Development of Soft Armor Conditioning Protocols for NIJ 0101.06: Analytical Results

This publication details the four major phases of analytical development work, coupled with several additional side studies, undertaken by the Office of Law Enforcement Standards in writing the Flexible Armor Conditioning Protocol in NIJ 0101.06. This protocol partially fulfills a requirement to develop a revised performance standard for body armor to address a number of concerns, one of which was the ability of the armor to withstand environmental and wear conditions that an armor might see over its lifetime. All major classes of materials were tested without incident, and the conditions selected are found to be quite detrimental to armors of a design that previously had problems in the field. However, the protocol does not represent an exact period of time in the field.