The term ablative armor in the game- what does it mean

Game Talk The Garage
1

Hey, can someone link to or explain how/why the term ablative is used in reference to the ballistic vest plates and so on in the game? (e.g. the pocket restriction says it must be an ablative armor plate’) The term also appears in a few places in the code in comments.

Looking around on wikipedia/google, I can’t find any reference to ablative armor except for science fiction stuff and heat shielding on some modern spacecraft. I didn’t find any reference to ESAPI blates as ablative armor.

I guess it means one of three things:

  1. I simply didn’t find the correct real world sources
  2. The game is using some kind of sci fi tech for the armor plates but with current day stuff like ballistic vests and terms like ESAPI.
  3. The term is being misused in the game and code.
2

Ablative armor works by being destroyed as it absorbs the impact. Examples include ceramic plates, but also the anti-spalling coating on some ar500 plates. Kevlar technically works sort of the same way, but I am not sure if it’s modeled like that in the game, as it can absorb multiple impacts (just not to exactly the same place multiple times).

3

But Can you find any internet references to ceramic plates in body armor vests being referred to as ablative armor? It seems like the term is used only for spacecraft shields where the friction with the air on entry to atmosphere causes them to gradually get worn away.