This article was taken from the May issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content bysubscribing online
Going to war as a mercenary? Or venturing to Moss Side for a night out? We've tested some bulletproof vests.
All these vests have been certified by the US National Institute of Justice (NIJ), so you can be confident they will stop a round. But how much pain would you feel? In the world of "bullet resistance" (no garment is truly bulletproof), over engineering is key.
The NIJ has six levels of protection; IIIA is the highest a soft garment (ie one without metal plates) can attain. The UK's Home Office Scientific Development Branch "recognises" the NIJ's ratings.
Bulletproof Bodyarmour HQ Vest(pictured above) The dimples left by the .44-calibre rounds in our lab tests were so negligible, the techs didn't deem them worth measuring. The vest held up even after being shot twice in the same spot. It's a simple, easily concealed design. Some bullets left sharp edges protruding from the point of impact, but you wouldn't wear a vest that's already been shot and the low price makes it easy to replace.
WIRED Cheap and tough TIRED Not reusable
8/10 $344 (£222) bulletproofbodyarmorhq.com
<img src="http://cdni.wired.co.uk/674x281/a_c/0310WITSBULL004_SM.jpg" alt="T-shirt vest"/>
Miguel Caballero T-Shirt IIAMiguel Caballero's polo shirt and vest combination attempts to make bullet protection stylish. The polo shirt doesn't really hide the armour underneath, though, so you'll need a jacket in order to be truly inconspicuous. Even after 12 rounds, the ballistic material was still shrugging off slugs with ease, and the polo shirt developed only small holes.
WIRED Tailored protection; near-invulnerability TIRED VVL (visible vest-line)
7/10 $6,000 (£3,873) miguelcaballero.com
<img src="http://cdni.wired.co.uk/674x281/a_c/0310WITSBULL005.jpg" alt="Promax"/>
Bulletproofme.com Promax Windbreaker Jacket VestThis comes zipped inside a warm, comfy jacket, making it inconspicuous to wear. It's also the lightest on test. Protection is sketchy - indentations in our clay chest were 25 per cent deeper than with the other vests, so would really hurt. One bullet got through, but was close to a previous hit, so NIJ tests wouldn't count this a failure. Real-world bullets won't be so forgiving, though.
WIRED Choice of colours TIRED Style over bullet-stopping power.
5/10 $760 (£490) bulletproofme.com
<img src="http://cdni.wired.co.uk/674x281/s_v/test_1.jpg" width="436" height="166" alt="Test device"/>
How we testedAll the vests on test are certified IIIA. We began our testing by the book, at the Oregon Ballistics Lab -- one of five NIJ-certified facilities in the US. The technicians at OBL mounted the body armour on a 100kg block of modelling clay and used a mechanised rig to punish each vest with six .44-calibre and six .357 rounds.
To gauge impact, we simply measured the resulting craters. The greater the deformation in the clay, the greater the deformation would be in your chest -- and the bigger the bruise.
The NIJ tests were comprehensive, but being Wired, we weren't satisfied with the official standards -- so we subjected each vest to six more .44-calibre slugs, some of them 25 percent heavier than the .44s at Oregon Ballistics. The bullets did some ugly damage, but we never had a vest truly fail.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
