What is NIJ Certified Body Armor?
There are a ton of resources out there on the topic of body armor – Good body armor versus bad body armor, American made body armor versus imported body armor, etc. And as you’d expect, there’s A LOT of misinformation about body armor as well.
Consumers need to educate themselves on questions like:
- What does NIJ Certified mean?
- What does NIJ Compliant mean?
- What does NIJ Tested mean?
- And how can body armor buyers make sense of all these different terms used to describe the same products?
The video above should educate you thoroughly on the questions above, to ensure that you make the right decision on body armor.
What Body Armor Levels can be certified?
Both soft armor and hard armor can be certified to the current 0101.06 standards set forth by NIJ. Level II, Level IIa and Level IIIa are soft body armor solutions that can be certified to defeat hand gun rounds.
Level III body armor and Level IV body armor are the ONLY two levels of armor plates that can be certified to defeat rifle rounds. Currently, there is no certification for Level III+ body armor.
No matter which style of body armor you’re looking to protect yourself with please make sure you know which body armor is NIJ .06 Certified (the current standard) and check out the full compliance list from the National Institute of Justice.