Combat helmet

A combat helmet is protective headgear designed to reduce military personnel’s risk of head injury from impacts, fragments, and other battlefield hazards.

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Ballistic helmet: A helmet designed to resist penetration by bullets and fragments. This subtype emphasizes ballistic protection, a central role of modern combat helmets.
Ancient Greek helmet: A class of bronze or iron head armor used by ancient Greek warriors. It exemplifies early purpose-built military head protection.
Ballistic testing: Testing that measures how materials and protective equipment resist projectile impacts. Tests quantify the threats a helmet can withstand rather than implying complete protection.
Bump helmet: A lightweight helmet intended mainly to protect against low-energy impacts, not bullets. It resembles a combat helmet but generally lacks comparable ballistic protection.
Helmet liner: A helmet’s internal layer that cushions impacts and supports its fit. The liner helps manage blunt impacts that the hard outer shell alone cannot absorb.
Adrian helmet: A steel helmet introduced by France in 1915 during the First World War. It was among the first mass-produced helmets designed for modern fragment threats.
Night-vision device: An optical device that enables vision in low-light conditions. Helmet mounts allow night-vision devices to be worn while keeping hands free.
Hard hat: Protective headgear designed primarily to guard against workplace impacts and falling objects. Its industrial threat profile differs from the fragment and projectile hazards faced in combat.
Fragmentation: The dispersal of material into high-speed fragments after an explosive event. Fragments are a major battlefield threat that helmet materials are designed to limit.
Brodie helmet: A British steel helmet adopted in 1915 to protect troops from overhead fragments. Its broad brim addressed the trench warfare hazards that drove renewed helmet adoption.