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For other uses, see Armour (disambiguation).

An armour (spelled armor in the US) is a protective covering that is used to prevent damage from being inflicted to an object, individual, or vehicle by direct contact weapons or projectiles, usually during combat, or from damage caused by a potentially dangerous environment or action (e.g., cycling, construction sites, etc.). Personal armour is used to protect soldiers and war animals. Vehicle armour is used on warships and armoured fighting vehicles.



Portrait of a Gentleman in armour with two pages. Paris Bordone.

The word "armour" began to appear in the Middle Ages as a derivative of Old French. It is dated from 1297 as a "mail, defensive covering worn in combat". The word originates from the Old French armure, itself derived from the Latin armatura meaning "arms and/or equipment", with the root armare meaning "arms or gear".[1]


Main article: Personal armour

Armour has been used throughout recorded history. It has been made from a variety of materials, beginning with rudimentary leather protection[citation needed] and evolving through mail and metal plate into today's modern composites. For much of military history the manufacture of metal personal armour has dominated the technology and employment of armour. Armour drove the development of many important technologies of the Ancient World, including wood lamination, mining, metal refining, vehicle manufacture, leather processing, and later decorative metal working. Its production was influential in the industrial revolution, and furthered commercial development of metallurgy and engineering. Armour was the single most influential factor in the development of firearms, which in turn revolutionised warfare.


The Dendra panoply, Mycenaean Greek armour, circa 1400 BC

Significant factors in the development of armour include the economic and technological necessities of its production. For instance, plate armour first appeared in Medieval Europe when water-powered trip hammers made the formation of plates faster and cheaper. Also, modern militaries usually do not equip their forces with the best armour available because it would be prohibitively expensive. At times the development of armour has paralleled the development of increasingly effective weaponry on the battlefield, with armourers seeking to create better protection without sacrificing mobility.

Well-known armour types in European history include the lorica hamata, lorica squamata, and the lorica segmentata of the Roman legions, the mail hauberk of the early medieval age, and the full steel plate harness worn by later medieval and renaissance knights, and breast and back plates worn by heavy cavalry in several European countries until the first year of World War I (1914–15). The samurai warriors of feudal Japan utilised many types of armour for hundreds of years up to the 19th century.


Cuirasses and helmets were manufactured in Japan as early as the 4th century.[2]Tankō, worn by foot soldiers and keikō, worn by horsemen were both pre-samurai types of early Japanese armour constructed from iron plates connected together by leather thongs. Japanese lamellar armour (keiko) passed through Korea and reached Japan around the 5th century.[3] These early Japanese lamellar armours took the form of a sleeveless jacket and a helmet.[4]

Armour did not always cover all of the body; sometimes no more than a helmet and leg plates were worn. The rest of the body was generally protected by means of a large shield. Examples of armies equipping their troops in this fashion were the Aztecs (13th to 15th century CE).[5]

In East Asia many types of armour were commonly used at different times by various cultures including, scale armour, lamellar armour, laminar armour, plated mail, mail, plate armour and brigandine. Around the dynastic Tang, Song, and early Ming Period, cuirasses and plates (mingguangjia) were also used, with more elaborate versions for officers in war. The Chinese, during that time used partial plates for "important" body parts instead of covering their whole body since too much plate armour hinders their martial arts movement. The other body parts were covered in cloth, leather, lamellar, and/or Mountain pattern. In pre-Qin dynasty times, leather armour was made out of various animals, with more exotic ones such as the rhinoceros.

Mail, sometimes called "chainmail", made of interlocking iron rings is believed to have first appeared some time after 300 BC. Its invention is credited to the Celts, the Romans were thought to have adopted their design.[6]

Gradually, small additional plates or discs of iron were added to the mail to protect vulnerable areas. Hardened leather and splinted construction were used for arm and leg pieces. The coat of plates was developed, an armour made of large plates sewn inside a textile or leather coat.

