The first attempts to protect personnel from bullets and shrapnel were made during the First World War and continued during the Second. So during the Second World War, many fighters of the elite units of the Red Army were dressed in armored cuirass, which, by the way, had rather weak protective properties, but at the same time were distinguished by a large mass, which significantly hampered the movement of the fighters. Further, body armor with lead plates appeared, which, although they had better protective characteristics, but the weight of 20 kg was still their big drawback. After the appearance of lightweight and rather comfortable Kevlar vests, it would seem that this problem was finally solved, but scientists did not stop at the achieved result, and developed an even more advanced body armor. However, this is not a bulletproof vest in our typical sense, but a fabric impregnated with a special protective gel, which is indistinguishable from ordinary clothing.
These types of body armor received the unofficial name "liquid armor" and work on their development is being carried out in parallel both in Russia and in the United States. In Russia, the development of "liquid armor" has been carried out since 2006 by the Yekaterinburg Venture Fund of the military-industrial complex and, according to them, in the coming years this product will already be on the market.
The protective gel that forms the basis of the "liquid armor" consists of a liquid filler and solid nanoparticles, which, when hit by a bullet, or any other sharp impact, instantly grab and turn into a solid composite material. In addition, unlike standard body armor, the force from a bullet impact in "liquid armor" is not concentrated in one place, but is distributed over the entire surface of the fabric. This allows you to significantly improve the protective characteristics of armor, as well as to avoid bruises and bruises remaining on the body from getting into a regular lead or Kevlar body armor. It should be noted that this gel shows its characteristics only on a special fabric, the structure of which the developers carefully hide.
True, at the moment, the "liquid armor" has some drawbacks. So the available samples are able to protect only from small-caliber bullets, and a shot from an assault rifle or a sniper rifle is almost guaranteed to penetrate the "liquid armor". Also, when water gets on the armor, it loses its protective properties by at least 40 percent, which adds additional problems to developers. However, a solution to this problem has already been found. The fabric can be placed in a moisture-proof film, or covered with a special water-repellent composition based on nanotechnology, created by our scientists five years ago.
In conclusion, I would like to say that "liquid armor" is one of the most promising technologies developed by Russian specialists in recent years. It will not only be able to reliably protect a soldier from bullets and shrapnel and give him the opportunity to move freely around the battlefield without bulky body armor, but can be used both to create new types of armored vehicles and for purely civilian purposes.
