Bulletproof Yourself

Yes, I find body armour to be… Cool. Luckily I’ve never had the need for it myself, but it is an interesting aspect of physical security. And it is quite high tech. For the paranoid/threatened amongst us, Spycatchers Bullet/Stab-proof jacket has been the ultimate jacket for a long time. It is quite nice looking, acceptable heavy (3 kilo) and offers a decent degree of protection while not looking like the typical body armour. The absence of ceramic plating and similar harder protection means that it should be rather worthless against high speed rifle ammo or armour piercing pistol ammo like the Swedish Army’s 39/B. If that is an everyday threat for you, you should probably consider travelling around in a tank, however.

But, technology moves forward. The fabrics are constantly getting more high tech. The Dow Corning Active Protection System is a fabric that gets hard, instantly, in case of impacts. The manufacturer claims superiour protection compared to older materials, even hard Kevlar. That would be amazing if it was true. The comfort levels of body armour would increase tenfold. And there are a bunch of civilian applications to, sports protection, mouth guards etc. Or why not just shoes with protected toes when there are an impact to them, leaving the shoes soft and nice at other times? Brilliant.