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General

The Advanced Modular Protection Armor (AMAP) is a system incorporating a broad variety of different types of armor and electronics, as well as load bearing equipment for gear such as magazines, water and food. The armor itself is a multiple layer composite, with ceramics and dyneema on the outside of the armor serving as hard plates, intended to help break up and fragment or deflect hard projectiles on impact, such as bullets, causing them to come in at an angle and, soft, energy absorbant armor is used to catch the fragments, and dissipate the energy over the armor's frame or user's body. The ceramics and dyneema are embedded within an aluminum-rubber composite matrix in 1 inch tiles, to work in a similar manner as chobham armor, which increases their strength, and helps increase the durability, as only one panel breaks, rather than the entire sheet of material that would otherwise fill the area; this also allows it to more readily fill odd angles without increasing the production difficulty. The armor is arranged in a lamellar armor-style configuration, with overlapping scale-like plates, to increase mobility of the armor despite being being hard plates. The plates overlap like Knight armor, which give increased maneuverability in comparison to a single block of material. Due to the high hardness of the hard plates, the armor is capable of stopping rounds typically considered "armor piercing" for their class, and due to the composite nature and general durability, still has the strength to stop multiple rounds. The armor in this manner functions similarly to modern EOD suits, which typically use hard plastics to break up the projectiles before entering the softer armor below. This is also similar to how air chamber glass works, which uses spaced armor to help fragment and deflect incoming rounds, which increases the performance of the armor by approximately 35%. In combination with revolutionary materials and more ideal design characteristics (chobham armor, spaced armor, composites, angles for deflection, overlapping plates, fiber reinforcement), the armor's capabilities are more or less far beyond that of other modern armor in current use by most infantry, such as kevlar, which traditionally can only stop low velocity, large diameter cartridges (a IIIA vest can stop a .44 magnum of comparable energy to a 5.56mm, but it requires level IV or higher armor to stop a 5.56mm cartridge, which is significantly smaller due to it's high velocity and small size which makes it ideal for piercing soft armor). This is also true in part due to the exoskeleton and biomechahnical enhancements expected to be used in conjunction with the armor. This part of the equipment is approximately 45 pounds on it's own.

The armor is made up an underlayer of M5 fiber which is 10 pounds, an outer layer of Dyneema and ceramic composite hard plates which are over the armor in scales or plates which is 38 pounds, and has approximately 7 pounds of ceramics, trauma absorbing foam, energy absorbing gel and ALON translucent armor. The armor itself works in three basic layers, with the M5 fiber as the softer armor underneath designed to catch spalling and fragmentation, the dyneema which serves as a hard but light-weight material that absorbs most of the energy of the bullets (and makes up the bulk of the armor), and the ceramic outer coating. The fourth layer, or the Trauma foam and impact gel, absorb the energy and concussive blast of explosive shockwaves and the physical impact of kinetic strikes, which helps dampen it's transfer to the user and in particular prevent internal organ and brain damage, but it doesn't provide much real protection against bullets itself. The M5 fiber and carbonanotube composite material is combined with the liquid body armor concept, which helps absorb energy and reduce stretching of the armor with repeated impacts. All combined, this M5 fiber composite material is approximately 7 times stronger than kevlar, and is more chemical, UV and heat resistant, as well as capable of withstanding multiple hits in the same spot due to the inherent flexibility of the material and the strength of the liquid armor. Despite it's high strength and good mechanical properties, it's softness makes it vulnerable to certain types of projectiles, such as hardened armor piercing rounds. The M5 fiber is intended primarily to stop lighter projectiles on exposed areas of the body, provide protection against heat, chemicals and fragmentation, and to absorb the fragmentation and energy of the bullet passing through the dyneema. The Dyneema, of which makes up the bulk of the armor, helps to primarily stop most projectiles and fragmentation, by serving as a high strength material that is hard enough to stop the hardened high velocity rounds used by modern combat rifles. It's high hardness and flexibility makes it more ideal against modern rifle rounds, compared to simple energy absorption alone. By itself it would take several pounds of material to both absorb the energy of and stop most bullets, but due to th M5 fiber underneath it is capable of stopping bullets despite being much lighter than that. The Dyneema by itself has a V0 against 7.62m NATO rounds of 2100 fps (640 m/s) and a V50 of approximately 2700 fps (830 m/s), but in conjunction with the ceramic and M5 fiber composite can stop the round at full velocity. When all combined, the Ceramic coating is designed to serve as a hardened material which helps break down and fragment the round before it passes in to the softer Dyneema, which then further breaks the round down until the remaining fragments are caught by the M5 fiber. This armor works in layers, absorbing the energy with the softer armor and avoiding the penetration associated with hardened rounds through the harder outer layers. Similar armor can be found on EOD suits or tank armor, which often follows similar principles. All together this allows the armor to stop an armor piercing 7.62mm x 51mm NATO or 7.62mm x 54mm Russian round, and can stop 3-5 of these rounds in the same 2x2 inch area.

