The ODST Armor developed at the time consisted of a combination of light, soft dyneema body armor as an under-armor to cover the majority of the body and flexible areas, while the hard plates were made up of a combination of dyneema panels, dyneema tiles, and ceramic tiles over the body to provide rifle resistant protection or protection over areas of the body that needed greater flexibility. The emphasis was on providing rifle protection over major areas of the body which could result quickly in death or grievous injury, such as the head, heart, or lungs, while simultaneously providing protection over joints and major vascular areas, which could result in quick hemorrhaging or limb immobilization if injured. The head, heart, lungs, spinal cord, groin, knees, elbows and shoulder in particular were rifle resistant, while much of the rest of the body varied in protection. The armor was designed both for riot control and military combat purposes, with the armor designed to absorb knife attacks, blunt trauma, including falling from heights such as helicopters, as well as stop rifle rounds. Due to the inherent NBC protection, it provided protection against tear gas and pepper spray, as well as even flashbangs to an extent, with the NBC protection being crucial in the fight against the communists in Manoka who commonly used Chlorine gas (typically mixed with a Bromine based tear gas).
Although the armor was initially designed to protect against chemical weapons, it quickly turned in to a full and modular upgradeable armor set for soldiers, to give them updated electronics and armor integrated in to their new standard combat uniform, which was meant to be NBC resistant. The need for higher strength materials to prevent tearing or damage of the NBC equipment and a desire for better armor in general lead to these developments. Before the widescale implementation of Dyneema, the manokan military widely used titanium armor similar to the soviets, and this was seen as a direct departure from this trend (although Manoka would still use titanium in their aircraft, vehicle, and equipment manufacture, notably still using titanium in their primary combat knife and in some components of the armor). Studies found that approximately 75% of combat casualties were due to exsanguination (bleed-out) caused by from shrapnel or fragmentation, with the primary cause of this being from artillery and other similar explosives. Manoka's own findings combined with reports from WWI and WWII showing 65-75% of casualties being from artillery, Manoka realized like with the implementation of the combat helmet, by covering most of the body with fragmentation resistant armor, which required far thinner armor than required to stop a rifle round (a mere 1mm of steel vs. 6.5mm for a rifle round for example), it could stop the majority of it's casualties and deaths on the battlefield, and free up medical services for other troops which were struck with far more serious threats. Full body Dyneema armor was chosen, not only due to it's lower weight than kevlar only requiring approximately 12 pounds for the entire body, but it's chemical and UV resistance, water resistance, and thermal conductivity, which would allow it to dissipate the heat of the soldier far more readily regardless of it's thickness rather than act as an insulator like kevlar which made some armor prohibitively hot and uncomfortable to wear. The armor was broken up in to smaller pieces on top of this, similar to Roman lamellar armor, to provide better freedom of movement despite the armor fabric being flexible.
While this armor served to stop shrapnel, fragmentation and handgun rounds, being close to level III-A compliant by U.S. standards (although Manokan military standards differed somewhat), and protected the NBC equipment below, other parts of the body could have Dyneema hard plates, Dyneema or ceramic tiles added to provide further rifle protection. The Dyneema hard plates provided level III protection when in combination with the soft dyneema armor below, or protection against 5.56mm NATO, 7.62mm x 39mm or 5.45mm rounds with the ceramic and dyneema tiles. Despite it's good protection against rifle rounds, including 7.62mm NATO and 7.62mm x 54mmR rounds, it could not stop high end armor piercing threats, such as tungsten 7.62mm or 5.56mm rounds and was not level IV resistant, although later on some level IV armor was available for the chest. The armor was intended to be modular, with extra armor added on as desired, with the overall armor weight ranging from 35 to 65 pounds depending on the variation, with the base undersuit itself being 18 pounds with the NBC suit, electronics and boots, and an additional 5 pounds with the helmet and face mask, and an another additional 5 pounds when the air filtration system (including the gas mask) was added.
Unlike a typical gas mask, the filtration system was placed on the back with a backpack-like mounting system for the air filters, and used a fan to help blow air in to the mask, making breathing far easier and serve as a defogger, that helped improve soldier endurance and removed fatigue associated with prolonged breathing in a gas mask. It also simultaneously blew air over a heat exchanger, which in turn helps to reduce the internal temperature of the NBC suit, which could get quite hot as without proper air flow both condensation, sweat and heat from the body could build up. The suit came integrated with a cooling suit involving both liquid and air cooling systems, as it became painfully clear that overheating would be a problem with wearing NBC suits at all times, especially in the dense, hot and humid Manokan jungles. These systems required large batteries, and later would be powered by small generators that were designed to burn ethanol (or in emergencies diesel or gasoline), with ethanol being comparatively clean and low temperature in comparison to gasoline or diesel. These systems operate on a timer and run approximately 10 minutes out of every hour, in order to limit exhaust build up especially in enclosed rooms, and to reduce noise and infrared signatures. They can be programmed to run more or less often by the user to recharge the batteries, which only provide the suit with approximately 24 hours of continuous operation at full power. With the standard ethanol load, soldiers instead could last over three weeks at full power, although at lower power levels and with additional motion chargers that use waste movement to generate electricity, the system could stay operational for several months.
Extensive research and testing was done to try and overcome ergonomics issues associated with full body armor. Both the plates and soft armor was segmented and attached to the body similar to knight or lamellar armor, to give both better mobility and coverage, as well as more evenly spread weight distribution over the body. The mask was designed so as to be able to provide a better cheek weld for the soldier, to not fog up, provide the soldier hearing protection but amplify most background noises electronically so the solider could still communicate and move as well as use a radio, and still provide sufficient visibility. The helmet was mounted on a brace, both to absorb shock to the user and to take weight off of the soldier's neck, as the weight of the helmet and translucent facemask along with additional equipment can become tiresome for the soldier's neck and uncomfortable. The helmet is similar to a motorcycle helmet to improve comfort, and has enough translucent polycarbonate material to give the soldier good visibility including of their own feet and peripheral vision. The soldier's boots also had particular care, designed both to have armor but still be light enough not to inhibit movement, similar to armored jungle boots designed to stop punji spikes. Perhaps the biggest issue was overheating, which was solved in part by the liquid and air cooling system and undersuit, as well as the thermally conductive dyneema which acts like a heatsink and absorbs and dissipates the soldier's heat instead of retaining it like many earlier systems. Despite how thick the suit was, it only marginally increased soldier's body temperature, of which was closely monitored.
Despite it's superficial resemblance to that of various video game armors and in general it's futuristic "Starship troopers" look (much like the XM8 project of the U.S. military), the materials used were not particularly advanced, being made up of conventional Dyneema, a well known and high quality from of polymer, or ultra high weight molecular polyethylene, which is commonly used in Body armor and has been since the 1970's, or 1990's with Dyneema itself. The electronics suite was made largely from a modified civilian cellphone and used existing laptop components such as the larger battery, combined with a smart watch and radio. What made the suit particularly useful was how all of this was integrated in to a single seamless unit, rather than made up of many disconnected or poorly fitted parts with separate batteries and potentially incompatible components. Smart watches which monitor heart and breathing rates as well as provide pace counts, GPS, radio communication and other features were already available, even at the time, but it's adaptation in to the suit and use both with armor and NBC protection as well as updating to a broader network allowing commanders to track all of this data of their soldiers was innovative. More so it was the application of existing technology at the time in to a single, partially proprietary unit in mass production (despite the use of off-the-shelf commercial technology) and with a standard training and use doctrine that made the armor effective.
