[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hmm, I wasn't thinking concealable. SWAT/Special Forces. Otherwise, subvert the fashion industry to design clothes that would accomodate such mods and still be concealed.
It stil comes down to an issue of mobility. The heavy raid vests worn by CQB or direct action teams is something that they wear only for a short period of time; generally they gear up right before they go through the doors, so to speak. Vests have an Achilles' heel; the heavier they are, the less range of action and the more heat is retained. There have been a lot of advances in personal concealable body armor over just the past couple years and what you suggest is either available or coming down the pike. The problem is that for a vest to be effective, it needs to have layers of material and the more effective it is to be, the more layers, and thus the thicker it will be. You can buy a ballistic blazer or trench coat that will give you some protection, but so as to not give itself away as concealed armor, the material can't be as heavy as a vest that would be worn over a shirt.
That said, there are a couple of advances that are in the prototype stage and receiving truck loads of cash for development. One is a gel like substance that's flexible, sort of like the gel shorts a cyclist might wear, except when subjected to an impact they solidify so long as the force is applied and then go back to a gel like state. Another is a weave from nanotube fibers that would be to kevlar what kevlar was to the old nylon frag vests of the 50's. With the GWOT, a lot of cash is being funneled into personal protection and it's just a matter of time before these things hit the street.
-- Kurt Feltenberger [EMAIL PROTECTED] TEOTWAWKI Fiction and PBEM http://www.teotwawki.net "To our Country! In her intercourse with foreign nations, may she always be in the right, but our country, right or wrong!" ~Stephen Decatur _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
