Some have said that the key to the best defense is a good offense. But what do you do when your offense isn’t enough? An essential component to any military outfit is armor. This has become an issue in a lot of movies as of late but the word itself seems to offer a good amount of connotation. The OED defines armor (or armure, armur, armour; also aarmour, aarmer, armer, armowre, –oure, armor, armeure, –ewre, –ore, armeur) as “defensive covering worn by one who is fighting” and further as, “the exercise or employment of arms; warfare, fighting, active hostilities.” These are two ideas that I believe we can work with in finding a correlation between the mystical aspects of armor and defense, the (supposed) reality of defensive material, and the future of armor and what it will mean in a few decades or centuries.

First, let’s tackle the mystical concept of armor. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the medieval ages were avid imaginers of magical armors. Even before the middle ages, armor was a big deal. Seamus Heaney wrote a translation of Beowulf that has our hero donned in full armor when confronting Grendel’s mother, “Beowulf got ready, donned his war-gear, indifferent to death; his mighty, hand-forged, fine-webbed mail would soon meet with the menace underwater. It would keep the bone-cage of his body safe: no enemy’s clasp could crush him in it, no vicious armlock choke his life out. To guard his head he had a glittering helmet that was due to be muddied on the mere bottom and blurred in the upswirl. It was of beaten gold, princely headgear hopped and hasped by a weapon-smith who had worked wonders in days gone by and adorned it with boar-shapes; since then it had resisted every sword” (101). Foremost, if you don’t know the text Beowulf, you are either a foreigner, or you should immediately go strangle your high-school English teacher because they failed in their sacred duty. This is the first piece of English writing that we have. An important part of Beowulf going into combat is the armor that he wears. Of specific interest to the story is that Grendel’s mother gets the upper hand in their encounter and this armor saves his life. Notice that his helmet is impenetrable by any swords. This suggests a mystical quality, and that’s ok because this is a mystical story. But the concept that armor is an important part of combat has roots in the oldest English. Even further back to the Greek story of the Iliad, Achilles’ shield is crafted by the god Vulcan. An edition by enotes.com writes, “And Vulcan answered, ‘Take heart, and be no more disquieted about this matter; would that I could hide him from death’s sight when his hour is come, so surely as I can find him armour that shall amaze the eyes of all who behold it.’ When he had so said he left her and went to his bellows, turning them towards the fire and bidding them do their office. Twenty bellows blew upon the melting-pots, and they blew blasts of every kind, some fierce to help him when he had need of them, and others less strong as Vulcan willed it in the course of his work. He threw tough copper into the fire, and tin, with silver and gold; he set his great anvil on its block, and with one hand grasped his mighty hammer while he took the tongs in the other. First he shaped the shield so great and strong, adorning it all over and binding it round with a gleaming circuit in three layers; and the baldric was made of silver. He made the shield in five thicknesses, and with many a wonder did his cunning hand enrich it.” The story goes on and Vulcan crafts an entire world on the shield that is symbolic but may have been the graphic that was made on the shield. The shield can be found replicated, according to the description in the story, and a picture of one artist’s work can be found here at this link. What I hope I have established is the far-reaching tradition of the importance of armor whenever undergoing a battle of epic proportions. In relation to this, Shao-lin monks and various martial arts traditions are reported (and I have witnessed some of these acts) to be able to become impervious to certain types of physical punishment. These instances are not myths and can be explored further in another post perhaps, but I, in no way, want to confuse these instances of body training with mysticism. These techniques are true, for some, and they are one of those talents that science still stretches to explain. May it long be so.

