A gelatin energy methodology for estimating vulnerability of personnel to military rifle systems

Since 1965, estimates of bullet lethality have been obtained by firing the bullet of interest into a gelatin tissue simulant, measuring the energy deposited in the simulant and then relating the kinetic energy deposited to some previously determined empirical relationship between energy and P (I/H), the probability of incapacitation an infantry soldier, given a hit. Although the methods for recording the energy in the gelatin block have changed and the empirical relationships between P (I/H) and energy have undergone varying changes in sophistication and complexity, kinetic energy still remains the measure for quantifying the destructive physical damage which a high velocity military rifle bullet can inflict in biological tissues. It is the purpose of this paper to review the several gelatin correlation methodologies promulgated over the two decades, and through analysis of results of a recently completed study which evaluated these several methodologies, compare the precision of measurement techniques and evaluate the sensitivity of lethality predictions of each of the analytical models to the energy input parameters.