I’ve been wondering this for a while, but how does the NCR manufacture their armor, and what materials are used in it’s construction? The NCR’s economy seems largely backed by expansion and the brahmin industry, with a decent manufacturing industry as represented by the Gun Runners, likely using salvage rather than extraction for resources like steel. So that makes me wonder the question then, since the NCR’s trooper (and patrol ranger) armors are clearly produced by the Republic, what textiles do they use to produce these? Additionally, are the armoring over the fatigues steel woven into a carrier, or maybe some kind of layered leather? What do you think?
I’d definitely think that their textiles would range from “meh” to “sub-standard” when compared to pre-war. Not only would they need to deal with the looms, which may have needed to be “re-invented” to a degree but, the change in available flora and need to discover and adopt suitable processing techniques (ex. nettle needs some help from microbes to digest the connective tissue before being processed similar to flax and boiled with wood ash to soften).
Pre-war there would have been plenty of native examples that would have done the trick but, after the bombs fell, it’s pretty clear that many extant plant species didn’t make it so, discovering which plants grow fibers of sufficient quality and avoiding those that have bio-acumulated radioactive particles would also be important.