Yes, worn that for every other day for a damn decade. Have you ever worn one?
It covers a large percentage of the primary hitzone. It exactly where it needs to for taking bullets the most.
Where the plates are to sit on you chest is where 99 percent of the soldiers are train to aim for.
This is not only mathematically and scientifically proven from historical wound data of literally millions of WIA dating back to at least the Spanish American War.
But also battlefield proven in nearly 20 years of war in the desert and mountains of the middle east.
And being reinforced by the latest European war which is seeing some of the heaviest fighting since the Iran Iraq war over 40 years ago.
That 10 by 12 plate covers exactly were most bullets go when not personally directed by an expert experienced sniper sight.
If you going to be hit by a bullet, the odds are high its going to be exactly in the strike zone of an SAPI plate.
Not in the Arm, not in the leg, nor in the groin.
But roughly were the plates sit.
There is a reason why the plates are design as such. And its not due to an inability to cheaply make a entire cuirass out of it. It due to that being over kill for most hits.
While the other areas which are common hit in general are cover by soft armor since basically an greater amount of times thats going to be Shrapnel hits and not bullets. And you dont need the 5 pound plates to stop shrapnel. Even then it does a good job of turning a kill shot from a bullet into merely a wounding one that you can be sent back out with in 6 months after you heal up.
Theres a reason why everyone who even partly can is dropping big bucks on getting armor for their frontline types if not their entire ground force.
Its one hell of an force multiplier even taking into account low rate of bullet death.
And what stops a bullet will lolnope the main killer, Shrapnel, cold.
Same reason why the Navy takes back to back deployments while deferring needed maintenance and training. Or the fly boys get told to visaully confirm that the contact is an enemy jet despite the AWACs tracking everything in the sky.
Those who tell the Politicians no get replaced.
Cause some fights are not worth the effort fighting.
Especially when you have to fight to get other needed things.