Translucent parts of the armor, such as those which cover solar panels, user interface screens, and visors, are made up of Aluminum Oxynitride, which is significantly stronger than traditional bullet proof glass, and much more impact resistant, capable of stopping multiple rounds. Capable of deflecting anything up to an armor piercing 7.62mm x 54mmR or .30-06, they can cover all essential areas of the armor that require visibility, such as the face mask and thermal vision lenses, and be just as if not more effective than the traditional armor. The buffering process itself helps to increase the strength of the armor, and it is otherwise more expensive. The high strength translucent ceramic is paired with many layers of high strength plastics, which help resistant deformation and cracking, as well as keep the armor together to prevent it from shattering. The infrared and night vision cameras are placed on either side of the helmet, and around the body, to provide the ability to completely replace the user's vision, and give 360 degrees of vision. Each soldier has an optional "gas mask" they can wear to prevent mask of the user from consuming toxic chemicals; the gasm ask is not actually placed on the face as a mask, but rather as a filter with a tube, placed in the backpack, to reduce the weight and obstruction of visibility many gas masks possesses by being placed on the head. In total, with the face mask, the head piece only weighs approximately 5 pounds, 3.5 pounds for the helmet, and 1.5 pounds for the face mask and neck covering; this includes the hearing protection module. This also fills up the NBC suit with clean air, which allows air to be breathed in through the skin, for long term purposes. It has both powered and unpowered versions, and an optional 8 pound carbon fiber tank of air can provide air for up to 4 hours in environments where oxygen is otherwise scarce of cut off. The visor also provides a head's up display hooked up to the computer, which can be controlled by voice, a GUI on the arm, or even the individual's brain synapses (to a degree). This can provide access to vision by scopes and lasers placed on the weapon, in addition to electronics in general. The soft armor typically covers the most flexible parts of the body, and is generally covered in hard overlapping plates. It is largely a blend of M5 fiber and nanocomp armor, mixed with a non-Newtonian fluid, known as "liquid armor". This helps to increase the strength of the armor by making it more resistant to higher velocities (the higher the velocity, the more the fluid responds to the impact) and in general increases it's durability by keeping it stuck together. In addition, it's embedded inside some of the ceramics, to reinforce the armor.

