GTW I N - D E P T H W I T H C A L W A R D
B O D Y A R M O U R
In the second instalment of our technical series, Cal Ward looks into body armour and tests
the di erences between an old ceramic plate and modern Dyneema styles.
Modern body armour
divides into two
broad categories:
hard and soft. Soft
armour is generally made from
woven Aramids (Kevlar) or
Uni Directional High-Density
Polyethylene (Dyneema). It is
generally designed to be ballistic,
anti stab and anti-spike or a
combination of all three.
Soft armour ballistic protection
is usually up to 9mm, and ceramic
hard armour plates can be added
for further protection against
high-energy projectiles such as
7.62 x 51. Ceramic plates are
designed to be rigid and cause a
projectile to mushroom on impact
and stop in a spall backing or
when it meets the soft armour
backing. When a projectile strikes
soft body armour, it is caught in a
“web” of very strong bres which
work together both as individual
layers and with other layers to
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catch the bullet and disperse the
energy across the entire vest.
In addition to stopping the
bullet from penetrating, body
armour also has to protect against
blunt trauma caused by the force
of the bullet. is blunt trauma
can cause injury but obviously far
less serious than a penetration.
Soft body armour allows
greater mobility and is the
preferred option among non-
rearm personnel who need to
drive cars etc. In general all armed
o cers also wear hard armour as
they are normally the ones called
upon in the event of an active
shooter situation. Hard armour
pates can easily be inserted when
required in front of the soft
armour to give extra protection
and often large protective shields
are also used for total body
protection.
It is simply not possible to
address the entire area of body
armour in a short article so we
decided to take two samples and
see how they performed. e rst
was a 20-year-old ceramic plate of
the type typically issued to police
o cers and designed to be used
in conjunction with a soft backing
armour (which itself is certi ed
to stop handgun threats up to
.44 magnum). It was designed to
stop (under laboratory conditions
using Plastillina Roma No 1
as backing to mimic the body)
all handgun threats and ri e
threats up to 7.62x51 NATO
Ball and 7.62x39 (Kalashnikov
threat in NI). is plate is 100
per cent Ceramic without any
spall protection to stop partial
penetrations, it relies on the
backing armour to help dissipate
the initial energy of a strike and
to help stop any partial or full
penetrations into the body.
Lots of these old ceramic
plates are prone to hairline cracks
that render the plate useless in
many circumstances. e plate
should never be used on its
own without the soft backing
armour as penetrations will
occur. Ceramic plates, especially
monolithic constructions such
as this, are not best for stopping
multiple hits as the ceramic cracks
and can cause penetrations of
subsequent shots.
Modern ceramic plate
solutions are made from smaller
individual tiles that are built up to
make the required plate surface.
is construction is much safer
and allows for multiple hits before
plate failure.
e second plate available
was a modern High-Density
Polyethylene (Dyneema) plate
made using multiple layers
of compressed unidirectional
Dyneema. is plate is
categorised as “Stand alone” and
has been designed to stop the
This 20+ year old ceramic
plate was in sorry condition
having been shot repeatedly.
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