Comparative Study and Enlightenment of Protective Clothing of Individual Soldiers at Home and Abroad

Abstract: Individual protective clothing is an important part of the individual soldier system. With the development of the new military revolution, the battlefield environment is undergoing profound changes, putting new demands on the protection and maneuverability of individual soldiers. In order to meet such requirements, advanced countries in the world are striving to develop new protective clothing for individual soldiers in order to achieve serialization and systematicization of protective clothing for individual soldiers, and to improve the maneuverability and survivability of individual battlefields. It is of great significance to analyze and contrast the development of protective clothing for individual soldiers at home and abroad and learn from the experiences of foreign military personnel for accelerating the development of protective clothing for individual soldiers in our army.

Keywords: individual protective clothing

1 Research status and characteristics of research and development of individual soldier protective clothing for foreign troops

( 1 ) A mature R&D system has been formed so that the development of individual protective clothing conforms to the scientific nature and is close to actual combat. Take the U.S. military as an example. In 1986 , the U.S. military formed the Natick Soldier Center Combat Unit Coordination Unit (OFIG) . The group often visited the barracks and collected opinions and suggestions from soldiers on eating, wearing, and carrying the equipment, and obtained first-hand unit feedback information. The purpose is to discover the innovative ideas of soldiers on equipment items, and to make prototypes of their best ideas, conduct risk assessments, speed up the development process, and finally distribute new or improved equipment. This approach is consistent with the concept of materialist dialectical practice. Researchers have mastered the first-hand research data, understand the battlefield requirements, and the products developed are more targeted, shortening the experimental trial period of the product.

( 2 ) Using system integration ideas in equipment design to make the individual protective clothing highly integrated and integrated. After several centuries of development, the individual protective clothing has been systematically improved and the variety is complete. However, due to the lack of coordination among development departments, it has increased the individual soldier load and led to low integration between equipment and equipment. Therefore, the reduction of equipment varieties, the realization of multiple applications, and the promotion of the integration of equipment become an inevitable choice.

( 3 ) A large number of high-tech materials and technologies are used to improve the performance of individual protective clothing while reducing the weight of equipment. It is a contradiction to continuously improve the ability to adapt to future operations, but also to reduce the weight of equipment and increase the flexibility of operations. However, the trend of future development requires that the combat effectiveness be improved under the circumstance of satisfying both conditions as much as possible. To achieve this goal, we need to use our materials in the selection of materials and technology.

2 Overview of the Development of Protective Clothing of Our Soldiers

( 1 ) The variety is single and the compatibility is not strong, which affects the overall protection of the individual soldier. On the one hand, we have a single variety of individual protective clothing. The number of individual protective clothing provided by the US military during the Gulf War reached more than 30. However, the individual protective clothing dispensed by our army during exercises and training mainly includes training suits, winter clothes, training shoes and boots, and individual soldiers. It is still unable to meet the needs of soldiers for protection. Goggles, knee pads (elbow), and protective gloves have hardly been researched or just started. Even if they are already formed, only a few units are equipped. Such as combat boots, our military only 97 type combat boots were equipped with troops in Hong Kong. On the other hand, the overall protection of our army's individual protective clothing is not strong. The foreign military centered on the research of the individual soldier system and paid attention to the serialization and systematicization of protective clothing. Our army has reached the world's leading level in the development of helmets and body armor, but it has not reached the level of foreign military forces in camouflage training suits, combat boots, and gas masks. The "short board" existing in the individual protective clothing has severely restricted the overall protection capability of the individual soldier.

( 2 ) The function is single, the integration is not high, and it restricts maneuverability of individual soldiers. "Integration" can minimize the repetitive labor of all kinds of protective clothing in the process of design and manufacture, while reducing individual soldier load, improving mobility and flexibility. At present, the function of our individual soldier protective clothing is still relatively simple. For example, the 87 -type general military camouflage has better camouflage performance, but it can not be flame-retardant, anti-biochemical, and the heat dissipation performance is not very good. In this way, as the battlefield needs to continuously develop new equipment, soldiers are required to carry a large amount of protective clothing during the war, which reduces the tactical maneuverability of individual soldiers and the survivability of battlefields.

( 3 ) The funding is tight and the replacement period is long, and it cannot meet the individual protection needs during the war. First, new equipment could not be installed in a long delay. Although in recent years, with the improvement of the country’s overall national strength, the military spending of our army has increased significantly, but it has placed emphasis on improving the welfare benefits of the military. Therefore, our military's new individual protective clothing is only equipped with key troops and some naval and air forces, which severely restricts the protection of individual soldiers. The second is the slow replacement of protective clothing for individual soldiers. Because of the large number of troops, the relative amount of money and the absolute amount of money are very tight. The development and shaping of a kind of protective clothing, and the equipping of troops, will take from a few years to a few decades. This has caused our army to maintain a large gap with foreign troops in the protection of individual soldiers, which has affected morale and can not meet the needs of emergency operations. Thirdly, research workers are still relatively low-paying, and it is difficult to attract highly sophisticated and top-notch personnel to join the defense equipment research industry. In recent years, our military has gradually increased its investment in attracting national defense personnel. However, it has no absolute advantage over foreign research institutes or local enterprises, and national defense research work is relatively difficult. Researchers’ welfare and social status are not high, and it is difficult to attract and retain high-quality talent.

3 Inspiration from the Experience of Learning from Foreign Armies and the Development of Protective Clothing of Our Soldiers

( 1 ) Overall development, attention to detail, and serialization and systematization. According to the viewpoint and development of systemization of individual soldier equipment in the world today. First of all, our military should organize an overall demonstration of the development of protective clothing for individual soldiers as soon as possible, determine the protective clothing of our army's individual soldiers, eliminate the situation in which all arms are engaged in one set, the types are not matched, and the power is dispersed to keep up with the world's development. The development of individual soldiers in the development of the national army and our army. Second, we must work hard on the details. The U.S. Army 's design of the digital camouflage uniform (ACU) has removed the button design from its top and replaced it with a zipper and Velcro. Designing pockets on both shoulders will allow individual soldiers to take items while fighting. With a fold in the back shoulders, the embankments were flexible. These designs are very small, but often the details determine the success or failure. In wartime, a minor design failure can ruin the lives of the soldiers.

( 2 ) Independent research and development, learning from foreign troops, achieving nationalization and high performance. China is a big country. The number of protective clothing required is large and there are many varieties. New equipment and new technologies of the foreign military impose export restrictions on our army. Therefore, it is neither feasible nor possible to rely entirely on imports. Therefore, we must rely on our own strength to develop our own individual protective clothing.

( 3 ) Combine the military with the civilians and promote the military with business to achieve low cost and high efficiency. "Combination of military and civilian affairs" and "advancing business with the military" is a successful experience in the development of individual military protective clothing for foreign troops. The building of our army's army has an excellent tradition and a good foundation in terms of "combination of military and civilian affairs." The development of individual protective clothing should give full play to this advantage, accelerate the pace of military-civilian cooperation, and strengthen various forms of exchanges and cooperation between the military and the land, in order to improve the benefits of individual protective clothing research and accelerate the development process of individual soldier protective clothing. .

The information in this article comes from the Internet and was reorganized and edited by China Rescue Equipment Network.