Stormtrooper armor/Legends

"I'm taking you down, plastic boy!"

- Anonymous Rebel Alliance footsoldier gunning down a stormtrooper

Stormtrooper armor was a distinctive white plastoid body armor over a sealed black body glove worn by stormtroopers, and in this respect appeared similar to their Clone Wars Phase II clone trooper armor predecessors, having acquired its color from the austere tastes of its Kaminoan creators. The complete set of eighteen pieces completely encased the body and typically had no individually distinguishing marking outside of rank. In fact, the casual first-time observer sometimes mistook the Stormtroopers as a form of battle droid.

It also protected the troopers from very harsh environments as well as projectiles and impact weapons. The armor might be penetrated by a blaster bolt, but it reduced damage from the bolts significantly. The body glove allowed for operation in warm or cold climates, however it could protect the trooper from almost any environment -- from total vacuum conditions to the very extremes in cold and heat for a very limited period of time.

Rank was indicated with colored pauldrons. In certain situations, Stormtroopers sometimes wore camouflage armor to help them blend in with different environments. The Stormtrooper corps instituted this reform after the embarrassing defeat at the Battle of Endor.

The armor was equipped with several useful features.

Protective measures
The most obvious function of the armor was protection against weapons fire and battlefield hazards. The armor, and the bodyglove worn beneath, was designed to disperse the energy of a blaster bolt and insulate the wearer, lessening injury. Although standard armor was not intended to make the wearer immune to blaster fire, it can deflect low-powered bolts. It also deflects stun beams, and served as protection against explosions and shrapnel. It was almost impossible to kill a stormtrooper with a slugthrower unless the bullet was abnormally large, specifically armor piercing, or if it hit the bodyglove or visor.

Stormtrooper armor was fitted with air filters and is fully sealed against chemical, biological, and radioactive weapons, and could even protect the wearer against vacuum for a limited time. A back-mounted tank contained 20 minutes of emergency oxygen. The aforementioned bodyglove also provided limited thermal protection.


 * The backplate contained an emergency 20 minutes of oxygen if the trooper should be exposed to vacuum or be trapped underwater. It also contained a power pack.
 * The stomach armor contained a Manual Suit Seal and environmental controls.
 * The thigh armor had a reinforced alloy plate ridge
 * The lower right side, near the knee contained the suits system power cells.
 * The left upper side of the shin armor had a sniper position knee protector plate.
 * IFF circuitry was in the back of the suit for identification and command purposes for identifying each other.
 * Wrist comlink
 * A Proper Resonator to open secure doors



By 130 ABY, stormtrooper armor had reportedly been strengthened to absorb and diffuse direct blaster hits. However, during the Battle of Borosk between the 407th and 908th stormtrooper divisions, it was observed that direct blaster hits seemed to render troopers incapacitated, although it's possible that the effect of the blast was dissipated and the trooper survived.

By this date, slight modifications had been made to stormtrooper armor in the breathing system and back plate. Also, in a return to the convention followed in the early years of the clone wars, the armor of NCOs were distinguished by different colors. For example, sergeants were identified by yellow-green stripes that ran the length of their arm.



Helmets
"I can't see a thing in this helmet!"

- Luke Skywalker

Stormtrooper helmets evolved over time, with the advancement of technology. Although earlier models included only simple eye lenses, as technology increased, the helmets began to feature more advanced visual targeting systems including: Additionally, Stormtrooper helmets contained features such as:
 * Automatic polarizing and Anti-flash blinding lenses protected the trooper against intense glare and provided them with enhanced combat vision or "Holographic Vision Processors" (which allowed vision through many barriers such as smoke, darkness and fire).
 * Multi-Frequency Targeting and Acquisition System (MFTAS) helped with the stormtroopers' perception in darkness as well as smoke and other visibility obscuring conditions.
 * Built in comlink (see below)
 * Advanced Breathing Filters (which acted as protection against chemical and biological attacks, as well as toxins)

By 130 ABY, stormtrooper helmets included updated sensors. The helmet's appearance was also slightly modified to appear as a cross between the Phase II armor clone trooper and the original stormtrooper helmets. A number of variations were also introduced to accommodate alien species that were newly allowed to enroll in the Stormtrooper corps.

Audio/Visual



 * A comlink with frequency changing options was built into the trooper's helmet. The comlink used linked encoding sequences to rotate frequencies every few seconds while keeping all troopers in the unit synchronized. If a trooper's helmet was removed without the trooper first hitting the comlink's control stud (most likely found on the under-rim of the helmet), the frequency coding routine was automatically deleted from that helmet.
 * The Comtech Series IV helmet speaker used three-phase sonic filtering for clear sound (For troopers, it was connected to the audio pickup).
 * It also had a vocoder for talking to non-Stormtroopers.
 * Video recorders were included in some helmets.

Utility belt
Stormtroopers were also equipped with a utility belt. This included:


 * A high-tension wire
 * Two grappling hooks
 * Four spare blaster power packs
 * Three ion flares
 * A concentrated ration bar
 * A spare comlink
 * Three water packs
 * Two medpacks.
 * Two Blast Energy Sinks to protect the trooper's hips
 * A thermal detonator
 * Combat de-ionizer

Behind the scenes
Stormtrooper armor as portrayed in the films is highly ineffective as combat protection and is generally hindering to the wearer. Though this may largely be due to the now infamous Stormtrooper effect it has given rise to much fan speculation and outright mockery.

Stormtrooper armor is very similar to the real-world compound of kevlar, a synthetic fiber used in body armor for soldiers and police officers. Kevlar stops solid bullets, very similar to the effect Stormtrooper armor has on solid projectiles. You can find out more about kevlar here.