What's silly about them? Given the observed properties of phasers they stand a good chance of stopping a beam in its tracks, and even if they don't there's at least the possibility of reducing a fatal shot to "just" a serious injury.GrahamKennedy wrote:Yeah, it started there. I remember those silly things raised quite a few eyebrows when they were first seen.
Apart from direct weapons fire, the armour keeps out shrapnel (one of the biggest killers on a modern battlefield) protects the head against both shrapnel and random knocks and, if worst comes to worst, holds the body together if the wearer is seriously injured. You stand a much better chance of surviving a serious injury if your internal organs don't spill out all over the ground.
Overall, there are many reasons for wearing armour (helmets in particular), which outweigh the cost of being slowed down a bit by the weight of it.