Why don't soldiers have any leg/arm protection ?

Can you imagine the Michelin man running around a battlefield with up to 50 kg on his back? The Taliban would just love such a slow moving target.

Its the use of armour that cost the crusaders their lives and defeat, their enemy the Moor in his light clothes was much more mobile than the crusader. because of the weight bulk and hindrance of all that plating in desert heat. Today the same rules apply.

Good question. My dad was an air force captain, i once asked him the same question.

"Why would a soldier be sent to war, without a bullet proof, leg or arm protection?" i mean to me, it just didnt make sense. They didnt sign up to get slaughtered.

But dad said as a soldier, there is no room for any form of sluggishness. A bullet proof or bomb detector kit will only slow you down and slow soldiers wouldn't last long even if they had all those kits.

Also as a soldier, you should be able to camouflage. You shouldn't be seen by the opposition. If you arent seen, you dont need any protection.

Thats why soldiers are given helmet to protect their head cos they are required to lie down much to produce a good stealth or camouflage. So in essence its the helmet that matters more and it doesn't affect your effectiveness.

Also air force pilots are given just a pistol most of the time. Most people consider it a suicide gun. As an air force pilot, you should never be out of your plane in the battlefield except your plane has been shut down. So you got just a gun in-case you would rather take your life than let them take you alive but if you brave enough, you could try to use it for defense.

Hope this helped!

mainly cost i think and there's nothing been invented for the to be able to wear and still be able to move and be as mobile without. Also as horrible and awful as it is, arms and legs aren't as vital as head and body gear to keeping some one alive, we can keep people alive now with horrible burns all over their bodies and people who've had all of their limbs blown off so it's not dreamed as important as everything else. Having said that though, they have now got protection for their genitals because that's unfortunately a really common injury when people have been in an explosion.

just read your additional and you can't run and hide in bomb defusal gear and they are bigger targets

In war its too heavy to run with. The only time a arm or leg gets blown off is because of an IED. Bomb squad have full protection. But not regular soldiers. Also shooting an arm or leg from a distance is harder to hit than the chest so they only use a vest. Also the weight is soo heavy.

For one Bomb defusal gear is heavy and will NOT protect you from the actual explosion only shrapnel. Remember its 140 degrees F out there plus 50+ pounds of gear. No matter what a bomb suit or plates arent going to healp you from a bomb

Because you don't want to give up mobility for extra unnecessary protection. If you give up mobility, i.e. running, crouching, crawling, etc that can cause you to lose your life. Only snipers or someone who hasn't been seen or is trying to wound someone, is going to shoot at the legs. Otherwise you shoot for the mass of the personnel to disable or kill them. Like I said, if it's an explosion, some small plates on the 'joints' aren't going to help.

And for that IED comment, you do know if you wore that gear and you hit some IED that was even of a medium size detonation, you're going to die. It's not going to protect you completely. And also no one's going to want to be walking around the middle east with that thing on. They wear that when they know of an area that has an IED or they can pinpoint the exact placement. If you wore that gear for whatever time you are out there searching for one, you're going to pass-out or die from the heat or lack of water.

It's just too expensive, plus it's really cumbersome. On patrol the average infantryman carries at least 75-100 pounds of equipment 34-45 kilos for those not in the US

In a Batman movie, I think it was Batman Begins, he finds his suit in the RnD department. Apparently they designed it for the military, but as Morgan Freeman's character states, (paraphrasing) I guess the government decided that a soldier's life is not worth the cost of the suit.

I would think that it would reduce mobility too much. Also the MOD/government won't spend the money

won't make much of a difference...but if it did they would have to be very heavy