The armor also is expected to be used in conjunction with numerous technological devices, such as an exoskeleton, cooling suit, computer, and the general land warrior system. These are integrated into the suit, and expected to be used together, although hypothetically they can be separated. This not only increases the ergonomics of each device, but in addition due to various forms of overlaps, improves the capabilities of each device synergistically, and decreases the overall size of the equipment. For instance, part of the frame of the HULC system and light wattage frame are the suit of the armor itself, which helps distribute the weight over the entire suit, which not only increases it's strength, but makes it easier to use (and more like a true exoskeleton). Because the armor is expected to be worn at all times in conjunction with these systems, there is a much more fluid, integrated use, and thus it does not inhibit maneuverability nearly as much as the original device. The electronics are primarily housed within the back of the suit. Changes to the soldier's senses are particularly important; each soldier is outfitted with a pair of headphones which not only provides an ability for radio commands, but also blocks out all sounds over 130 decibels. This allows a soldier to more clearly hear ambient and outside noises than ordinary hearing protection would, allowing it to be worn at all times, but automatically cancels out noises which would damage hearing, such as from a gunshot or explosion. In the same vein, the facemask of the soldiers allow the soldiers to see everything in front of them nearly as clearly as they would without the visor. However, with a brightness above levels that would damage the human eyes or incapacitate the user, such as from a flashbang, the mask automatically reacts and prevents the user from exposure. In this way, the hearing protection and visor can block out harmful bright flashes or loud noises, but unlike traditional hearing protection or eye protection (say, from a welder's mask) it does not constantly impair the user's vision. The entire suit seals off the user from the environment, relying heavily on an oxygen concentrator and filter to fill of the suit to give the user their air. This means that the suit seals off the user from tear gas, smoke or other poison's at all times, without hampering the breathing of the user. When the filter breaks down or runs out of power, it simply stops working and the soldier goes back to regular breathing, thus preventing suffocation.

With the HULC system, the user can carry a total of 265 pounds of equipment. Due to the inherent weight of most of the equipment, including the exoskeleton itself, and the armor, this is realistically only 150 pounds, although the suit will absorb that full 150 pounds of weight for the user. The battery can last approximately 12 hours (or 24 hours with the extended pack), or provide around a 60 km range at 4 km/h (or 2.5 mph). While solar panels, onboard capacitors, and kinetic recharging units can replenish this daily, when the weather or environment does not permit proper recharging, onboard hydrogen fuel cells can be activated to extend this range. This is typically out to 4 days, or 240 kilometers (150 miles). With an additional 30 pounds of fuel, this is double the time, or 8 days (480 kilometers, 300 miles). When the fuel runs out, the onboard biomechanic enhancement of the exoskeleton still makes the body more efficient, at an incredibly low wattage, at around 1-5 watts per second (depending on the nature of the movement). Additional systems, such as an artificial heart, cooling system, oxygen concentrator (40%) and hard exoskeleton (more literal in this case, taking the stress off of the bones and placing them on to the suit, in a semi-powered, low energy fashion) help to generally improve the athletic performance of the individual, increasing both their endurance and range even without the extra strength enhancement. On top of this, the user is expected to lose weight as they consume resources, most notably water and food, which should lighten their load, and over time reduce the pack's weight to more reasonable levels, thus allowing them to carry on on foot even further, despite the inherent weight of the system. When general resources run out, a water filter can be used to gather water from almost anywhere in the world, and freeze dried food combined with general survival skills can extend the range of the user drastically, along with well timed air drops into territory where extraction is not possible, but resupply is. Due to the lack of ergonomics, the HULC exoskeleton is usually quickly abandoned in combat. It can fit in line with the suit, which partially supports the weight, but it is used primarily to get from point A to point B, and carry extraneous equipment, such as food and water.

All in all, the armor provides electronics to enhance tactical and strategic capabilities on the battlefield, an exoskeleton to increase strength, and armor which helps increase the range of environments which the user can survive. The cooling suits not only increase the operational range of the user, but also help to improve athletic performance, the land warrior system allows for improved targeting, friend and foe identification, and allows both information from the command and logistics and to the command and logistics to be delivered almost instantly; the armor not only provides protection from incoming projectiles, but absorbs the weight of the user's combat pack, taking it off of the joints. The armor has many purposes which assist each other, and can protect from a wide range of threats, from temperature to general environmental issues, to blunt force trauma, and firearms. While the armor itself does not by itself perform all of these roles, the armor system and suit itself provides all of these abilities in conjunction with other systems designed to work in concert with the suit. All in all, the suit provides a wide spectrum of abilities for the user, from complex logistics, to increased physical strength, and protection against attacks. It's abilities represent a phenomenal leap in capabilities for infantry, and serve as a substantial force multiplier, in addition to providing capabilities ordinarily not possible without it. It costs between 50,000 to 100,000 dollars per unit, depending on the features provided; it is notable that 20,000 of this is for the thermal vision scopes, and roughly the same amount is used for the artificial heart.

