Personal Armour and Defence System

The **Personal Armour and Defence System**, abbreviated as **PADS** and colloquially referred to as **"Padding"**, is a system of body armour currently employed by the Federal Armed Forces of the Commonwealth of Centaurus. Introduced in 2325 alongside the General Combat and Utility Uniform, PADS was designed to provide its wearers with significant ballistic, explosive, blunt force, and vacuum protection.

## Design

### Components

PADS consists of four primary components: the hard body armour, soft body armour, helmet, and vacuum-sealed bodysuit.

PADS hard body armour is made up of several alternating layers of titanium/chromium steel alloy and UHMW polyethylene, ending up around 5 mm thick. The armour is attached to the wearer using aramid fabric straps with touch fasteners. Depending on personal preference and mission parameters, the actual parts of the armour used can vary, but is typically comprised of torso armour that covers the front and back, shoulder pads (three variants exist), forearm vambraces (the left arm features a built-in datapad), thigh armour, knee pads, and shin guards. The hard armour overall provides excellent protection to the areas it covers. It will readily deflect hits from most military-grade sidearms and some lower-calibre civilian firearms, even at close range. However, it struggles against military-grade weapons, and becomes significantly less effective after taking several hits, especially at close range, and will falter much quicker when being hit by magnetically-assisted rounds.

The soft armour is made from an aramid/polyethylene/nylon ballistic weave that will, for the most part, be able to stop pistol rounds from long- to medium range, but stands little chance against most rifle rounds at any range. It performs poorly against stabs but can protect against slashes. It is worn beneath areas covered by the hard armour as a last defence in the event the hard armour does fail, although also covers some more exposed areas, including a section of armour around the pelvis, and a fabric hood and/or collar worn around the neck and head. A belt also made of the same material is included as well, featuring spots for magazine placement as well as a drop pouch around the back.

The helmet is comprised of the same material that is used in the hard armour, but is slightly thicker around the back, top, and front of the head. Inside, the helmet is cushioned with a polyurethane foam. The helmet is fully vacuum-sealed, however the bottom half covering the lower face can be removed for individual convenience, at the risk of compromising protection from vacuum. The visor is polarised and features a robust heads-up-display that can be linked both to the wearer's neural uplink and firearm. Accessories for the helmet can be attached through a rail-mount or touch fasteners.

The final component is the vacuum suit, which is made of a similar material to the soft armour, but includes a vanadium steel alloy in the weave as well. It provides minimal ballistic protection, potentially capable of stopping a low-calibre pistol round fire from long range. It is very resistant to slashes and blunt trauma, however.

Overall, all components combined result in a total weight of 14.7 kilograms.

### Camouflage

The issue of camouflage has plagued PADS since even before its inception. Providing an effective but reasonably priced solution to the issue of supplying troops that will have to fight across several worlds in a myriad of environments has been a problem for most human nations. Most PADS units are issued in a light black colour. Experiments with decals and fabric covers have been carried out in the past, but have proven to be largely overly-complicated, too costly, or ineffective. Aside from some special operations units and individual customisation, PADS is most commonly seen in the light black colour when deployed.