Ballistic and Blast Protection from International Armored Group

There are currently two commonly used standards for the level of protection a light armored vehicle offers, the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) North American standard and the Comité Européen de Normalisation (CEN) European standard. The most common use of the NIJ standard is to rate a vehicle from level I up to level IV, with each higher level offering more ballistic protection. The most common use of the CEN standard is to rate a vehicle based on a generally accepted and understood terminology from B1 up to B7. According to CEN standards, the opaque armor is rated from FB1 to FB7, while transparent armor is rated from BR1 to BR7.

The use of the terms protection level “B1”, protection level“B2”, protection level ”B3” and so on is not officially recognized, but is generally accepted to mean the level of ballistic protection a vehicle offers. While both standards were set by independent government testing agencies and therefore contain no bias, as opposed to standards set by the armored vehicle manufacturers themselves, they fail to address the issue of blast protection, as both standards only deal with ballistic resistance.

Armored Blast Protection

One of the greatest misconceptions found among armored vehicle consumers is that many equate these two standards to blast protection. A higher level of protection based on these two standards does not equate to a higher level of blast protection, but simply ballistic resistance. For example, a vehicle rated CEN B7 will offer better ballistic resistance compared to CEN B6 (it can withstand bigger or stronger caliber bullets that have greater penetration power) but will typically offer less blast protection. This is due to the inherent nature of the main materials used: ballistic steel.

The protective level of ballistic steel is calculated based on two factors; thickness and hardness. Ballistic steel that is thicker and harder will offer better ballistic protection. However, thicker and harder steel is also more prone to shattering, and as a result fares poorly against blasts. A typical NIJ III/B6 or NIJ IV/B7 will require relatively thick and hard ballistic steel, and as a result will not offer adequate blast protection unless it has been designed properly.

Given that certified ballistic steel is used, the difference between vehicles with a NIJ III/B6 or higher level of protection that will offer proper blast protection and vehicles that will not offer blast protection is the design.

Vehicle Blast Protection

A vehicle that has proper blast protection will offer 3600 full overlaps around all door apertures, rather than 1800 half overlap, such that the doors will not be dislodged or ripped out due to the negative air pressure of a blast. In addition, the vehicle should use as few pieces of ballistic steel as possible, as welding significantly weakens the structure of ballistic steel. The sides of the vehicle, incorporating all the full overlaps and pillars, should be constructed with as few pieces as possible.

In total, the vehicle should not use more than 20 to 25 pieces of ballistic steel. Lastly, the floor should always be fitted with blast protective steel (with ballistic steel as an available add-on option), such that the floor has enough flexibility to absorb the blast without cracking.

International Armored Group’s vehicles have been designed to provide both ballistic and blast protection, meeting all of the above characteristics. The NIJ III/ B6 Toyota Landcruiser 200 is one of several armored vehicles manufactured by IAG that use only one piece of ballistic steel for the entire sides of the vehicle, one for each side.

This design incorporates all the overlaps and pillars, and offers vastly superior blast and ballistic protection when compared to armored vehicles that do not use this design. The entire vehicle contains less than 20 to 25 pieces of ballistic steel in total, with blast protective steel floor as standard. Buyers of armored vehicles should always check whether the vehicles they intend to purchase contains similar designs and be cautious not to confuse blast and ballistic protection.