Nobody said it was 
But its a shame it isn't; one of the suppliers for the ceramics is up the street from the Sheriff's Office and I've seen the plant. I think you'd kill the wearer before you estroyed the material.
The current Interceptor armor kits still work up to a respectable suit of "combat armor". And the Army/Marines are still working on variants in the quest for protection.
My point is that if combat armor starts showing up at TL-11, why assume it has to look like the "hardshells" that certainly show up by TL-13 to evolve into Battle Dress? I always figured the lower end would be closer to what we have now (though in the 70's the model was early concepts that turned into Warrior2000) - a soft suit with hard plates for the vitals and limbs, and some kind of early sensory gear for a helmet that could have a gas mask sealed to it.
In fact, the exoskeleton system seen here
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-04/building-real-iron-man
might mean we are going to see something like early battledress long before we reach TL-13. The company plans to add external armor to the rig for battlefield use.
But its a shame it isn't; one of the suppliers for the ceramics is up the street from the Sheriff's Office and I've seen the plant. I think you'd kill the wearer before you estroyed the material.The current Interceptor armor kits still work up to a respectable suit of "combat armor". And the Army/Marines are still working on variants in the quest for protection.
My point is that if combat armor starts showing up at TL-11, why assume it has to look like the "hardshells" that certainly show up by TL-13 to evolve into Battle Dress? I always figured the lower end would be closer to what we have now (though in the 70's the model was early concepts that turned into Warrior2000) - a soft suit with hard plates for the vitals and limbs, and some kind of early sensory gear for a helmet that could have a gas mask sealed to it.
In fact, the exoskeleton system seen here
http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008-04/building-real-iron-man
might mean we are going to see something like early battledress long before we reach TL-13. The company plans to add external armor to the rig for battlefield use.
