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Glossary of Commonly Used Terms
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ACP. Automatic Colt Pistol.
AFP. The Australian Federal Police.
AJHP. Aluminium Jacketed Hollow Point.
Allied Signal. The original manufacturer of the fibre called Spectra, now a member of the Honeywell Group.
ANSI. American National Standards Institute.
Anti Trauma Panel. This is a protective material to lessen the effects of Blunt Trauma caused by the Back Face Deformation of body armour. Its purpose is to absorb the energy of the projectile and minimize any damage to the wearer.
AOI.Angle of Incidence: The angle between the line of flight of the projectile and the perpendicular to the front surface of the backing material. This is sometimes also referred to as Obliquity.
AP. Armour Piercing; generally ammunition with a very high density core. Anti tank ammunition sometimes uses a core of depleted uranium.
Aramid. A synthetic fibre that exhibits very high strength and modulus. The best known are Kevlar, Technora or Twaron.
Areal Density. It is the weight of the armoured panel divided by the protection area of the panel and is expressed as grams per square metre. It describes the energy absorption capacity of the material.
Armour. The English spelling for protective material.
Armor. The American spelling for protective material.
Armoured Vehicle. A vehicle equipped with ballistic protection.
ASEAN. Association of Southeast Asian Nations.
AS/NZS. Australian and New Zealand Technical Standard.
Back Face Deformation. This is the term used to describe the effect of a projectile on the rear face of a strike plate, where it does not penetrate completely. The maximum allowable deformation in body armour is set by the National Institute of Justice standards at 44mm.
Back Face Signature. This is also referred to as 'Backface Deformation' or 'Trauma Signature'. It refers to the depth of the depression in the backing material resulting from a non penetrating projectile.
Backing Material. A homogenous block of non hardening oil based clay placed in contact with the back of the armour panel during ballistic testing.
Ballistic Panel. The protective component primarily consisting of ballistic resistant materials usually enclosed in a non removable cover.
Baseline Ballistic Limit. The experimentally derived calculated impact velocity at which a projectile is expected to completely penetrate an armour component 50% of the time. This velocity is that at which the projectile is expected to be stopped by the armour 50% of the time (V50).
Blunt Trauma. This is the injury caused to the body by back face deformation. It can vary from bruising to the destruction of major organs.
Boron Carbide. An extremely hard black crystalline material used in lightweight plates to defeat rifle bullets.
BRV. Bullet resistant vest.
Bullet Proof. The aim of all body armour manufacturers is to develop a completely bullet proof vest. This is difficult, if not impossible to achieve as there are many competing priorities which need to be addressed; weight, flexibility and cost for example. For this reason armour products are normally referred to as "bullet resistant".
Caliber. This is how the diameter of the bore of a weapon is described.
Carrier. The fabric garment used to carry body armour.
Ceramic Plate. Numerous materials are used to produce 'hard armour'. Ceramics are used in place of steel as they give the same or superior protection but with less weight. Hard armour is often made up of a composite of a ceramic plate with a ballistic fibre covering. Ceramic plates are made from alumina oxide, silicon carbide or boron carbide. These tiles can be very light, strong and often expensive.
CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency (USA).
Composite. A 'composite' means a mix of ballistic materials.
Covert Armour This is armour which is hidden. It is either worn under normal clothing or the clothing is modified to carry the armour material.
Denier. A system for coding filament yarns and fibres, with low numbers representing finer sizes and higher numbers representing heavier yarns. Denier represents the weight in grams of 9,000 meters of fibre.
Dyneema. This is a high modulus polyethylene fibre, similar to Spectra.
EOD. Explosive Ordnance Disposal.
EUC. This is an End User Certificate which is used to identify the end user of an armour or armaments product.
FBI. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (USA).
FMJ. Full metal jacket.
Grains. This is the Imperial System for measuring the weight of bullets. A grain is equivalent to approximately 63.8mg.
Hard Body Armour. This is one of the terms used to describe the plates which are fitted into body armour carriers. The plates are solid and not flexible. Generally they incorporate steel or ceramic as part of a composite, but can also be made from treated fibre.
