In July last year, a Taiwanese military blogger in the United States made public a video of a live-fire test of bulletproof inserts issued by the Taiwan military, a move that caused quite a stir on the island of Taiwan.
The results of the test are shocking: according to the industry-recognized NIJIII. ballistic protection standard, the Taiwan military's bulletproof inserts are either easily penetrated or recessed to a depth of up to 47mm, which is very different from the NIJIII. ballistic standard marked on it.
Faced with such an embarrassing situation, the Taiwan military reacted quickly, held a press conference and released a video of the internal test of the Armaments Bureau, in an effort to prove that its own bulletproof inserts indeed meet the NIJIII. bulletproof standards.
However, the public's doubts have not been completely dispelled.
Less than a year later, on April 14 this year, the same Taiwanese military blogger conducted another test of bulletproof equipment. This time, he turned his attention to bulletproof helmets.
The test results once again put the Taiwanese military in an embarrassing position.
In this much-watched test, the blogger carefully selected a variety of active bulletproof helmets for comparison, including helmets of the Taiwan army, the People's Liberation Army, the US military and the Russian army.
The test lineup can be described as luxurious, including the EMBH105-type bulletproof helmet in service in the Taiwan army, the "Kung Fu Dragon" bulletproof helmet of the Taiwan army, as well as the helmet from Taiwan's civilian manufacturers, as well as internationally renowned models such as the US military's LWH and the Russian army's 6B47, and of course, our army's Type 15 and Type 19 bulletproof helmets.
During the tests in strictly controlled conditions, firing was carried out at a distance of 5 meters using 9mm pistol cartridges. While none of the helmets tested were punctured, their performance varied widely.
Among them, the EMBH105-type bulletproof helmet in service in the Taiwan army performed the worst, not only leaving a depression as deep as 27.4mm, but also sputtering on the paint surface on the inside and outside of the helmet, giving people a sense of inferior plastic.
To make matters worse, the helmet did little to protect the dummy's skull.
Due to the huge depression of the helmet, not only did the dummy's skull appear lacerations, but the paint fragments splattered on the inside of the helmet also attached to the "wound", causing secondary injuries.
It is conceivable that in a real battlefield, this situation will be extremely difficult for hygienists to deal with.
At the same time, the Type 15 bulletproof helmets of the previous generation of our army showed themselves well. In testing, it provided good protection for the dummy skull, with almost no damage visible.
This result even made the Taiwanese videographers who assisted in the shooting on the side couldn't help but let out an exclamation.
Despite his attempts to remain neutral, in the end he gave high praise to the performance of the Type 15 helmet of our army - "relatively intact".
When the dust settled on all the tests, we were pleased to find that the PLA's Type 19 bulletproof helmet stood out among all the helmets involved in the test, and its performance even surpassed the LWH helmet of the US military.
The EMBH105-type bulletproof helmet in service in the Taiwan army is overshadowed, and its performance is not only far inferior to the helmet of the Russian army, but even inferior to the "Kung Fu Dragon" helmet of the previous generation of the Taiwan army.
It's really puzzling that this "upgrade" actually leads to a decrease in performance.
The reason for this is that the poor performance of the bulletproof helmets in service of the Taiwan military is mainly due to two points. First of all, the NIJ 0106.00 standard, which the Taiwanese military refers to in the production of bulletproof helmets, has seriously lagged behind the times.
The last update to this standard was in 1981, a full 43 years ago. Second, while adopting this backward standard, the Taiwan military also has the problem of cutting corners.
This makes the yield rate of the helmet low, and even the ballistic performance of the new helmet is worse than the old one.
It is worth mentioning that the NIJ 0106.00 standard does not specify the depth of the depression.
As long as the helmet is not broken through in the four-shot test, it is considered to have met this standard. However, this one-sided evaluation standard obviously cannot meet the higher requirements of the modern battlefield for helmet performance.
At the same time, advanced armies such as the U.S. military have made clear regulations on the depth of the recess of bulletproof helmets.
For example, the U.S. military's procurement instructions for CO/PD-05-04 clearly require that the instantaneous deformation depth of the helmet when impacted must not exceed a certain range to ensure that the soldier's head is effectively protected.
In addition, with this test we can also clarify some misconceptions about bulletproof helmets.
Some people think that bulletproof helmets can only be used to protect against fragment damage, but in fact, modern bulletproof helmets already have a considerable degree of protection against pistol bullets.
Bulletproof helmets made of advanced materials such as Kevlar or polymer polyethylene can effectively defend against common pistol bullets at close range.
Of course, the defense ability of rifle bullets is relatively limited, and it is usually necessary to maintain a certain distance and angle to bounce the bullet away.
There is also a widespread misconception that even if a bulletproof helmet is able to block the massive impact of a bullethead, it can cause neck injuries or even twisting.
However, this statement is not accurate, because the mass of the bullet is relatively small, and the moment generated is not enough to break a person's neck.
Moreover, modern bulletproof helmets are equipped with a suspension cushioning mechanism inside, which can effectively reduce the transmission of bullet impact to the head, so there is no need to worry about neck injury.
To sum up, there are indeed serious problems in the performance of the current bulletproof helmets of the Taiwan military that need to be improved and upgraded, and at the same time, we should also correctly understand and use bulletproof helmets to ensure that they play the greatest protective role on the battlefield.