Body Armor Standards and Testing
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Published Body Armor Standards
Performance standards ensure that commercially available armor meets minimum performance requirements. NIJ has published standards for both ballistic and stab resistance of personal body armor:
- NIJ 2005 Interim Requirements for Bullet-Resistant Body Armor (doc, 4 pages), September 2005. These requirements modify and supplement NIJ Standard-0101.04.
- Ballistic Resistance of Personal Body Armor, NIJ Standard-0101.04, National Institute of Justice, November 2000, NCJ 183651. This standard serves as a general revision to NIJ Standard-0101.03 from April 1987.
- Stab Resistance of Personal Body Armor, NIJ Standard-0115.00 , National Institute of Justice, November 2000, NCJ 183652.
Updating the Ballistic-Resistance Standard
NIJ has implemented interim requirements to the body armor compliance testing process (doc, 4 pages) that create new requirements for all body armor manufacturers.
NIJ is developing a revised ballistic-resistance standard in response to the failure of a body armor model that had complied with the current Standard (0101.04), as well as subsequent evaluation of that Standard.
For more information on improving the Standard, see Advancing Test Methods on the Current and Future Research page.
Body Armor Compliance Testing
During testing, independent laboratories that have been certified by NIJ put body armor through a series of tests to verify that it complies with NIJ's performance Standard. The National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center system administers the voluntary body armor program. Their Web site describes the two major programs:
Learn more about Body Armor Standards from the NIJ Journal article NIJ’s "Bullet-Resistant Vest Standard Reaches Milestone (pdf, 4 pages)" or the Office of Law Enforcement Standards Weapons and Protective Systems Web page.