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Come to think of it this flak jacket used by NA really looks very bogus and suspiciously uncomfortable. I am suprised that i ve never seen any army in the world using it. I recall meeting a soldier in Jos while on NYSC service, out of sheer curiosity[cos i ve never seen anything of its kind] asked the soldier wat it was and his response was that it was a bullet proof vest which i later found out was not. Imagine a soldier thinking he is wearing a bullet proof only to wake up realising he wad ‘deaded’!
He was correct. It is a bullet proof vest, designed to be used specifically for riverine warfare only, as it both helps protect the soldier and also enables him float in the water.
Do you think he was stupid, when he said it’s a ballistic jacket? Of course the thing had under gone series of test before deployment. Like I said earlier, the flak jacket was acquired primarily to be used in the niger delta, this particular photo was shot liberation stadium in port-harcourt when then acting president GEJ visited.
However we also see soldiers where them in places like abuja, but in borno state and the far north, soldiers wear normal flak jackets.
I thought flak jackets were meant to stop shrapnel and not bullets [although they could be effective against small arms fire] as against vests designed to proof bullets?
The term “flak jacket” is often colloquially applied to newer body armour featuring protection against small arms projectiles, but the original usage pre-dated the existence of functional bulletproof vests. Culled from wikipedia.
We are both correct, but I wasn’t referring to the name whether bullet proof or flak jacket. I was explaining what the bullet proof vest above actually does, un like your claim that the body armour is not what it really is.
The term Flak jacket, comes from WW2 airmen, who whore specialized jackets with metal and ceramic plates to survive the exploding shells aka flak, from german antiaircraft artillery.
During the vietnam war, troops out of necessity used the same jackets to provide some measure of protection. It was not bullet proof, but only protected them against shrapnel.
It was however so heavy and hot, that most soldiers dispensed with them. Advances in chemistry and fabrics led to the Kevlar material , which together with ceramic plates, provide us the modern day “flak jacket” WHICH IS BULLET PROOF.
Bullet proof depending on the range and type of round fired. The weapon system involved also determines the survivability of the soldier.
Well we are not talking 50 cal rounds here.
The latest layered kevlar fabrics combined with ceramic plates, would stop any 7.62 mm round.
That has to be bullet proof in anybody’s book.