NIJ's New Classifications for Body Armor

 The Firearm Blog has an article about the NIJ's new classifications for body armor. The old classification system was confusing with Levels up through IIIA being (generally) Kevlar body armor intended to stop handgun rounds, and Levels III and IV intended for rifle rounds and generally made from steel, ceramic, and/or certain types of polymer layers. The new classification will be split into two general categories for handguns (HG) and rifles (RF). These will be further split into two levels for pistol and three for rifles, those being:

• HG1 (apparently the same or similar to the old Level II);
• HG2 (apparently the same or similar to the old Level IIIA);
• RF1 (apparently the same or similar to the old Level III);
• RF2 (apparently intended to be similar to the unofficial III+ designation used by many manufacturers); and,
• RF3 (which appears to be the same or similar to the old Level IV).

They will not be offering a category to represent the old Level IIA, presumably because it is so little used anymore. As the article explains, the old system used "A" to designate something of lower protection than the full number, so, for instance, Level IIA offers less protection than Level II.

    There are a lot more details in the TFB article, so check it out.