Early plate in Italy, and elsewhere in the 13th–15th century, were made of iron. Iron armour could be carburised or case hardened to give a surface of harder steel.[7] Plate armour became cheaper than mail by the 15th century as it required much less labour and labour had become much more expensive after the Black Death, though it did require larger furnaces to produce larger blooms. Mail continued to be used to protect those joints which could not be adequately protected by plate, such as the armpit, crook of the elbow and groin. Another advantage of plate was that a lance rest could be fitted to the breast plate.[8]

The small skull cap evolved into a bigger true helmet, the bascinet, as it was lengthened downward to protect the back of the neck and the sides of the head. Additionally, several new forms of fully enclosed helmets were introduced in the late 14th century.

Heavily armoured riders and their barded war horses, 16th century

Probably the most recognised style of armour in the World became the plate armour associated with the knights of the European Late Middle Ages, but continuing to the early 17th century Age of Enlightenment in all European countries.

By about 1400 the full harness of plate armour had been developed in armouries of Lombardy.[9] Heavy cavalry dominated the battlefield for centuries in part because of their armour.

In the early 15th century, advances in weaponry allowed infantry to defeat armoured knights on the battlefield. The quality of the metal used in armour deteriorated as armies became bigger and armour was made thicker, necessitating breeding of larger cavalry horses. If during the 14–15th centuries armour seldom weighed more than 15 kg, then by the late 16th century it weighed 25 kg.[10] The increasing weight and thickness of late 16th century armour therefore gave substantial resistance.

In the early years of low velocity firearms, full suits of armour, or breast plates actually stopped bullets fired from a modest distance. Crossbow bolts, if still used, would seldom penetrate good plate, nor would any bullet unless fired from close range. In effect, rather than making plate armour obsolete, the use of firearms stimulated the development of plate armour into its later stages. For most of that period, it allowed horsemen to fight while being the targets of defending arquebuseers without being easily killed. Full suits of armour were actually worn by generals and princely commanders right up to the second decade of the 18th century. It was the only way they could be mounted and survey the overall battlefield with safety from distant musket fire.

The horse was afforded protection from lances and infantry weapons by steel plate barding. This gave the horse protection and enhanced the visual impression of a mounted knight. Late in the era, elaborate barding was used in parade armour.


Gradually, starting in the mid-16th century, one plate element after another was discarded to save weight for foot soldiers.

Back and breast plates continued to be used throughout the entire period of the 18th century and through Napoleonic times, in many European (heavy) cavalry units, until the early 20th century. From their introduction, muskets could pierce plate armour, so cavalry had to be far more mindful of the fire. In Japan armour continued to be used until the end of the samurai era, with the last major fighting in which armour was used happening in 1868.[11] Samurai armour had one last short lived use in 1877 during the Satsuma Rebellion.[12]

Though the age of the knight was over, armour continued to be used in many capacities. Soldiers in the American Civil War bought iron and steel vests from peddlers (both sides had considered but rejected body armour for standard issue). The effectiveness of the vests varied widely—some successfully deflected bullets and saved lives, but others were poorly made and resulted in tragedy for the soldiers. In any case the vests were abandoned by many soldiers due to their weight on long marches as well as the stigma they got for being cowards from their fellow troops.[13]

At the start of World War I, thousands of the French Cuirassiers rode out to engage the German Cavalry. By that period, the shiny armour plate was covered in dark paint and a canvas wrap covered their elaborate Napoleonic style helmets. Their armour was meant to protect only against sabres and light lances. The cavalry had to beware of high velocity rifles and machine guns, unlike the foot soldiers, who at least had a trench to protect them.


Today, ballistic vests, also known as flak jackets, made of ballistic cloth (e.g. kevlar, dyneema, twaron, spectra etc.) and ceramic or metal plates are common among police forces, security staff, corrections officers and some branches of the military.

The US Army has adopted Interceptor body armour, which uses Enhanced Small Arms Protective Inserts (E-S.A.P.I) in the chest, sides and back of the armour. Each plate is rated to stop a range of ammunition including 3 hits from a 7.62×51 NATO AP round at a range of 10 m (33 ft).[14] Dragon Skin body armour is another ballistic vest which is currently in testing with mixed results.

