Very interesting!
I suggest body armour newbies start with the following overview for a good background before shelling out their money or experimenting: http://ingunowners.com/forums/2947069-post1.html .
Watch the video first, then go to the DocGKR link and check out the "level III hard armor test data" report that is linked at the bottom. Also have a look at the heart/ribcage diagram below that.
If you look at the test data, the 3mm steel outer over the compressed Dyneema (the heaviest plate at 7+lbs) worked the best and ALL of the tests were conducted on a SINGLE plate. It took a lickin' and kept on tickin'. Now 3mm is roughly 1/8". APM Technologie -- a Canadian military contractor out of Quebec -- makes a 1/4 inch steel version of a hard armour plate. If you linked that up with a Level IIIA vest or had a lightweight Dyneema plate under that steel, it would be HEAVY but likely the most effective set-up.
I started with a Level II vest from SFRC and added two Level III mil-surp European Dyneema plates that I slipped in front of the Kevlar front and back. But I plan on adding a quickly removal steel plate to the mix as well and maybe upping to a Level IIIA vest for a SHTF scenario.
Something worth watching is the movie Black Hawk Down -- especially the part where some of the guys stripped out their hard plates before going out on that mission. The massed "skinnies" that were shooting at them might give an approximation of what hungry hordes might look like in a SHTF/TEOTWAWKI scenario -- and I would assume that any bad guys/looters might be armed with 5.56 steel core ammo. If you're guarding your home/street and not running around or patrolling, weight shouldn't be a consideration and an outer steel barrier might come in handy. APM sells Level III steel plates and Level IV ceramic plates via Ebay or directly -- and they're Canadian with reasonable prices and low shipping cost.
In theory, ceramic plates should be x-rayed annually to verify that they have no microscopic cracks. Steel? Worry free, especially if it's 1/4" over lightweight Dyneema. I like the Irish surplus but being ceramic I'd feel safer if it had another plate over it. You could test one ceramic plate and have it pass, yet another one may have been damaged in transit/shipping and you have no way of knowing that until you're shot. Repeat after me: STEEL first, then add Level III of some sort. A stand alone plate doesn't absorb enough energy even if it stops the bullet(s). The U.S. Army uses ceramic because those guys are hoofing it on patrol. That military ceramic can also be replaced if hit/dropped/damaged by going to the army supply depot. In an extended SHTF scenario, will you have back-up plates?
BigBeaver has it right: think carefully and spend the money on what will save your skin under duress. And watch Black Hawk Down a few times for that message to sink in. Something else to consider before stepping into the SHTF fray: If you get shot in the head or somewhere else that isn't protected by body armour, you've run through your current nine lives. Whether you had on Level III or Level IV ceramic or steel or Dyneema ain't gonna matter one way or the other.
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