Jake Ganor
What are the latest developments and advancements in technologies designed to improve ballistic protection?
The past year has been a big one for the body armor industry. It has seen the release of a new polyethylene fiber for armor applications – which is momentous, as UHMWPE (Ultrahigh Molecular Weight Polyethylene) composites are now the most important material in body armor development – and the National Institute for Justice’s 0101.07 specification for body armor has been formally launched. The impact of these developments will be felt over the coming years and they are well worth a brief review.
Advances in Polyethylene Armor Materials
Over the past 15 years, UHMWPE fiber composites have gradually come to dominate the body armor industry. Today’s best performing soft armor systems all utilize polyethylene-based materials such as Dyneema® or Spectra-Shield®. In hard armor, the best ceramic plates incorporate a thick layer of these composite materials behind their ceramic strike faces and, in some cases, UHMWPE is used on its own. And, in helmets, the Integrated Head Protection System (IHPS), the Enhanced Combat Helmet (ECH) and the high-end Ops-Core FAST RF1 all have shells made entirely or primarily of UHMWPE. Even the Army’s new Combat Vehicle Crewman (CVC) Gen 2 helmet is also made primarily of UHMWPE.
Before proceeding further, I should clarify that UHMWPE for armor applications is very different from the common forms of polyethylene in milk jugs and UHMWPE in wear liners. Armor-grade UHMWPE is always a composite. It’s made of very thin UHMWPE fibers stretched taut and held fast in a resin matrix, usually polyurea or a polystyrene derivative. The ratio of fiber to resin is typically around 9:1. The fibers, being extremely thin and highly aligned, are largely free of defects, so their tensile strength approaches the strength of their atomic bonds. Thus, the difference between a UHMWPE fiber composite and a UHMWPE wear liner is analogous to the difference between a plate of fiberglass and a pane of glass: They’re the same material, but one is orders of magnitude tougher and more damage resistant than the other and for just the same reason.
As UHMWPE has become so ubiquitous, advances in fiber development have had a tremendous impact on the development of body armor, though progress has been slow. Initially, the only fibers available for armor were Dyneema SK76, Spectra 1000 and similar grades. For roughly 20 years, all UHMWPE fiber composites were made with these fibers.
In 2013, DSM released the Dyneema SK99 fiber – markedly stronger and more crystalline than SK76 – and this was utilized in their high-end composite laminates for soft and hard armor: HB210, HB212, SB115, and SB117. All of these were marketed with “Dyneema Force Multiplier” branding to denote their substantially improved performance over prior grades.
Early all-Dyneema hard armor plates – generally built from an SK76 grade like HB50 to Level III – cluster around 3.3 pounds at 10″ X 12″. Level III plates made with “Force Multiplier” HB212 tend to weigh around 2.2 to 2.5 pounds at the same size. Some of this weight reduction is due to advances in processing techniques, but the far larger share is due to the improved properties of the SK99 fiber.
Proportionately similar gains have also been seen in soft armor, ceramic armor plates and helmets.
Now, at last, the Dyneema line is set to evolve past SK99, with a variety of new products based on an entirely new type of fiber. This fiber, which does not yet have an official name, has superior properties compared to SK99 and promises improved performance in armor systems. It’s more crystalline, more highly aligned, contains fewer defects and – most importantly – it’s stronger, with an improved strength-to-weight ratio.
The recently released soft armor grade SB301 utilizes this new fiber and is a harbinger of things to come: Soft armor made with SB301 is significantly thinner, lighter and more flexible than armor made with any older grade of Dyneema.
Forthcoming new grades of Dyneema for hard armor and helmets will enable similar performance gains. The magnitude of these gains has yet to be seen, but it’s possible that Level III/RF1 plates will be made at well under two pounds and complete helmet systems might also come to weigh less than two pounds.
New NIJ Specifications for Body Armor and Ballistic Threats
The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) has recently unveiled the 0101.07 standard, a highly anticipated update to the guidelines for testing and certifying body armor. This revision aims to address inconsistencies and gaps in the old 0101.06 specification. The major changes can be briefly summarized:
Handgun threats: Levels I and IIA are removed from the specification. The new level HG1 (Handgun-1) corresponds to the .06 specification’s Level II and HG2 corresponds to the .06 spec’s IIIA.
Rifle threats: Plates built to RF1 are to be tested against 7.62x51mm M80 Ball, 7.62x39mm MSC (Type 56 from Factory 31) and 5.56x45mm M193 bullets. RF2 plates are tested against 5.56x45mm M855 steel penetrators in addition to all RF1 threats. At RF1 and RF2, all plates are tested against three shots per threat, rather than the six shots that the 0101.06 specification called for at Level III. RF3 plates are tested against one shot of .30-06 M2 armor-piercing bullets, so it represents a continuation of the .06 spec’s Level IV.
So, there are no more obsolete handgun levels and all rifle threat levels are “III+” – with RF2 truly representing the full spectrum of rifle ball threats.
A major enhancement in the NIJ 0101.07 standard is the approach to testing the 7.62x39mm Mild Steel Core (MSC) bullet, infamous for its significant manufacturing variability. Previously, in special threat testing, this variability led to inconsistent test results which undermined the reliability of armor performance assessments and made it difficult for armor designers to build “to spec” without overengineering. The updated standard now specifies the use of the 7.62x39mm Type 56 bullet from Factory 31, selected for its uniformity, as an interim measure for standardized testing until a surrogate round can be developed.
The introduction of the derivative NIJ Standard 0123.00 is another significant change, serving as a centralized repository for all ballistic threats. This new standard aims to harmonize threat definitions and testing protocols across different types of armor, for consistency and reliability in performance evaluations.
In smaller changes, the 0101.07 standard updates shot location protocols, particularly for the crown of hard armor plates, and includes specific testing criteria for female structured soft armor panels.
NIJ-accredited labs have recently begun testing armor plates to the new 0101.07 spec and a new Compliant Product List is anticipated for 2025.
Research Trends
The war in Ukraine has highlighted the critical importance of fragmentation protection for infantry. Interestingly, military fragmentation armor, including much of what’s presently issued by NATO militaries in Europe, is often made to adhere to the NIJ specifications for soft body armor, Level II (HG1) or IIIA (HG2). Yet, as briefly noted previously, these specifications assess armor panels against large caliber soft tipped or hollow point handgun rounds – they were not intended to address 17-grain tool steel fragments at much higher velocities. The 17-grain steel fragment is almost the exact opposite of the 240-grain SHJP .44 Magnum bullet – and armor which is optimized against the one won’t necessarily fare well against the other.
Several ongoing research projects are aiming at optimizing soft armor performance against the fragmentation threat, outside of the NIJ framework. One such project has developed a soft armor package weighing 0.44 pounds per square foot which achieves a V50 (50% probability of stopping the threat) against the 17-grain FSP at nearly 1700 feet per second. This represents a tremendous increase in performance efficiency in comparison with the Army’s current frag armor systems which weigh 0.88 pounds per square foot (+100%) and have a V50 of 1850 feet per second (+8.9%).
Frag armor modernization is right on the horizon. The light weight and flexibility of modern frag armor systems will enable improved coverage for men in the trenches. The same systems may also prove useful for extremely lightweight and flexible extremity armor for entry teams – in shoulder, arm, thigh, hip, and groin armor panels.
Jake Ganor is a materials scientist, armor engineer and a designer of ballistic shields. His company, Adept Armor (ade.pt), is pioneering next generation armor systems. His book, Body Armor and Light Ballistic Armor Materials and Systems is available on Amazon.
