However, due to the high cost of replicating PBA it is more common than not used for everything including direct assaults.

Personal Body Armour (PBA):
The PBA-XII makes use of advances in material and personnel shielding technology. It has been designed to balance lightness and comfort with the best personnel protection available and is capable of protecting the individual from a single, direct phaser blast to the chest at a Federation setting of 5.

Instead of being constructed out of several pieces of solid reflective armour the PBA-XII consists of several protective systems. The first is a compact energy efficient unit contained within the standard marine duty pack. This links to several main coils within the suit to form the actual shield. Harmonics and Frequency can be controlled by a display on the marines DCS unit.

Should the personnel shield fail for whatever reason the suit features a slightly thicker fabric with 3 layers of inbuilt hex-mesh fibers which disperse any energy blast across the entire surface of the suit, greatly reducing the effective damage of the original blast. For example reducing a fatal phaser shot to the equivalent of a heavy stun shot. This is intended as a last resort system and it is not recommended that personnel should continue on missions where their shields have failed.

The suit also includes a stealth system, which uses sophiscated photo-sensitive sensors to record and subsequently re-project the image of the surrounding flora and fauna, minus the presence of the wearer, using 12 micro holographic projectors, four located on the chest section, four on the back, two on the shoulders, and two located on the side of the legs.

The system does have it's flaws. The sensors have an approximate 2 second delay to reach it's optimum level of 93% imaging. This results in a motion blur when rapid movement is undertaken.

The PBA-XII is gradually being phased in to replace the outdated clamshell design PBA-XI due to it's decreased weight and flexibility.

SFMC Data/Communications/Scanning Unit (DCS-Unit):
The constant activity involved in most Marine Operations has, over the years, led to the creation of this device. Engaged in missions with vastly different profiles, it was found that Marines were having trouble freeing up hands to manipulate devices such as tricorders or padds. The DCS-Unit is worn on the forearm of a Marine's off hand and, as the name implies, is a combination of three separate systems. Firstly, the DCS contains a communicator of a standard equal to that used by all personnel. It has variable frequencies and is equipped with standard SFMC encryption. When incorporated into a suit of PBA, the unit links with circuitry in the suit, routing the audio pickup and speaker to systems in the helmet. The second facet of the device is a Data Display unit, similar in function to the padds used aboard starships. Arranged along the back of the forearm and made of highly resilient material, the display receives data from the Command Network (sometimes via a squad's Comms specialist) and displays it for easy access by the Marine. The final aspect of the trinity is a re-formatted tricorder mounted along the inside of the forearm. Placed to remain visible whilst supporting the weight of a rifle, the tricorders have default settings to scan for life forms, making them invaluable assets to Marine Combat Squads. The inverse of the padd section, they are set up to burst-transmit data to the command network in emergencies (rather than to a ship's computer as Naval tricorders do).

LIGHT WEIGHT PROTECTIVE UNIFORM

PERSONAL BODY ARMOUR