Other types[edit]

Main article: Vehicle armour

The first modern production technology for armour plating was used by navies in the construction of the Ironclad warship, reaching its pinnacle of development with the battleship. The first tanks were produced during World War I. Aerial armour has been used to protect pilots and aircraft systems since the First World War.

In modern ground forces' usage, the meaning of armour has expanded to include the role of troops in combat. After the evolution of armoured warfare, mechanised infantry were mounted in armoured fighting vehicles and replaced light infantry in many situations. In modern armoured warfare, armoured units equipped with tanks and infantry fighting vehicles serve the historic role of both the battle cavalry, light cavalry and dragoons, and belong to the armoured branch.



Further information: warship
HMS Warrior during her third commission between 1867 and 1871

The first ironclad battleship, with iron armour over a wooden hull, La Gloire, was launched by the French Navy in 1859[15] prompting the British Royal Navy to build a counter. The following year they launched HMS Warrior, which was twice the size and had iron armour over an iron hull. After the first battle between two ironclads took place in 1862 during the American Civil War, it became clear that the ironclad had replaced the unarmoured line-of-battle ship as the most powerful warship afloat.[16]

Ironclads were designed for several roles, including as high seas battleships, coastal defence ships, and long-range cruisers. The rapid evolution of warship design in the late 19th century transformed the ironclad from a wooden-hulled vessel which carried sails to supplement its steam engines into the steel-built, turreted battleships and cruisers familiar in the 20th century. This change was pushed forward by the development of heavier naval guns (the ironclads of the 1880s carried some of the heaviest guns ever mounted at sea)[citation needed], more sophisticated steam engines, and advances in metallurgy which made steel shipbuilding possible.



An armoured train from 1915

Armoured trains saw use during the 19th century in the American Civil War (1861–1865), the Franco-Prussian War (1870–1871), the First and Second Boer Wars (1880–81 and 1899–1902),the Polish–Soviet War (1919–1921); the First (1914–1918) and Second World Wars (1939–1945) and the First Indochina War (1946–1954). The most intensive use of armoured trains was during the Russian Civil War (1918–1920).

Armoured cars saw use during World wars 1 and 2.

During the Second Boer War on 15 November 1899, Winston Churchill, then a war-correspondent, was travelling on board an armoured train when it was ambushed by Boer commandos. Churchill and many of the train's garrison were captured, though many others escaped, including wounded placed on the train's engine.

Armoured fighting vehicles[edit]

Ancient siege engines were usually protected by wooden armour, often covered with wet hides or thin metal to prevent being easily burned.

Medieval war wagons were horse-drawn wagons that were similarly armoured. These contained guns or crossbowmen that could fire through gun-slits.

The first modern AFVs were armoured cars, developed circa 1900. These started as ordinary wheeled motor-cars protected by iron shields, typically mounting a machine gun.[17]

During World War I, the stalemate of trench warfare during on the Western Front spurred the development of the tank. It was envisioned as an armoured machine that could advance under fire from enemy rifles and machine guns, and respond with its own heavy guns. It utilized caterpillar tracks to cross ground broken up by shellfire and trenches.


With the development of effective anti-aircraft artillery in the period before the Second World War, military pilots, once the "knights of the air" during the First World War, became far more vulnerable to ground fire. As a response armour plating was added to aircraft to protect aircrew and vulnerable areas such as fuel tanks and engine.


Tank armour has progressed from the Second World War armour forms, now incorporating not only harder composites, but also reactive armour designed to defeat shaped charges. As a result of this, the main battle tank (MBT) conceived in the Cold War era can survive multiple RPG strikes with minimal effect on the crew or the operation of the vehicle. The light tanks that were the last descendants of the light cavalry during the Second World War have almost completely disappeared from the world's militaries due to increased lethality of the weapons available to the vehicle-mounted infantry.