The full body armor protection doesn't just protect against rifle and handgun rounds, but also more importantly against shrapnel and fragmentation. As most casualties in war are from explosives, be it artillery (typically responsible for 65-75% of casualties) or grenades (responsible for 12% of casualties), deaths and injuries by explosives are In general fragmentation cannot get through light armor, such as a flak vest or bullet proof vest, and therefore even rather thin armor is sufficient for stopping most fragmentation. Covering the entire body protects it from means that could easily kill or injure lots of soldiers, which is more important by itself than stopping rifle rounds. In addition, protection against debri, such as rocks or wood, or ricochets can be just as important; in the battle of Bastogne and the Battle of of the Hürtgen Forest for example, german artillery shells produced enormous amounts of shrapnel from the surrounding trees, and inflicted far heavier casualties than they would have otherwise. Armor such as this can easily protect against such threats, as well as environmental threats such as punji spikes, which killed countless American soldiers in vietnam. The boots are designed to protect against puncture wounds from nails, thorned plants, punji spikes and so on, as well as rocks and to a limited extent land mines, giving it protection against light threats that are deceptive in their lethality in regards to a bullet. The same armor also provides environmental resistance, providing protection against bugs and bacteria, such as mosquitoes, snakes, bees, stagnant water, and other common threats, particularly those found in the jungles. In combination with the cooling and heating suit, the armor can provide protection from hot and cold environments as well, allowing soldiers to be always operating at full conditions. Finally the armor is NBC resistant, capable of stopping smoke, tear gas, biological agents or poison from entering the armor and effecting the user, giving them resistance against nuclear or chemical weapons, which is likely to kill more people in the event of a total war than any other cause. All of these features combined protect the soldier not only from immediate harm such as from gunshot wounds and explosives, but other threats, such as knives, shrapnel, bugs, disease, wooden splinters, poison, punji spikes, exhaustion, and more.

Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene

Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene (UHMWPE, UHMW) is a subset of the thermoplastic polyethylene, otherwise known as Dyneema. It has extremely long chains, with a molecular mass usually between 2 and 6 million u. The longer chain serves to transfer load more effectively to the polymer backbone by strengthening intermolecular interactions. This results in a very tough material, with the highest impact strength of any thermoplastic presently made. Dyneema and Spectra are lightweight high-strength oriented-strand gel spun through a spinneret. They have yield strengths as high as 2.4 GPa (350,000 psi) and specific gravity as low as 0.97 (for Dyneema SK75). High-strength steels have comparable yield strengths, and low-carbon steels have yield strengths much lower (around 0.5 GPa). Since steel has a specific gravity of roughly 7.8, this gives strength-to-weight ratios for these materials in a range from 8 to 15 times higher than steel. Strength-to-weight ratios for Dyneema are about 40% higher than for aramid. It has such a low specific gravity, it is even buoyant in water, with a specific gravity of 1, compared to .97 for Dnyeema.

