Body armor is a critical piece of protection gear and has saved many lives, but you need to choose the right level of protection for the situations you'll find yourself in. The wrong level of protection could prove less effective, even sometimes if it is a higher level than needed. Some of the things to consider when choosing your body armor level are the level of the threat, comfort, heat, mobility, and how easy it is to conceal, as well as the cost of the armor. Understanding the issue of protection level is complex, but the U.S. National Institute of Justice (NIJ) upholds a standard to sort body armor into 5 levels to help people know which to buy for their situation.
Level IV ballistic plates are hard armor plates that are NIJ's highest rated. Able to take one hit from an armor-piercing rifle, they can withstand 7.62MM armor piercing (AP, .30-06, 30 ot 6) bullets coming at a velocity of 2880 ft/s. Level IV ballistic plates are tested for their ability to stop just the one shot, where level III hard armor plates are tested for 6 shots, so level IV hard armor plate isn't always better protection than a level III, just different. There are also other certifications of bullet resistance, like the U.S. Military’s SAPI standards (Small Arms Protective Insert), which are plated designed for the military, with Interceptor body armor (IBA) and Improved Outer Tactical Vest (IOTV) and the Modular Tactical Vest (MTV). In 2005, they updated it to ESAPI (Enhanced SAPI). Additionally, one can get "Special Threats plates" which are body armor with minimal weight and cost that are designed to stop common threats, like AK-47 and AR-15 plates.
Some plates are stand-alone plates, and that means that all by themselves, they protect at the level they are listed at. Others are in-conjunction plates, which need to be paired with a soft armor vest to protect at the level they are listed at. Still another option is plates which are listed at two levels, the lower of which is their level when worn alone, and the higher is their level in conjunction
with a soft armor vest. Either way, it is recommended to wear a vest with your blunt trauma plates or soft armor vest, to disperse the kinetic energy from the shot, even if the bullet itself is stopped by the armor. The vest minimizes the risk of injury from that force.
Once it is determined what threat level your situation calls for, you also can decide about the trade-off between protection, price, weight and comfort. If you'll have to wear the vest for long amounts of time, the cost of comfort and mobility becomes more important, and customers should consider that when choosing their armor. You don't want to be a sitting duck, weighed down by more armor than necessary, limiting your movement; you want the armor that is right for the situation you have narrowed it down to be. No body armor is 100% fail-safe, but by choosing the right one for you, you lower your risk of injury and give yourself a means of defense in a hostile situation.
We have polyethylene and ceramic and boron carbide, silicon carbide or alumina level IV plates that will give you the protection for level 4 threats.
