Abstract
Overmatching occurs when body armour that has been designed to resist perforation by a specified projectile is perforated by a greater threat. This may result in wounding to the body armour wearer. In this work, overmatching of two types of police body armour was studied using two types of ammunition. The use of a 250-mm-long gelatine block to represent the depth of the human torso combined with armour panels mounted on the anterior and posterior of the block allowed for a more realistic simulation to be completed. There was some evidence to suggest that overmatching events could lead to increased levels of damage during a survivable incident compared with no body armour being present. This information is of interest to armour designers and medical personnel that might treat such wounds.
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GELITA® AG, UferstraBe 7, D-69412, Eberbach, Germany; Bloom strength 263
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Acknowledgments
The financial support of EPSRC and provision of ammunition, body armour and gelatine by Mr. C. Malbon of The Home Office Centre for Applied Science and Technology are recognised. The authors acknowledge the assistance of Mr. Miller and Mr. Teagle from the Impact and Armour Group, Cranfield University, with the ballistic testing reported in this paper. Comments on this manuscript were provided by Professor P.F. Mahoney.
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Mabbott, A., Carr, D.J. Effects of police body armour on overmatching ballistic injury. Int J Legal Med 134, 583–590 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-019-02070-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00414-019-02070-9