Owing to it's high hardness and toughness as a plastic, it's application for armor is ideal. Like in EOD suits, the hard outer plastic surface breaks up and fragments shrapnel and bullets, spreading out the energy as the rounds deform. High velocity fragmentation or bullets are deformed and tumble, allowing the softer armor below to absorb the energy. While by itself, ordinarily thick pieces of hard dyneema would be required to stop projectiles, in combination with soft armor, the rounds fragment or break up on impact and expand, thus spreading out the energy over the armor. By the time they do pierce the dyneema, they generally have expanded or tumbled sufficiently to allow the rounds to be easily absorbed by the soft armor. Thus while the soft armor can stop the energy of a .44 magnum, but not the high velocity and small size of a 5.56mm round (equal in energy, but not in other factors), ordinarily it cannot stop the higher velocity rifle rounds. By absorbing some of the energy without cutting or tearing the soft armor, and by making the projectile a more ideal target, the armor can essentially stop rifle rounds, in situations it otherwise couldn't. Thus, the composite of high strength dyneema works like in EOD suits, although it is a significantly stronger form of plastic than used.

Dyneema armor, by itself, is incredibly effective against small arms. The U.S. recently began adopting the Enhanced Combat Helmet, or ECH, which has shown remarkable protection capabilities. The replacement of the Advanced Combat Helmet with the Enhanced Combat Helmet has been likened to the transition from the Humvee to the MRAP. The helmet has been shown nearly impenetrable to fragments fired by test guns. In a v50 test, guns were unable to attain the velocity required to get 50% of the fragments through a helmet. The helmet has vastly exceeded the 35% ballistic improvement requirement. In addition, it has shown resistance to rifle rounds, which light armor, such as those from ballistic helmets, are traditionally incapable of stopping. Not only does the armor possess multiple hit capabilities like similar steel armor, but it can additionally withstand the higher velocity and energy of rounds which typically overpower soft armor. While Kevlar has approximately the same strength as high strength steels, in terms of steel, additional mechanical properties, such as a lack of flexibility, and an inherent "softness" make it difficult to stop cartridges possessing certain qualities, or if struck multiple times. While steel, such as AR500 steel, is stronger, it is significantly heavier, and due to it's density and necessary minimum thickness, is not considered suitable to being worn as a helmet. The Dyneema helmets not only match kevlar helmets in terms of overallweight, but exceed them by over 20%. When paired with other materials such as steel and ceramic in a composite, the armor forms and incredibly robust option for light arms.




The armor is largely made of nano-ceramics, produced for the AMAP system. AMAP is also making use of new nano-ceramics, which are harder and lighter than current ceramics, while having multi-hit capability. Normal ceramic tiles and a liner backing have a mass-efficiency (EM) value of 3 compared to normal steel armour, while it fulfills STANAG 4569. The new nano-crystalline ceramic materials should increase the hardness compared to current ceramics by 70% and the weight reduction is 30%, therefore the EM value is larger than 4. Furthermore the higher fracture toughness increases the general multi-hit capability.

The ceramics are more powerful, harder, and substantially tougher than the standard zirconium ceramics; thus, their multiple hit capability and increased strength allowed less ceramics to be utilized to protect the user, and thus reduce the weight of the armor, and yet protect from armor piercing 7.62mm x 54mm rounds, or multiple 7.62mm x 39mm rounds. Additionally, they have a aluminum matrix that holds them together; each tile is approximately half an inch, with a chobham style support system, to increase the strength of the ceramic, by providing a strong backing. This also increases the crack deflection of the armor, by breaking only one tile at a time, instead of an entire sheet of ceramic. Additionally, the aluminum frame provides a limited degree of flexibility, and thus the armor is easy to move around in somewhat (even though it is designed like plate armor) and thus provides additional capabilities.

The ceramic is fiber reinforced with M5 fiber, which is over twice as strong than Kevlar. Being more heat resistant than nomex, it can withstand being infused within the ceramic at high temperatures, although it likely would not survive the entire heating process. Thus the material can strengthen the ceramic tiles internally (I.E. serving as fiber reinforced ceramics) without weakening, and makes it even more resistant to repeated impacts.

