Ballistic Plates Incoming

[williamteichroeb]

Got a question for you gents (and gals)....I purchased the steel plates (NIJ3+) and was wondering what everyones thoughts are for trauma pads to pair with these. With AI tactical recently stating they are going to be carrying soft armour, would I be better to pair with a level 3a or 2 soft plate underneath my steel, or just buy a trauma pad? Would there be any advantage to actual soft armour, as in would it potentially increase protection from an NIJ 3+ to an NIJ 4? Would it be less effective at dissipating the energy if I went with specially designed trauma pads, for slightly less money?

Thoughts?

[1ABNDT]

I am not an expert on the whole "body armor" subject but the ASPIS TAC carrier I will be looking at if it has the room in the single pocket to accommodate both hard/soft panels go that route but before I commit to soft panels, I want to wait and see the TAC carrier. And the soft Kevlar low profile vest AI Tactical will be bringing in as well (side protection) in Sept?. It would be nice to have the vest to wear ED/SA, or double up with the TAC carrier. Those are my thoughts and direction hope it all makes sense and is possible.

Do the steel plates you purchased have an anti spall coating?

[1-2-2]

To clarity, how do I know the armour is in stock? (And not a per-order)

[DiMP]

Your order will be shipped out today. We hope we did a good job with the disguise. Just a word of warning, there is quite a bit of glitter.
Attachment 285100

Well, I'm still married! The parcel had arrived while I was at work and I tried my best to hide my excitement when I got home. Turns out I'm not a great liar and my "I wonder what this could be" didn't fool my intended audience too well. I said "it looks like a late wedding present" as she opened the card and asked "Who are our friends at AI Tactical Solutions"? I tried to tell her I wasn't sure, but that they were obviously amazing people. Although she shook her head as I unwrapped the gift like a child at Christmas, she quickly offered to help me size it and add on the pouches I had ordered along with it. I think I found a keeper

[DiMP]

We can definitely try and bring in steel in 11x14 but the earliest we could bring them in would be in about two months. Also they don't manufacture the steel in lvl IV. We are actually currently changing over to purchasing from an American company who has agreed to match the prices that we are currently selling at. More details to come, but they are the ones manufacturing the low profile pistol vests and rifle rated backpacks.

Any update on these?

[KDW__]

We can definitely try and bring in steel in 11x14 but the earliest we could bring them in would be in about two months. Also they don't manufacture the steel in lvl IV. We are actually currently changing over to purchasing from an American company who has agreed to match the prices that we are currently selling at. More details to come, but they are the ones manufacturing the low profile pistol vests and rifle rated backpacks.

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing what you manage to get in stock.

[AITacticalSolutions]

The four plates in question are two defender plates for the front and two for the back. That is why it states four plates. Here is an example of the plates:



The ASPIS carrier takes regular 10 x 12 plates which are not as common in Russia, but much more prolific in the Western world. The pocket for plates on the ASPIS plate carrier is rather large, so you may be able to fit hard and soft armour in the same pocket on the ASPIS carrier. The difference essentially is that they sewed off the points where the regular defender plates would insert and expanded the pocket where the soft armour went to take 10x12s; depending on the size and thickness of your soft and hard armour it could be possible to fit both into the same pocket as there is a lot of space.

I can clarify and state that the ASPIS plate carrier should in fact have room for additional soft armour in the main compartment. It is possible since the main compartment is pretty large and worse comes to worse you can, if the soft armour plate was large enough, fit the soft armor behind the main plate compartment, between it and the mesh backing. If this is a bit ocnfusing I can post photos, or show you in person if you want to come by our warehouse.

[AITacticalSolutions]

Got a question for you gents (and gals)....I purchased the steel plates (NIJ3+) and was wondering what everyones thoughts are for trauma pads to pair with these. With AI tactical recently stating they are going to be carrying soft armour, would I be better to pair with a level 3a or 2 soft plate underneath my steel, or just buy a trauma pad? Would there be any advantage to actual soft armour, as in would it potentially increase protection from an NIJ 3+ to an NIJ 4? Would it be less effective at dissipating the energy if I went with specially designed trauma pads, for slightly less money?

Thoughts?

Any additional padding will decrease the amount of energy being directly transmitted to your body, and this has been shown through armor technology going back to the bronze age. Modern plate carriers help with this marginally through their padded construction. Adding an additional soft armour plate behind the steel will definitely help with cushioning the raw kinetic energy. Many modern trauma pads are marketed with being impregnated with non newtonian fluid which acts to increase their rigidity when struck and thus dissipate more energy. But with the steel plates being so heavy and there being so little backface deformation you should be fine with just some more padding, and a cheap trauma pad. There is very little use of the soft armour behind the steel plate as whatever will core 6.3mm of AR500 steel will pass right through the soft armor be it level 2 or 3. The only use of soft armour with the steel plates would potentially be in front of the steel with the key point being to have the soft armour lip over the top of the steel plate to catch any spall that will occur when the plate is struck. I cannot vouch for the comfort of this but that would be the best way I could think of to make the combination truly most effective. We will conduct some experiments and see if we can come up with something that will work to this effect.

[AITacticalSolutions]

I am not an expert on the whole "body armor" subject but the ASPIS TAC carrier I will be looking at if it has the room in the single pocket to accommodate both hard/soft panels go that route but before I commit to soft panels, I want to wait and see the TAC carrier. And the soft Kevlar low profile vest AI Tactical will be bringing in as well (side protection) in Sept?. It would be nice to have the vest to wear ED/SA, or double up with the TAC carrier. Those are my thoughts and direction hope it all makes sense and is possible.

Do the steel plates you purchased have an anti spall coating?

We are trying to have the soft vest in country to display at our booth at TACCOM. Yes it will have full front back and side protection.

[AITacticalSolutions]

To clarity, how do I know the armour is in stock? (And not a per-order)

All of our armor is currently in stock with the exception of our silicone Level IV. Also we are out of stock of the ASPIS simplex plate carriers and we are unable to make another order for them until the middle of august as SRVV is on their summer holiday.