Bulletproof Standards And Levels of Bulletproof Equipment

There are many bulletproof standards for bulletproof equipment. In principle, their definitions are similar, but because of different standard calibers and different test calibers, the definitions of the standards cannot be completely one-to-one. If you want to compare the specific standard levels of two different systems, you should still use the kinetic energy of the test caliber as the standard.

The bulletproof standards of ballistic gear, or bulletproof level standards, mainly depends on kinetic energy. Kinetic energy is determined by the specifications of the ammunition used, and is affected by factors such as the type of bullet and the length of the barrel. Generally, the protection level requirements of armor-piercing bullets are higher than those of ordinary bullets of the same caliber.

The judgment of whether it can protect depends on two points:

Whether it penetrates;

The size of the type variable (BFS).

Whether it penetrates is simple and easy to understand. The key is to look at the type variable. The type variable generally refers to the depth of the depression produced by the simulated human tissue after the bulletproof product.

The type variable is generally written as the BFS value, which is to control kinetic energy damage and avoid damage to subcutaneous tissue, especially internal organs. The smaller the BFS, the lower the damage may be, and vice versa.

The general variables are 44mm and 25mm. For people with low body fat coefficient and calcium deficiency, they definitely want to use the 25mm level.

In the test of the same threat caliber, the same thickness of the product, the BFS of more than 44mm is definitely cheaper than the 25mm. Because compared with 44mm, the BFS of less than 25mm requires the product to absorb more kinetic energy, which puts forward requirements for materials and processes.

About US military standards

In the technical documents of the US military, there is no standard for the bulletproof level of bulletproof vests. Then in the NATO library, we only found "STANAG2920 Armor Bulletproof Test Standard" and "STANAG4569 Armored Vehicle Protection Level", which also do not have bulletproof vest level standards.

Although there is no level standard for bulletproof vests, the US military has clear regulations on how to identify bulletproof. The document MIL-STD-662F specifies in detail the test standard for whether the bulletproof vest is bulletproof, that is, V50BL (P).

The V50 value system and the level system are two parallel bulletproof identification systems. For those who are not good at math, the V50 value is a very academic, complicated and unfriendly thing. We just need to know that it is related to the muzzle velocity and storage velocity of the test ammunition.

The protection level of the currently distributed ESAPI is M2 AP (.30-06 caliber armor-piercing bullet). This type of bullet is the second most penetrating bullet caliber in the US military's existing arsenal after .50BMG. This is also the current limit level of wearable protective products/armor.

The protection target of ESPAI's previous generation SAPI is the ordinary bullet of the full-power rifle bullet 7.62X51 NATO. For the US military, protecting against these calibers is to meet the protection needs.

Main representatives in the world

National Institute of Justice: Ballistic Protection Standard for Body Armor - NIJ 0101.07

The most popular, comprehensive, most cited and widely recognized standard in the world is the US NIJ 0101.06 "Ballistic Protection Standard for Body Armor", generally referred to as the NIJ standard. Of course, this standard is just one point in a system engineering. Others include helmets, stab protection, bulletproof test methods, recommended standards for bulletproof vests, etc.

Note: Because there are so many people using it, NIJ is often omitted and only the grade is reported. This situation is particularly serious in my country. my country's finished armor exports are also a large volume, and of course the export uses the NIJ standard. However, my country has its own standards, so be sure to confirm which standard is used before purchasing, because the difference between the two is quite large.

NIJ 0101 is an armor bulletproof grade and test standard document jointly developed by the National Institute of Justice, an academic institution under the Ministry of Justice, and multiple parties. 06 is the version suffix. The standard's cooperating units include the US Army's Research Institute, the US Department of Homeland Security's Border Customs Agency, etc.

The NIJ standard is divided into six levels, represented by Roman numerals, and the grades from low to high are: I, IIA, II, IIIA, III, IV. Among them, III and IV are rifle grades, and the rest are pistol grades.

Special note: There is no + or - in the NIJ standard. Any product with III+ or IIIA+ is a deliberate misleading way of writing by the manufacturer. It does not belong to the NIJ standard and has no legal effect.

The most easily misunderstood ones are IIA and IIIA. A seems to mean enhanced, but it refers to special category II and special category III, which are actually intermediate levels.

In addition, since the protection level of category I is too low, some existing stab-proof products can achieve protection above this level, so it has lost its practical significance. Therefore, in this version (06) of the bulletproof standard, the bulletproof level I was cancelled, and the minimum bulletproof level of the standard was raised to NIJ IIA, which can withstand 9mm Parabellum pistol bullets fired by short-barreled pistols and .40 caliber Smith & Wesson pistol bullets.

In addition, the new version of the NIJ standard has also improved in terms of high-level bulletproof level. In the old version 0101.04, the highest NIJ IV bulletproof level can only withstand NATO 7.62mm caliber armor-piercing bullets.

It should be noted that the threat bullets used in this level are all full-power rifle bullets, with no intermediate or small calibers. The highest level defined by NIJ, which is level IV (abbreviated as level 4), protects against 30-06 armor-piercing bullets, which is also the protection level of the US military's ESAPI hard bulletproof insert (ICW). This caliber is the M1 .30-06 rifle bullet fired by the famous M1 Garand semi-automatic rifle of the US military. Its charge is more than that of 7.62mm NATO, so it is naturally more powerful.