The armor is designed with overlapping plates, that slide over each other, much like "lorinca segmented" armor. This allows the armor to be worn over joints and other areas that would ordinarily need flexible or elastic armor. Additionally, the flexible aluminum matrix and partially flexible fiber reinforced ceramics allows the armor to be more practical in terms of sliding plates, with a little bit of a yield, thus being more ergonomic. The helmet is essentially the same as the Enhanced Combat Helmet, however it possesses a somewhat stronger inner padding, a ceramic outside coating, and an attachable visor and facemask. The helmet is ordinarily 3 pounds, and is instead 3.5 pounds, due to the addition of the ceramic; with the face mask, it can rise to 5 pounds. While flexible armor exists for neck protection, there are nonetheless hard plates that stick



Soft armor is used to reinforce parts of the ceramic plates, to help absorb energy and be more flexible; it is embedded within the ceramic, as well, to make the ceramic more durable and impact resistance. M-5 fiber, or polyhydroquinone-diimidazopyridine is a high-strength synthetic aramid fiber, similar to Kevlar, although it is retains the same strength at roughly 50% the weight and volume. This means that twice as much M-5 Fiber can be used in the same amount of space for the same weight, to provide twice as much protection with a higher degree of flexibility, and elasticity as Kevlar. The material is more heat resistant than nomex, and incredibly chemically stable, capable of resisting UV, water, and other corrosive chemicals that kevlar is not capable of. M5 fiber is also significantly more elastic than kevlar, and will yield when stretched, unlike kevlar which will shear. This makes M5 fiber more resistant to repeated impacts, and more flexible when covering the body, giving greater coverage. Combined with the nanocomp armor, Approximately 15 pounds of soft body armor is used on the armor.

The M-5 fiber also incorporates liquid body armor, or a sheer thickening fluid designed to help protect against projectile impacts. The fluid used in the body armor is made of silica particles suspended in polyethylene glycol. Silica is a component of sand and quartz, and polyethylene glycol is a polymer commonly used in lubricants and as an industrial precursor to many material. Four layers of STF-treated Kevlar can dissipate the same amount of energy as 14 layers of neat Kevlar. In addition, STF-treated fibers don't stretch as far on impact as ordinary fibers, meaning that bullets don't penetrate as deeply into the armor or a person's tissue underneath, and thus increase the durability of the armor as well, increasing it's multiple hit round capabilities. This makes STF-treated kevlar approximately 3.5 times stronger than ordinary, untreated kevlar. In accordance with the liquid body armor, the M-5 fiber composite is roughly 7 times more effective than kevlar against projectile weapons. This means that smaller, looser fitting amounts of soft body can be used to achieve the same and even greater protection. Due to the high elasticity and toughness of the material, and particularly it's higher heat tolerance, the material is capable of deflecting more than one round, uncharacteristic of Kevlar, making it a more ideal armor source.

Nanocomp is working with the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center to develop material for body armor, providing a laminate layer on the strike and back face of the armor to augment current materials. Laminate layers are typically about 2 mm/0.08 inch thick, with 200 layers on each side of the body armor. Tests have shown that Nanocomp body armor can stop a 9-mm bullet at just 2mm, a feat typically reserved for 6-8mm body armor. In electromagnetic shielding applications, the Nanocomp's CNTs help provide protection from electrical signals. This material is not the bulk of, but partially helps reinforce the M5 fiber. Being of the same approximate strength, it's mechanical properties of higher toughness allow it to help absorb the impact of certain types of rounds.

Impact gel is gel based sheer thickening non-Newtonian fluid designed to be capable of absorbing energy. Feats of thin materials include preventing energy from cars, hammers, and other large objects from crushing the individual. The helmet utilizes a mixture of similar British shock absorbing gel and impact gel to absorb the impact of bullets and explosions. Impacts and explosives often do a significant amount of damage to people, and according to the military at one point helmets were the cause of 60% of deaths, due to the inability for the helmet to prevent energy transfer to the skull and head. With the addition of impact gel and other energy absorbing materials, these helmets can prevent impacts and injuries that would ordinarily daze, harm or kill individuals. Serving as a backing for armor, it can absorb the shock of many cartridges, or their energy, such as with explosives with relative ease, preventing deformation of the armor and energy transfer to the user.

