5.7x28mm surpassed Third World War on the way

5.7x28mm outdated third world war coming threat nuclear war in Belgium and the Netherlands evolution new weapons and threats international conflict

The war in Ukraine has brought about a number of changes, with new weapon systems completely changing the old military concepts. For example, revolutionary drone warfare has completely reshaped the battlefield.

The Russian military has also changed and become more efficient. Russia has switched to a war industry where the most successful weapons systems are given priority in production.

Russian bulletproof vests

The production of body armor has increased significantly in Russia. Earlier there were already reports about the poor quality of Russian equipment worn by front-line soldiers. Actually, Russian body armor should be divided into two categories.

  1. The class 4 bulletproof vests of good quality which have difficult, expensive and slow production.
  2. The general body protection with a mild steel plate that can be produced quickly, cheaply and easily in large quantities.

America is pushing for a new caliber for war rifles

Class 4 bulletproof vests

It is not for nothing that America is urging NATO to select a new standard caliber for war rifles. First, class 4 bulletproof vests, which can stop the bullets from most current war rifles, are so widespread that they are beginning to pose a problem for the efficiency of current military war rifles.

In the Chinese Army, class 4 bulletproof vests are widely used and in the Russian Army there is also a large expansion in the use of class 4 bulletproof vests, especially in Special Forces and elite soldiers. This creates the problem that current war rifles are no longer effective against an opponent who is generally equipped with class 4 bulletproof vests.

America has already introduced the new MCX-SPEAR 6.8x51mm weapon and ammunition system. Europe has commissioned FN Herstal to develop a competing design with the aim of penetrating Russian and Chinese class 4 bulletproof vests.

Low budget body protection.

A simple way to quickly and cheaply equip troops with body armor is to incorporate a mild steel plate into the equipment of soldiers. This principle was widely used by the Russians for the front-line soldiers who were in the firing line. Although this sounds laughable by today's European standards, a mild steel plate offers as much protection against bullets as an expensive titanium plate, Only the weight of titanium is lower, but the raw material is rare and the cost is much higher.

Archive photo year 1999

A 3mm thick mild steel plate can stop the commonly used 9x19mm FMJ NATO cartridge and the heavy American .45 ACP cartridge and is stab-resistant against knives and splinter-resistant against grenade fragments.

The Belgian Fiveseven FN pistol has long been a solution for everything that needs to be covered with light body armor. For example, the 5.7x28mm SS190 cartridge goes through soft bulletproof vests NIJ-3A and can also penetrate a 3mm thick steel plate.

Fiveseven pistols were donated en masse to Ukraine by various NATO countries and Ukraine now also has its own clone (Fort-28) of the FiveSeven pistol made in the caliber 5.7x28mm which is used by their Special Forces.

CRISAT bulletproof vest surpassed

NATO's CRISAT standard (Collaborative Research Into Small Arms Technology), which assumed that future body armor would resist 1.6mm titanium and 20 layers of Kevlar, offers even more protection than a 3mm mild steel plate, but has been completely outdated on the battlefield in Ukraine.

The Russians are also learning the lessons of the battlefield and already know that the Ukrainian elite soldiers are equipped with pistols in the caliber 5.7x28mm. With the confiscated 5.7 pistols of the Ukrainian prisoners of war one can easily investigate what thickness a steel plate must have to stop a bullet of the 5.7x28mm caliber. The result is that now in the Russian low budget body armor there is a 5mm thick steel plate that can no longer be penetrated by the caliber 5.7x28mm. The time has come where the 5.7x28mm caliber has been hopelessly outdated and this is caused by the massive use of cheap bulletproof vests with 5mm thick soft steel plates.

Archive photo year 1999 Flemish CRISAT program

It is not clear why so many Fiveseven pistols in the 5.7x28mm caliber were donated to Ukraine? The performance of the 5.7x28mm caliber is not appreciated by everyone within NATO and the ammunition is only available in very limited quantities. There are only a few production lines that can produce the 5.7x28mm cartridge and these can never be ramped up fast enough to meet NATO's ammunition needs in a short time.

If NATO aims for uniformity with fewer different types of weapons and ammunition, then the chances of survival of the 5.7x28mm caliber are very small and new ammunition for small arms must also be developed. Flanders had its own CRISAT research project that also came to this conclusion 20 years ago!

