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You may, or not, be aware of the concept of reactive armor.

It’s used on a fair number of armored vehicles out there: It’s a box with explosives in it, and when struck by a round, it explodes, dissipating the jet from a shaped charge or altering the path of a kinetic energy penetrator dart.

Well, someone has taken the next forseeable step, and submitted a patent application for an exploding bullet proof vest:

As Dave Barry would say, “I am NOT making this up!”

Check out patent number 6474213, Reactive stiffening armor system, which proposes:

A reactive armor structure having an outer layer and a reactive element adjacent to and integral with the outer layer is provided. The reactive element provides an amount of support to the outer layer effective to restrain movement of the outer layer and to delay fracture of the outer layer when the outer layer is impacted by a projectile.

I wonder what happens when a limb is in the path of the detonation of:

10. The structure of claim 1, wherein the explosive material has a detonation velocity of from about 2 km/s to about 5 km/s.

…

24. The structure of claim 15 wherein said reactive material comprises a material selected from the group consisting of TNT, RDX, Comp-B, Octol, and nitromethane.

I’m not sure if it would be worse to be the guy in the armor, or the guy standing next to the guy in the armor.