ALON (Aluminium oxynitride)

Aluminium oxynitride (AlON) is a transparent ceramic composed of aluminium, oxygen and nitrogen. It is marketed under the name ALON and described in U.S. Patent 4,520,116. It is 4 times harder than fused silica glass, and 85% as hard as sapphire. The material remains solid up to 1,200 °C (2,190 °F). The material is used as for the crucial outer layer of experimental transparent armor being considered by the US Air Force for the windows of armored vehicles. When formed and polished as a window, the material currently (2005) costs about US$10 to US$15 per square inch (~ US$20,000/m²). Other applications include semiconductor substrates and retail fixtures. Objects are usually formed from pressed, cast or molded powder. The formed objects are then sintered (i.e., densified by heating in an oven), and polished until transparent. The polishing substantially improves the armor's impact resistance. The material is composed of three parts, an outer layer that's exposed to gunfire and made of baked aluminum oxynitride, a middle layer of glass, and a rear layer of polymer backing. Behind this is another layer of laminate polymer, to allow the air chamber effect to occur, which increases the strength of the armor by a further 35%.

Not only can the aluminum armor deflect rounds from small-caliber weapons and still be more clearly transparent than bullet-resistant glass that's been shot, it also passes a much more important test -- it resists .30-caliber armor piercing rounds. This is an impressive feat, especially since it's half the weight and thickness of traditional transparent armor. This material is used for all and any transparent parts of the armor, including the face mask, touch screen, and solar panels.

CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear) Suit

CBRN (pronounced C-BORN or C-BURN) is an initialism for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear. It is commonly used worldwide to refer to incidents or weapons in which any of these four hazards have presented themselves. The term CBRN is a replacement for the cold war term NBC (nuclear, biological, and chemical), which had replaced the term ABC (atomic, biological, and chemical) that was used in the fifties. The addition of the R (for radiological) is a consequence of the "new" threat of a radiological weapon (also known as the "poor man's atomic bomb" ). Since the start of the new millennium, a new term – CBRNe – was introduced as a replacement term for CBRN. The e in this term represents the enhanced (improvised) explosives threat. CBRN defense (CBRND) is used in reference to CBRN passive protection, contamination avoidance, and CBRN mitigation.

A CBRN incident differs from a hazardous material incident in both effect scope (i.e., CBRNE can be a mass casualty situation) and in intent. CBRN incidents are responded to under the assumption that they are deliberate, malicious acts with the intention to kill, sicken, and/or disrupt society. Evidence preservation and perpetrator apprehension are of greater concern with CBRN incidents than with HAZMAT incidents. The suit cannot protect against threats which can readily penetrate the armor, such as high strength radiation. In the event of an atomic bomb going off, the initial radiation will penetrate through the suit, as it is too thin to provide anything more than cursory radiation protection. The suit is only designed to protect against threats that would be dangerous if breathed in or exposed to the skin or other sensitive areas of the body. While it protects against radioactive fall-out and other such agents, it's impact to the immediate exposure of radioactive threats is very minor. While a faraday cage within the suit of armor itself can protect to some extent from radiation, ultimately the thickness and density of the material determines it's ability to stop high strength radiation.

