Finnish Defense Forces started issuing Flak vests to every soldier just recently. Before that, only some specific units wore body armor, everyone else only had helmets as ballistic protection. This was as late as 2008, when I served, but we all got vests during the 2010's refreshment training. I heard some brigades still were using steel pots and M62 camos as late as mid-00s, but these days everyone has comfy kevlar helmets. Most also get eyepro.
The Finnish vests, starting from the older M91, all have pockets for hard plates in the front and back though. Not everyone's obviously going to get those if SHTF.
>>27688484That gear looks a bit mixed. Some transition-phase stuff, or reservist training excercise?
>>27688512To me, Flak Jacket = soft armor designed to stop explosive frag. The early flak vests had ballistic nylon filling, while just about everyone switched to Kevlar in 80s.
>>27689466This is wrong. The main point of military helmets has been to protect the troop's skull from frag. They do double as good bump protection as well.
The modern kevlar pots are NIJ Level IIIa, meaning capable of stopping .44 Magnum shots at close range. There's been numerous cases where they've managed to stop and deflect rifle rounds as well, but that's not their intended purpose.
The American ECH project apparently has produced the first NIJ Level III rated helmets, and are around the same weight as regular kevlars. There's also these fancy assault helmets with Titanium outer shell, that are tough as hell.
