Leather Armour - Personal - History - Present

Present

Today, ballistic vests, euphemistically known as a flak jacket, made of ballistic cloth (e.g. kevlar, dyneema, twaron, spectra etc.) and ceramic or metal plates are common among police forces, security staff, corrections officers and some branches of the military.

The US Army has adopted Interceptor body armour, which uses Enhanced Small Arms Protective Inserts (E-S.A.P.I) in the chest, sides and back of the armour. Each plate is rated to stop a range of ammunition including 3 hits from a 7.62×51 NATO AP round at a range of 10 m (33 ft), though accounts in Iraq and Afghanistan tell of soldiers shot as many as seven times in the chest without penetration. Dragon Skin body armour is another ballistic vest which is currently in testing with mixed results.

Despite advances in the protection offered by ballistic armour against projectiles, as the name implies, modern ballistic body armour is much less impervious to stabbing weapons unless they are augmented with anti-knife/anti-stab armour (usually a form of mail).

• Early Japanese armour, iron helmet and cuirass with gilt bronze decoration, Kofun period, 5th century. Tokyo National Museum.

• Ancient Germanic helmet.

• Medieval horse armour on display at Museum of Islamic Art, Doha in Qatar.

• Plate armour

• Myochin - Suit of Armour with the Buddhist Deity Fudo Myo-o - Walters 51602.jpg

  Late Edo period (1800s) samurai armour.

• Riot police with body protection against blows