While the suit is not a permanent edition of the armor, the armor is designed to be sealed off from outside influences when in use with the suit or in case of emergencies. The Gas mask, both an electronic and passive filter, is worn on the back, with the tubes leading up to the mouth to allow for breathing. When the electronic version is active (which is powered by the suits other power system, including motion actuated chargers) it also filters air meant to fill the suit, which gives the user the ability to have both their skin and lungs saturated with oxygen, which is necessary for long term survival. While used primarily to fight against chemical, biological and radiological exposure, it can also be used to a lesser extent to fight against fires. While the system is most useful when paired with an 8 pound, 4500 PSI carbon fiber oxygen tank, with over an hour's worth of oxygen, a back-up oxygen candle is also present. Oxygen candles can produce oxygen without being stored under pressure, and are much smaller, which allows them to be more practically used by the average soldier without concerns of the tanks rupturing. While not a good long term source of oxygen, it provides at least 15 minutes of oxygen, which is enough to survive if a soldier is accidentally submerged under water or the oxygen is consumed by a fire. By monitoring the vital signs of the user, the oxygen source can be activated automatically if the user is expected to be in the environment.


Suit
The suit used is considered to be at a level "A" protection. This is the highest level of protection against vapors, gases, mists, and particle, which consists of a fully encapsulating chemical entry suit with a full-facepiece self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBA) or a supplied air respirator (SAR) with an escape cylinder. A crew member must also wear boots with steel toes and shanks on the outside of the suit and specially selected chemical-resistant gloves for this level of protection. The breathing apparatus is worn inside (encapsulated within) the suit. To qualify as Level A protection, an intrinsically safe two-way radio is also worn inside the suit, often incorporating voice-operated microphones and an earpiece speaker for monitoring the operations channel.


The suit
The suit is based off of the British MK IV NBC Protective Suit and is worn in conjunction with a respirator, gloves and overboots, and offers protection against all known chemical warfare (CW) agents. Interestingly, the suit is designed to be worn under the armor, rather than over it, although in theory the suit could be used for either situation.The life of the suit in operations depends on the level of attack. In most situations it can be worn for up to a month and still offer protection to the wearer. Under extreme conditions of multiple attack it may be necessary to change the suit after 24 hours.

In addition to providing protection against toxic agents in both liquid and vapour form, the suit is also self-decontaminating by encouraging rapid evaporation. Furthermore, by virtue of its flame retardancy, it offers a high level of protection not only against conventional fire, but also against the thermal pulse resulting from a nuclear burst.


Description
The MK IV is a two-piece suit consisting of a smock and trousers. The smock, which is single breasted, has a front opening which can be closed with a slide fastener and also touch and close tapes. It has an attached hood with an elasticated face opening, which gives a good seal around the respirator. Touch and close strips are also provided at the cuffs and hips to allow easy individual adjustment for size. Bellows type pockets, with stitching penetrating only the outer layer of the main suit are provided on each breast and on the right sleeve, and a patch pocket with divisions for pens is fitted on the left upper sleeve.

The trousers are of pyjama type with a gussetted front end with brace tapes sewn at the back, and loops at the front to give over-the-shoulder braces which can be tied at the front. Waist and the lower legs can be adjusted by touch-and-close fasteners. Bellows type pockets are provided on each thigh, together with detector patches. Both smock and trousers are designed with the outer and inner layers of fabric constructed separately and only joined at the edges, thus reducing any possibility of ingress through stitch holes.


Materials
The complete suit is constructed from two layers.The outer material is made of monacrylic fibres reinforced with polyamide fibres. It has a strong, hard-wearing outside surface. A silicone treatment is applied to make the garments shower-proof, and to permit rapid spreading of liquid chemicals, which in turn speeds up evaporation. This reduces the loading on the second layer, whose main function is to act as chemical barrier.

The inner fabric is based on activated charcoal as a means of protection against toxic gases and vapours. It.s bonded to a non-woven fabric, which is flame retardant. A fluorocarbon finish is applied as an oil repellent, thus acting as a further barrier to toxic liquids. This combination of repellents represents a chemical barrier which is highly efficient, yet air permeable and thus imposes low heat stress. This liquid control system formed by a wicking layer over an oil-repellent layer permits the incorporation of less charcoal than in other systems, which in turn results in a fighter garment and smaller package size.