When I think of soldiers with full face masks I think Stormtroopers and countless other faceless fighters from movie lore. A recent study however suggests that adding a face guard to modern soldiers standard helmets could substantially reduce the shock wave affect of nearby blasts and thus reduce the number of traumatic brain injuries.
A study by MIT researches suggest that face protection is critical. “The face shield contributes a lot to deflecting energy from the blast wave and not letting it directly touch the soft tissue,” says lead researcher Raúl Radovitzky. “We’re not saying this is the best design for a face shield, but we’re saying we need to cover the face.”
Speaking about today's technology “These helmets weren’t designed to stop a pressure wave; they were designed to stop bullets,” says Albert King, director of the Bioengineering Center at Wayne State University in Detroit. “Just like a football helmet wasn’t designed to stop a concussion, but to stop skull fracture.”
Seems like natural progression, however I can see concerns being raised over cooling and peripheral vision, as advanced as we are becoming with our weaponry I don't know that we are necessarily keeping pace with the protection of our boots on the ground, though I'm not well informed enough to really weigh in here. In any case the more of this type of research that we conduct the better our troops are apt to be moving forward, though it would be nice if we lived in a world where none of this were necessary.