You very rarely see depictions of soldiers wearing bullet resistant face masks. I understand that these only protect from small caliber weapons but wouldn’t you take all the protection you could get?
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Most of the time they offer more issues than solutions. Yes they can stop small calibers but they typically don’t stop projectiles from rifles. Combine this with the fact that most ballistic face shields add a significant amount of weight to an end users helmet set up, and you can start to see why they aren’t used in traditional warfare. Most ballistic face solutions also make it difficult for an end user to get a proper cheek weld or sight picture for whatever weapon they’re using, along with either limiting or distorting vision. You’ll see ballistic masks employed a lot more with counter terrorism units, where the likely hood of being in close quarters with small caliber weapons is significantly higher.
TL;DR: they’re a pain in the ass.
They just aren’t practical. They prevent you from getting a proper cheek weld on your rifle. They make it annoying to eat or drink anything. They make basic communication with other people more difficult.
And they add extra weight to your helmet, which is one of the worst places to add weight.
Because breathing freely (and getting less tired as a consequence), unimpeded sight and wearing less weight tends to improve your chances of not getting shot. Because you’re more mobile and have a better ability to detect threats and a better ability to coordinate with your teammates (because you have a better idea of where your friends are).
Also, having your face enclosed is incredibly claustrophobic.
Soldiers tend to only armor up when they’re in a fixed position (like a machinegun nest) and the enemy is coming from a known direction. In those cases a gunshield rather than a face mask does that job (although more often the gunner is replaced by a remote turret).
When firing a rifle you put your cheek on the stock in order to see along the sights and get a good stable sight picture. But a ballistic mask would get in the way of this. And you need very good visibility so you can see movements around you and so that your friends can see your eyes for communications. Also when running around it is important to be able to breathe well so you need big openings in front of your nose. Others around you also need to hear you when you scream orders so the mouth needs to be clear as well. And the helmet covers your head down to the eyebrows so you can not have other things interfering with it. And the mask is heavy and uncomfortable for use over long periods of time. Essentially the ballistic mask is not practical for soldiers on the front lines.
The protection you get from them is also extremely limited. I am not sure what you define by small caliber weapon but the smallest pistol you can find on a battlefield will mess up someone wearing a ballistic mask pretty bad, either going through the mask directly or create so much spalling on the inside that it may as well have gone through. Even most artillery shrapnel will go through the masks currently in sale. For practical uses the armor needs to be something like 10-15mm thick which is basically too much to hang on your face. You would be pretty useless in most positions on the battlefield. Ballistic masks works much better at paintball or softgun then in a real war.
It is possible for them to have some limited uses though. If we go back to WWI, which is probably the most comparable combat to the current Ukraine war, then Germany did develop quite extensive armors for special uses. This did include a brow plate which reinforced the front part of the helmet and made it close to bullet proof. Even though it did not protect the face it did protect more vital parts of the body. It was primarily used by machine gunners, snipers and observers. These were the ones who would often stick their head above the trenches so their head would be visible down to their eyes. The extra protection meant they were protected from incoming direct fire from the other trench. However it was not continued into WWII or adopted by other armies, they used armor shields and sand bags instead which soldiers in static positions could hide behind.
The main problem problem with protection mobility. It weighs a lot, can be stiff, and makes it harder to around, If the armor results in you moving a lot slower over an exposed area ot that you get tired a lot faster it can have a net negative effect.
If it is around your face it can limit your ability to observe your surroundings, it can also block your ability to hear stuff
If you completely block your face it will be a lot harder to breathe, it no a problem if you just walk but if you have to run to get away you quit out of breath.
It can also be a thermal problem. They block air circulation so it can get very hot when it is warm outside. Even when it is colder it can trap heat and make you sweat, wet clothes in cold climates is a good way to get cold when you stop moving.
So you do not what protection you can get. You could make protection of quite thick metal plates that none of the common arms soldiers carry than penetrate but then you can barely move around. You can’t make it protect you from heavy weapons. So what you wear is a compromise between protection, weight, and other drawbacks.
A ballistic face mask can protect against pistol-level threats, but it will not stop a bullet from a rifle. The amount of pistols used on a battlefield is minimal. What it could protect again is a fragment from explosive weapons. They are not common because the drawbacks are worse than the advantages
The main thing to protect your face is your eyes, they are very sensitive and you need to have them working. For these reason ballistic grasses are very common, they will not stop a bullet or larger fragment but small fragments too. They also stop material a projectile that misses you can throw ut like digt from the ground, pieces of wood, rock, etc. Something that you might not notice if it hits the skin can make your eye unusable.
It wouldn’t be as useful for frontline troops that need to detect the enemy. It might be more useful for rear echelon troops if they expect to take a lot of explosions of shrapnel. Like a mortar pit, or convoy driver. It’s a trade off and usually not worth it *as things currently stand*. Might start seeing it more as those little hand grenade drones start becoming more common, as with more bulky armor.
It would be very unpractical.
Large glass areas to keep constantly clean to be able to see around. Also running with a face mask is no fun. The only people really using those are bomb disposal people. You take your time in one of those. And have people covering your back.
They limit your visibility a lot and if you get in the face you’ll be unconscious and could still die from the blunt force trama.
I recall reading somewhere that in combat if you can see someone’s face your likelihood of landing a killshot goes WAY down vs if you can’t see their face but all other things are equal
Humans really don’t like killing each other when all is said and done
The concussion from anything larger than a .22 would break your face bones. Silly design, doesn’t offer protection like you would think. It also obstructs vision and mobility.
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