The armoured personnel carrier (APC) was devised during World War I. It allows the safe and rapid movement of infantry in a combat zone, minimising casualties and maximising mobility. APCs are fundamentally different from the previously used armoured half-tracks in that they offer a higher level of protection from artillery burst fragments, and greater mobility in more terrain types. The basic APC design was substantially expanded to an Infantry fighting vehicle (IFV) when properties of an armoured personnel carrier and a light tank were combined in one vehicle.

Naval armour has fundamentally changed from the Second World War doctrine of thicker plating to defend against shells, bombs and torpedoes. Passive defence naval armour is limited to kevlar or steel (either single layer or as spaced armour) protecting particularly vital areas from the effects of nearby impacts. Since ships cannot carry enough armour to completely prevent penetration by anti-ship missiles, they depend more on destroying an incoming missile before it hits, or causing it to miss its target.

Although the role of the ground attack aircraft significantly diminished after the Korean War, it re-emerged during the Vietnam War, and in the recognition of this, the US Air Force authorised the design and production of what became the A-10 dedicated anti-armour and ground-attack aircraft that first saw action in the Gulf War.

See also[edit]


  1. ^ "Definition of armour in English". Oxford Dictionaries. Retrieved 12 April 2016. 
  2. ^ Farris 1998, p. 75
  3. ^ Robinson 2002, p. 10
  4. ^ Robinson 2002, pp. 169–170
  5. ^ Fagan 2004,[page needed]
  6. ^ Gabriel 2007, p. 79
  7. ^ Williams 2003, pp. 740–741.
  8. ^ Williams 2003, p. 55
  9. ^ Williams 2003, p. 53.
  10. ^ Williams 2003, p. 916
  11. ^ Robinson 1951,[page needed]
  12. ^ Robinson 2002, p. 208
  13. ^ Stewart, pp.74–5
  14. ^ ArmorUP
  15. ^ Sondhaus, pp.73–4
  16. ^ Sondhaus, p. 86.
  17. ^ Macksey, Kenneth (1980). The Guinness Book of Tank Facts and Feats. Guinness Superlatives Limited, ISBN 0-85112-204-3.


  • DiNardo, R L (January 1986). "The First Modern Tank: Gunther Burstyn and His Motorgeschutz". The Journal of Military History. 50 (1): 12–15. doi:10.2307/1988528. ISSN 0026-3931. OCLC 477932108. 
  • Fagan, Brian (2004). The Seventy Great Inventions of the Ancient World. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-05130-6. 
  • Farris, William (1998). Sacred Texts and Buried Treasures. Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press. ISBN 978-0-8248-2030-5. 
  • Gabriel, Richard (2007). The Ancient World. Westport: Greenwood Press. ISBN 978-0-313-33348-4. 
  • Regan, Geoffrey (1993). The Guinness Book of More Military Blunders. Enfield: Guinness. ISBN 978-0-85112-728-6. 
  • Reid, Peter (2007). Medieval Warfare. New York: Carrol & Graf Publishers. ISBN 0-7867-1859-5. 
  • Robinson, Basil William (1951). Arms and Armour of Old Japan. London: H.M. Stationery Office. ISBN 978-0-11-290074-0. 
  • Robinson, Henry (2002). Oriental Armour. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-41818-6. 
  • Sondhaus, Lawrence (2001). Naval Warfare 1815–1914. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-21478-5. 
  • Stewart, Gail B (2000). The Civil War: Weapons of War. San Diego: Lucent Publishers. ISBN 1-56006-626-1. 
  • Williams, Alan (2003). "The Knight and the Blast Furnace: A History of the Metallurgy of Armour in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Period". History of Warfare. Leiden: Brill. 12. ISBN 90-04-12498-5. 
  • Willmott, H P (2003). First World War. New York: DK Publishing. ISBN 978-0-7894-9627-0. 

"Ballistic Protection Levels." Body Armor. ArmorUP L.P., n.d. 19 Oct. 2014

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