searchspell:armorcorrected for body armor
- Bullet resistant vest (in tan)- A bullet-resistant vest (body armor) - is an article of protective clothing that works as a form of armour to minimize injury from projectiles fired from handguns, shotguns and rifles . They are commonly worn by police forces, the military, and private security and civilians where legal. However, they have sometimes been used by criminals. - - The term "bulletproof" is a misnomer since these vests (depending on their armor level, see below) may provide little or no protection against rifle ammunition or even against handgun ammunition fired from a pistol-caliber carbine. The exception is the common .22 LR ammunition, which can usually be stopped by these vests even when fired from a rifle. These vests are usually protective against handgun ammunition fired from handguns (once again, depending on their armor level.) - - However, vests may be augmented with metal (steel or titanium), ceramic or polyethylene plates that provide extra protection to vital areas. These "trauma plates" have proven effective against all handgun bullets and some rifles, if the bullet actually hits the plate. These types of vests have become standard in military use, as advances in ballistic technology have rendered Kevlar-only vests ineffective - the CRISAT NATO standard for body armour specifies the use of titanium backing. Some vests are also designed to protect against knife attacks as well. This is done by coating the outer surface of the vest with tiny crystals of a sandpaper-like material or placing a very thin plate of resin hardened glass-fibre sheet between the Kevlar layers. This is important for the safety of law enforcement and prison guard personnel. - - A vest does not protect the wearer by deflecting a bullet. Instead, the individual layers of material catch the bullet and spread its force over a larger portion of the body, deforming the round and hopefully bringing it to a stop before it can penetrate into the body. While a vest can prevent a bullet from penetrating, the wearer could still receive blunt force trauma from the momentum of the bullet, with results ranging from bruises to serious internal injuries. Also, it offers little protection against bladed weapons, such as knives or arrows, because these weapons rely on penetration. Bullets, on the other hand, depend on sharp impact, which is what the vest is designed to counter. - - ==History== - - Firearms made their entry at the end of the medieval era. When many knights and nobles purchased their new breast plates, they wanted “proof” that the armor would protect them from early bullets. Armor makers would shoot the breast plates, and the resulting dent in the new armor was provided as evidence that it was “bullet-proofed”. - - The oldest bullet-resistant fabric vests were made from silk. At the forefront, the Rev. Casimir Zeglen of Chicago, IL developed a bullet proof vest made of silk fabric at the end of the 19th century. These expensive vests (often costing US $800 each in 1914, equal to $15,000 in 2005) were capable of stopping relatively slow rounds from black powder handguns. On June 28, 1914, Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne was wearing such a silk vest, but nonetheless died when shot in the neck above the vest with a .32 ACP bullet fired by Gavrilo Princip using a handgun, starting a chain of events that quickly escalated into World War I. - - During World War I, the United States developed several types of body armor, including the chrome nickel steel Brewster Body Shield, which consisted of a breastplate and a headpiece and could withstand Lewis Gun bullets at 2,700 ft/s (820 m/s), but it was clumsy and heavy at 40 pounds (18 kg). Another type of body armor was designed in February 1918 by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. This breastplate was based on certain armor of the 15th century, weighed 27 pounds (12 kg), and was considered to be very noisy and restricting of the movements of the wearer. A scaled waistcoat of overlapping steel scales fixed to a leather lining was also designed; this armor weighed 11 pounds (5 kg), fit close to the body, and was considered comfortable. - - During the late 1920s through the early 1930s, criminals in the United States began wearing less-expensive vests made from cotton padding and cloth. These early vests were capable of generally protecting against handgun bullets such as .22, .25, S&W .32 Long, S&W .32, .380 ACP, and .45 ACP traveling at slower speeds of up to approximately 1000 ft/s (300 m/s). This led to the development of the .357 Magnum cartridge for the use of law enforcement agents such as the FBI to overcome these vests. - - In the early stages of World War II, some work was performed in the United States on designing body armor for infantrymen, but most models were too heavy, incompatible with existing equipment, and restricted the mobility of the wearer. For these reasons, development of infantry body armor was discontinued and attention was diverted to the development of "flak jackets" for aircraft crews. These flak jackets were made of nylon fabric and only capable of stopping flak and shrapnel, not the .38 Special or .357 Magnum bullets. The Japanese produced a few types of infantry body armor during World War II, but they did not see much use. Near the middle of 1944, development of infantry body armor in the United States restarted. Several vests were produced for the US military, including but not limited to the T34, the T39, the T62E1, and the M12. - - Sn-42 Body Armor- There were several models of body armor in the Red Army, called SN-38, SN-39, SN-40, SN-40A, and SN-42. The number denotes the design year. All were combat tested, but only the SN-42 (in Russian language "Stalynoi Nagrudnik" SN=steel vest or CH-42) was put in production. It consisted of two pressed steel plates that protected the front torso and groin. The plates were 2mm and weighed 3.5kg. This armor was supplied to SHISBr (assault engineers) and Tankodesantnikam (infantry that rode on tanks) of some tank brigades. Real combat experience showed that the MP-40 9mm bullet failed to penetrate at around 100-125m. It was very useful in dense, intense urban battles (Stalingrad) where the Germans used the MP-40 predominantly, but, because of its weight, was not practical for soldiers charging across an open field. - - During the Korean War several new vests were produced for the United States military, including the M-1951 (Chriss Body, 2002), "a vast improvement on weight, but the armor failed to stop bullets and fragments very successfully" (Military, 2004). For these reasons, Kevlar came into the picture. But Kevlar too had its failures because if "large fragments or high velocity bullets hit the vest, the energy could cause life-threatening, blunt trauma injuries" (Military, 2004). So the Ranger Body Armor was developed, which again was an improvement over the previous armor but still had its flaws: "it was heavier than the anti-fragment armor already worn by the infantry and offered less protection" (Military, 2004). - - The newest armor issued by the United States military is known as Interceptor Multi-Threat Body Armor System. While it has its flaws, it protects the wearer from most low- to mid-velocity threats. Modern bullet-resistant vests made from woven Kevlar were tested by United States police forces in 1975. Since then several new fibers and construction methods for bulletproof fabric have been developed besides woven Kevlar, such as DSM's Dyneema, Akzo's Twaron, Toyobo's Zylon (now controversial, as new studies report that it degrades rapidly, leaving wearers with significantly less protection than expected), or Honeywell's GoldFlex. These newer materials are advertised as being lighter, thinner and more resistant than Kevlar, although they are much more expensive. - - ==Performance standards== - - Both the Underwriters Laboratories (UL Standard 752) and the United States National Institute of Justice (NIJ Standard 0101.04) have specific performance standards for bullet resistant vests. The US NIJ rates vests on the following scale against penetration and also blunt trauma protection (deformation) (Table from NIJ Standard 0101.04): - {| border="1" cellpadding="2" - !Armor Level - !Protects Against - |- - |Type I Most likely you found this site by searching for armor, but it is probable that you were really looking for information on body armor instead. The goal of searchspell is to direct the 10 to 20% of all internet queries that contain variant spellings to the resources they were really looking for; in this case "body armor" resources. 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