The new power relationship

The war in Ukraine has also brought about a shift in power, with Russia, North Korea, Iran and China forming a new military alliance in which all countries involved have or are in the process of producing nuclear weapons.

NATO has also expanded to include a few countries such as Finland and Sweden, and under American pressure, European countries are heavily rearming.

The Indo-Pacific

All US Navy simulations show that China always has the upper hand in the South Pacific in a possible naval battle against the Americans.

According to US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth the US Navy with its impressive aircraft carriers no longer has military superiority at sea. Chinese hypersonic missiles can destroy all US aircraft carriers in just 20 minutes and Russian hypersonic missiles and nuclear torpedoes can also sink the impressive US fleet.

The nuclear threat

Both Russia and China have been working hard in recent years to expand their nuclear arsenals or modernize their methods of using nuclear weapons.

Ballistic nuclear missiles

The chance that a heavy intercontinental nuclear missile from the 1960s will be fired at Europe or America is quite small. The Americans warned quite recently that Russia could detonate a nuclear weapon in space with a ballistic missile, which would cause the EMP (Electro Magnetic Pulse) to destroy a large part of the satellites for communication and navigation of Europe and America. Such a space weapon could also fire a nuclear bomb to cause a low-altitude EMP and disable all electronic systems. Electricity could be cut off in certain areas for a short period of time. That is why Europe also advises its citizens to have an emergency kit.

Simple emergency kit to survive 72 hours

More likely, a much smaller tactical ballistic missile will be launched from a submarine. Russia continues to build out its fleet with new submarines capable of launching tactical nuclear missiles and nuclear torpedoes. The Belgian army is working hard on an air defense system to destroy such missiles before they reach their target and, in collaboration with the Netherlands, on new frigates that can hunt submarines.

Hypersonic nuclear missiles

Hypersonic nuclear missiles are a new type of missiles that can reach very high speeds. Only a few weapon systems, such as the Patriot, can intercept them. China has specifically developed this type of weapon to sink American aircraft carriers. This makes the Americans nervous and they put their fleet in the Pacific on alert. Russian hypersonic missiles with a conventional payload are already being fired at targets in Ukraine. The English aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales has recently left for the Indo-Pacific region on maneuvers. The chance that Europe and also the Belgian Navy will be dragged into a nuclear war in the South Pacific is increasing due to NATO cooperation with America in the Indo-Pacific region.

Nuclear torpedoes

Nuclear torpedoes are a new type of nuclear weapon that was developed to destroy an aircraft carrier or a port city. They can also cause a radioactive tsunami in the event of an underwater explosion. Nuclear torpedoes can also be understood as underwater drones that can secretly sail underwater and are detonated off the coast or in a port. In the Russian media, various scenarios have already been proposed to cover England and the Netherlands with a tidal wave of radioactive seawater using a Russian nuclear torpedo. A nuclear tsunami off the Dutch coast would also have consequences for the Belgian coast. This gives the risks of flooding a completely different dimension.

Emergency kits to survive flood

Cyber ​​warfare in Belgium

Drones

During the wave of unknown drones flying over military installations in Europe and America, the first was talk of an Iranian drone mothership that could be lying undetected at sea.Drone motherships for kamikaze drones have also been developed in Ukraine. Maybe there will be no Russian tanks driving through the cities in Belgium but a drone attack with advanced drones is a reality.

Sea drones

The Russian Navy has been hit hard by Ukrainian sea drones and projects with naval drones are emerging everywhere. The Russians have also taken this lesson to heart and are developing new unmanned naval vessels. The first examples are already appearing in the Baltic Sea where several submarine cables were damaged.

Hacking computer networks

There are daily attempts to shut down important computer networks. The chance that hackers will succeed in causing serious damage to computer systems of public institutions, companies or vital infrastructure is increasing every day due to the use of artificial intelligence. Electricity, water and payment systems can fail. This can cause a natural disaster or a chaotic situation. Europe also advises the population to have a European emergency package.

European Emergency Backpack

A European emergency package is much more extensive than the emergency package proposed by the government in Belgium or the Netherlands. With a European emergency package, you have to have everything you need to take shelter somewhere and survive for 72 hours.

A European emergency kit can be compared to a trekking backpack that contains everything you need to survive. This includes a sleeping bag and an insulating mat for sleeping in the upper part, spare clothes and other hygiene items in the middle part, and water, food and other hard equipment for survival.