At what we can call the historical side of the story, armor has been found that dates millenia old. Of course the old stuff wasn’t necessarily the best stuff. The traditional picture of armor for a good part of history was a breastplate of some kind, a helmet, and a shield. Furthermore, I think we can safely add the safety in numbers too. One guy with a shield is ok, but if you stand eight guys in a line with shields and can figure out how to maneuver them successfully, you have a very useful way to defend yourself. Many historic accounts suggest that a shield-wall was the way in which ancient armies defended themselves. A significant advance in defense was achieved in the Renaissance when plate mail was invented. Unfortunately, it proved to be a trade-off in mobility, practicality, survivability in hostile environments, and visibility against protection. In it, a person was damned near invulnerable. Until the cannon came around. Let’s face it, by the time people developed the intricate metal working that would make a person invulnerable to melee weapons, they simultaneously developed the technology needed to invent cannons, primitive pistols, and rudimentary rifles. Check out this link for some interesting information. The point is that once the gun was created, there was absolutely no protection against it for many years. Protection was found in the form of reinforced walls, intricately designed forts, and the use of a strong offense. It took World War I for a change in personal and group protection.

Perhaps the most stunning development of World War I was the tank. This vehicle had an incredible array of models, but the essential triangle of tank design is protection, mobility, and firepower. Protection is essential in a tank. Almost every tank is absolutely impervious to light infantry assault (it didn’t take long for portable RPG technology to change this) and could deal a great amount of damage to any target it encountered. Some tanks were so well armored that they could resist a few direct hits from other tank blasts (I believe it was the Panzers that could shake off a few hits but feel free to correct me). Flack Jackets were supposed to offer some protection against munition fragments, but they did not provide any protection against light or heavy personal firearms. It wasn’t until the 1970s that personal armor really underwent a reliable improvement in the development of Kevlar material. Essentially, the material is manufactured to become rigid when it encounters a shock of high kinetic energy like that from a gun and then diffuses and stops the penetrating power of the projectile before it gets through the material. The most unique factor in Kevlar is that it is lightweight and easily donned. It was not until the early ‘80s that the material was capable of some durability and was able to function in the wet. Check here for a brief history of Kevlar. Modern bullet proof vests can actually be bought by most of the public (I’m sure it puts you on somebody’s watch list), but is reserved mostly for government and military work. Another interesting piece of kit was discussed in The Hurt Locker film. This was the bomb suit. The bomb suit is designed with a mixture of soft and hard parts to resist the over-pressure wave that accompanies explosions. It isn’t the actual blast that you have to worry about with a bomb, it is the wave of displaced air that is quite likely to shred all of your internal organs before the shrapnel even has a chance to hit you. This site has some bomb-suits that are currently sold to private companies.

Lastly, I want to cover the future of armor. Do you remember Robotech? OK, so many of you will n0t remember that. Perhaps Macross would be more familiar, but the idea is that each pilot operates a robot that acts like power-armor. Another cartoon show that was popular in the early ‘90s was Exo-Squad. These guys had power armor that would allow them to traverse adverse climates, have super abilities, posses incredible mobility, and have an amazing arsenal to boot. Sure, there are countless other cartoons and movies that depict power armor. A classic comic hero that is in mode right now that captures the idea of power armor perfectly is Iron Man. The twist is that this is becoming a reality. Mankind has always dreamed of possessing incredible armor and here is a video that should really give you a grasp on what I’m talking about:

OK, so the video is pretty grainy, and I can tell you that this guy is by no means trying to build an actual weapon. But for those who are trying to build an actual weapon, the kinds of technology that this guy is using would be applicable. Check this video for the military’s current take on power armor:

Another interesting power armor application would be invaluable (and becomes arguably blurred with cybernetics and bionics) in the development of prosthetic limbs for amputees. Here is a video of the Luke Arm, which is being developed for military veterans that have lost arms. You can see that this is quite an amazing piece of technology:

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There are an enormous gaps in the material that I have layed out here, but I feel that I have explored the basic constructions that underlay our societal connotations of armor. The interesting questions that I have are: is machinery, particularly in the form of prosthetic bodies, capable of granting a human a sort of possible immortality? Will personal armor become common place in clothing lines? What are the destructive possibilities of a foe that is impenetrable? Just a few questions to keep asking as we develop some pretty astounding stuff.