Hollow Point. A bullet with a cavity in the nose which causes it to expand when it hits a target. This reduces its penetration with a hard target but increases the damage caused when it strikes a soft target.
HPPE. High Performance Poly Ethylene.
H.P.White. The best known ballistic testing facility in the United States.
JHP. Jacketed Hollow Point (bullet).
JSP. Jacketed Soft Point (bullet).
Kevlar. Kevlar is an aramid fibre developed by DuPont.
LRHV. Long Rifle, High Velocity.
LRN. Lead Round Nose (bullet).
Magnum. This is from the Latin meaning 'more'. It applies to cartridges which generate higher speeds and energy compared to other cartridges of the same caliber.
Modulus. This is term used to describe the measure of stretch or elasticity of a fabric. The number associated with modulus is the amount of load in grams it takes to initiate stretch in a 1000 denier yarn; the higher number, the lower the stretch.
Multiple Strikes. This is the term used to describe a number of projectiles striking a piece of armour.
Mushrooming. This is a method for describing the appearance of back face deformation. It also describes the deformation of a projectile which has struck an armoured target.
Muzzle Velocity. The speed of a projectile at the muzzle of the firearm. It is normally measured 15" from the end of the barrel.
NATA. The National Association of Testing Authorities. Australia.
NATO. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
NIJ. The United States National Institute of Justice, whose ballistics testing standards for armour are widely accepted.
OTV. Outer tactical vest.
Overt Armour. This is armour worn over normal clothing and is obvious.
Parabellum 9mm. In 1898, Georg Luger manufactured the first of his famous pistols. It was originally built as a 7.65mm caliber, and was known as the Para Bellum, from the Latin, Si vis pacem, para bellum, "If you want peace, prepare for war." The pistol was modified to 9mm. This ammunition became the most widely used pistol ammunition in the world, and is referred to using the name for the original Luger pistol, Parabellum.
PASGT. This stands for Personal Armor System Ground Troops and refers to the standard United States Army combat helmet design.
PSDB. The Police Scientific Development Branch (UK). PSDB conducted extensive research into stab attacks and developed the testing Standard for Stab Proof Armour and a test regime. This standard was adopted by the National Institute of Justice.
RN. Round Nose (bullet).
SAPI. Small arms protective insert.
Soft Body Armour. This is armour made from fabric only. It can be a composite, containing more than one type of fibre.
Spalling. This is a term describing back face deformation. Mushrooming is another term used. They refer to the effect of a projectile on armour. Spalling is used to describe where an amount of the armour material scales off the back face.
Spectra. This is a highly modified polyethylene fibre developed by Allied Signals Corporation, which has since been taken over by Honeywell.
Strike Face. The face of a ballistic panel which is designed to face outwards and is first struck by the projectile.
Strike Plate. This is a term used to describe the hard armour insert for body armour. It is also referred to as a ballistic tile or a ballistic panel.
SWC. Semi Wadcutter.
Tactical Armour. This is overt armour which is specifically developed for combat use. The carrier can be designed to hold special equipment in addition to the armour.
Technora. This is an aramid fibre which is manufactured by Teijin Twaron GmbH.
Twaron. This is an aramid fibre originally made by Akzo Noble and now by Teijin Twaron GmbH.
UD. This is the abbreviation for uni-directional. This describes the orientation of fibres in a crossply laminate; the fibres are aligned in parallel.
V50. This is a particular statistical ballistic test originally developed by the US Army. It identifies the velocity at which a projectile has a 50% chance of penetrating the test object.
Vest. A vest comprises the carrier and the armour inserts.
Wear Face. That surface of an armour sample or panel designated by the manufacturer as the surface which should be worn against the body.
Witness Plate. A thin sheet of aluminium alloy placed behind a test specimen to determine the potential for an incapacitating injury.
Yaw. The angular deviation of the longitudinal axis of the projectile from its line of flight, measured as close as practical to the target.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
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