a high heat resistance?
You'll need to hit it witch an artilery shell dierctly to kill such a soldier. Actually even mechanical means like maces would be inpractical too.

and J, hypervelocty frags cant penetrate 10cm steel no matter how hyper it is
Unless you're speaking about some artilery like huge devices which wont hit a single soldier anyway.

[krischan]

You cannot make a 1:1 comparison in that manner. You don't just need tough material, you also need a means to distribute the impact and kinetic energy onto a surface which is great enough to prevent the target from destruction or death. The issue is one of both energy and impact and the latter needs mass to be compensated, not toughness.

For example, when assuming that half a meter of steel protects from impact gunshells shot by tanks, it doesn't mean that 2.5mm of graphene will protect you as well. it will probably wrap around the shell and both will go through your body and turn you into penny-sized pieces.

There's also a difference between e.g. the bullet of a 9mm pistol and the NATO standard ammunition for rifles, a factor of about 5-10 with respect to kinetic energy. Bullets for policemen are meant to keep inside the target, so bystanders aren't hit by shrapnel while army ammunition is expected to overcome a bit resistance, like a helmet, a bit of cover... or maybe bullet-proof vests.

[jmervyn]

and J, hypervelocty frags cant penetrate 10cm steel no matter how hyper it is
Unless you're speaking about some artilery like huge devices which wont hit a single soldier anyway.

You don't get what I'm saying. Hypervelocity fragments don't have to penetrate the armor; the point is to hit weak spots where the stuff you're talking about isn't present or is not in a contiguous sheet. Elbows, midriff, neck, groin... anywhere flexibility is required. You can't up-armor infantry to the point of immobility like medieval mentality held (the same is true for vehicles, but that was forgotten in the heat of the anti-Bush HMMWV crusade).

Current casualties from U.S. combat bears this out: we don't lose troops to sucking chest wounds, instead they die if they "bleed out" before they can be MEDEVAC'ed, and the number of limb injuries is massively higher than it used to be. After all the leftist screaming about body armor, it was found that some of it was grossly over-rated, while other types' efficacy came at significant cost to soldier maneuverability.

[Galabab]

@krischan:
Yes I thought bout that but didnt go into details yet. I dont think its that hard to overcome that. Just add some kind of frame to your super light graphine shirt and you're done. NO KIND OF ANY EXISTENT weapon that can be carried by one man can overcome 10cm of steel. And it just starts from there!

@j:
Yes my bad, I thougt you meant hyperspeed. But hyperfragmentation shouldnt be such an issue if you get a light(!) overall + a light(!) helmet. Thats the point of this material its not only strong its also light, as even small ammounts of it are this durable.
No problem with mobility.

[thechest]

All I have to say is:

Boom. Headshot.