United States Department of Justice 
Ballistic Resistance of Body Armor [PDF ebook] 

This book, "Ballistic Resistance of Body Armor, " is a minimum performance standard developed in collaboration with the Office of Law Enforcement Standards (OLES) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It is produced as part of the Standards and Testing Program of the National Institute of Justice (NIJ), Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. This standard is a technical book that specifies the minimum performance requirements that equipment must meet to satisfy the requirements of criminal justice agencies and the methods that shall be used to test this performance. This standard is used by the NIJ Voluntary Compliance Testing Program (CTP) to determine which body armor models meet the minimum performance requirements for inclusion on the NIJ Compliant Products List. In addition, manufacturers, criminal justice agencies, and others may use the tests described in this standard to determine whether a particular armor design meets their own requirements. Users are strongly encouraged to have this testing conducted in accordance with the NIJ CTP. Procurement officials may also refer to this standard in their purchasing documents and require that equipment offered for purchase meet or exceed these requirements. This book is a testing and performance standard and provides precise and detailed test methods.