Are ballistic helmets bulletproof?

Are ballistic helmets bulletproof?

20th century steel helmets have very poor resistance to small arms threats; the PASGT, ACH, and most “IIIA”-rated helmets will stop virtually all pistol caliber threats, but will not stop rifle rounds; the ECH and IHPS will stop some rifle threats, but will not reliably stop all or even a majority of them, and helmet shell deformation may cause the shell to come into contact with the wearer’s head, potentially causing serious injury; future helmets will reliably stop steel-cored rifle ball threats with minimal helmet shell deformation.To get more news about bulletproof zone, you can visit bulletproofboxs.com official website.

The first aramid helmets such as the PASGT were more effective at stopping fragments and shrapnel, but were likewise not rated to stop any small arms threat. It was, however, discovered that these aramid helmets would stop service handgun ammunition, like the 9x19mm FMJ.

– Correspondingly, the ACH helmet — an improved aramid helmet introduced in 2003 and designed to build upon the successes of the PASGT whilst discarding the design flaws that were uncovered over more than a decade of use — was specified to stop 9x19mm FMJ service ammunition at up to 1450 fps. The US Military’s Inspector general noted in a report to Congress that “[t]he ACH is not designed to provide ballistic protection from threats more lethal (for example, higher velocity, or larger mass) than a 9mm FMJ RN.”

– The ECH helmet program, begun in 2009, was instituted to see whether a helmet can be developed that would stop the prevalent rifle threats in Iraq and Afghanistan. Results have been mixed, as will be described further herein, but the project has met with success for the most part.
An understanding of the combat helmet’s ballistic properties can only follow from this: That the combat helmet was developed as a military tool. Military planners knew well that indirect fire from mortars and artillery can inflict terrible casualties, and the first helmets were designed and issued to counter those particular threats.

In WWI, explosive or fragmenting munitions were responsible for roughly 60-70% of all combat casualties. [1] At the battle of Verdun, fragmentation and shrapnel from artillery bombardment caused at least 70% of the approximately 800,000 casualties that both sides suffered. The remainder were, for the most part, inflicted by relatively heavy rifle and machine-gun rounds which even the best helmets of today would not be able to stop.

The first helmet of the war to enter mass production and see widespread use — and the first modern combat helmet — was the French casque Adrian. This was made of mild steel, 0.7 to 0.8mm thick, with a tensile strength of at least 415 MPa and moderate ductility. (18% tensile elongation.) This helmet was capable of resisting a 230-grain, .45 caliber ball round at 400-450 feet per second, which is roughly half the .45 ACP’s muzzle velocity. But notwithstanding this poor performance against bullets, it is estimated to have defeated 75% of all shrapnel impacts from airburst munitions, and it had, therefore, an immediate positive impact on troop casualty rates and morale. In the Adrian’s wake, every other participant in WWI — except for Russia — hastened to develop and issue steel helmets of their own. Like the Adrian, these helmets had very poor resistance to small arms impacts, but were highly effective at protecting their wearers from shrapnel and fragmentation.

These same steel helmets, with minor modifications in some instances, were employed by all American and European forces through WWII. And here they proved even more vital, for whereas fragments and shrapnel accounted for approximately 65% of all WWI casualties, they accounted for 73% of WWII’s wartime wounds. The widespread use of the steel helmet shifted patterns of wounding and was highly effective at preventing fatal head injury. When the war was over, it was calculated that of all hits upon the US military’s M1 helmet 54% were defeated and, in fact, of all incapacitating hits upon the body, the M1 helmet prevented 10% of them.