Capitol Police, FBI uncover new potential deadly risk to female officers from body armor
The U.S. Capitol Police alerted its rank-and-file this month that FBI lab testing of long-approved body armor has uncovered a previously unknown flaw that can subject female officers to deadly ricochets from bullets.
The advisory, obtained by Just the News, revealed that the FBI first detected the problem, known as the “skip effect,” when it “departed from legacy testing protocols in a desire to test body armor in an ‘as worn’ condition, and to account for various body shapes and sizes.”
“The testing revealed that when a projectile strikes the female body armor at an extreme angle on the upper chest area, the projectile does not penetrate the body armor, but rather, skips or deflects off the surface of the armor into the neck region,” the advisory explained. “Because of the angle at which female body armor lays when worn, projectiles may skip off the top center of the female armor and travel to the area of the jugular notch” in the neck where the jugular vein passes.
This will be an interesting problem to solve. How can the body armor be made to not deflect the bullets into the head and neck and still conform to the shape of women’s bodies enough to be comfortable?
This also points out an weakness of the armor for men as well. With the proper angle of incidence bullets can funneled into areas like the arms. Aim for the “arm area” and the shooter gets a disabling hit even if they miss the arm itself.
So if you know its a female gubmint goon coming through your front door at zero-dark-thirty the new shot placement advice will be “lips, tits, and hips.”
Medieval breastplates would have a v-shaped structure on the upper chest to catch the tip of spears and swords as they slipped on the armor and redirect them away from the neck. Additionally, there could also be a gorget of some description.
What is old becomes new again.
Guys with manboobs hardest hit.
It’s a shot trap, it’s well known in mechanized armor (plagued the early Tiger tanks in WW2) and the solution is a enlarged gorget. It won’t be concealed, but it should be comfortable enough.
Found in testing.
Any real world incidents?
BTW Bad guys know to shoot for the V at the neck above the vest.
Or the one below the vest.
I remember the body armor I went to Iraq with had a collar with a small panel which fastened around the front. I suspect the collar was in part specifically for dealing with this issue. The downside was it stuck out 2-3 inches from the neck and was basically a funnel. If you think 9 brass down your shirt is distracting try being in the brass zone from a belt fed and having everything funneled into your neck!
They’re talking about body armor worn by the enormously fat (usually black) women in federal law enforcement. The plate angles up towards their chin from their distended bellies.