The Next Revision of the NIJ Performance Standard for Ballistic Resistance of Body Armor

• NCJ Number: 252165
• Date Published: October 2018
• Author(s): Mark E. Greene; Jeffrey Horlick; Daniel A. Longhurst; Lance L. Miller; Michael O'Shea; David Otterson; Casandra Robinson; Debra A. Stoe; Richard A. Sundstrom
• Length: 2 pages
• Agencies: NIJ
• Publication Type: Standard; Legislation/Policy Description

Annotation

After reviewing statistics that show the safety benefit of body armor for law enforcement officers and the history of the U.S. Justice Department's National Institute of Justice's (NIJ's) development and monitoring of the implementation of minimum performance standards for body armor, this report outlines the status and objectives of NIJ's current seventh revision to its body armor performance standard (01011.07).

Abstract

NIJ anticipates that this revision will be published in late 2018 or early 2019 as NIJ Standard 0101.07. It will include improved test methods for female body armor and updated body armor protection levels that incorporate additional rifle threats faced by U.S. law enforcement. The primary purpose of this standard will be for use by the NIJ Compliance Testing Program (CTP) for testing and evaluation of ballistic-resistant body armor for certification. The standard will be used by both ballistics laboratories that test body armor and body armor manufacturers that participate in the NIJ CTP. Unlike the current and previous version of the body armor standard, the revised standard will incorporate by reference a suite of ASTM standard test methods and practices. The report includes a table that lists standardized test methods, practices, and specifications published by ASTM that will be incorporated by reference into NIJ Standard 0101.017. In this standard, threat-level nomenclature has been revised from previous standards to be more descriptive of threats and to reduce confusion among law enforcement users of body armor. 2 tables