The present invention relates to personal armor for protection against projectile threats in general, and more particularly to armor intended to counter higher speed projectiles such as rifle rounds.
Persons exposed to projectile threats, such as police officers and soldiers, may seek a certain level of protection by wearing armored clothing. Such body armor is available in a variety of forms to address various levels of potential threats.
Low velocity projectiles such as handgun rounds, fragmentation rounds from a grenade or mortar, and miscellaneous shrapnel may be countered by so-called “soft armor.” Soft armor is worn in the form of jackets, vests, etc. which are composed of assemblies of ballistic fabric such as those formed from DuPont Kevlar® fibers. Typically, soft armor will employ 15-30 layers of thin flexible tightly woven ballistic fabric. This material is generally lightweight and effective in stopping handgun rounds. However, the multiple layers required to make the soft armor are also an effective insulator, trapping heat close to the wearer's body.
In a more serious threat situations, where higher velocity rifle rounds must be countered, soil armor has typically been supplemented with hard armor. The hard armor is fabricated of rigid plates of ceramic, polymer, or metal. These plates are usually molded or formed to conform to a standard wearer. To provide the greatest area of coverage, and hence protection, these plates are often large and hence can interfere with the wearer's mobility. A common approach to mounting the plates to the wearer is to secure them within exterior pockets fabricated on a soft armor jacket or vest. This modular approach allows the wearer to assess the level of risk and to add or subtract hard armor as the situation demands. However, the result is a more bulky and potentially hot armor assembly. Because the hard armor plates can compromise mobility, the wearer may choose to sacrifice a greater level of protection for greater ease of movement. The option to remove some levels of protection, however, means that occasionally the wearer of the armor encounters a higher velocity projectile without the appropriate hard armor protection.
What is needed is a body armor system which is effective against high velocity projectiles yet which does not unduly compromise wearer mobility or temperature regulation.