On 30 November, the National Institute of Justice, a regulatory agency of the federal government that oversees body armor (as an industry), released NIJ Standard 0101.07 for body armor and NIJ Standard 0123.00. This is an update (that had been in work since 2020) to the previous regulation, which had reigned since 2008.

The new NIJ Standard 0123.00 itself establishes a new NIJ rating scale for handgun (HG) and rifle (RF), to be used going forward and replaces the Level II – Level IV rating scale. The NIJ states this move reflects “the evolving threats faced by U.S. law enforcement, including a wider range of rifle threats in addition to the 7.62x51mm M80. These include 5.56mm M193, 5.56mm M855, and 7.62x39mm mild steel core (MSC)”. Additionally, it reorganizes the rating scale to put HG rated armor apart from that of RF, whereas the previous IIIA rating was a pistol-rated armor and III was a rifle-rated armor.

Included in NIJ Standard 0123.00 are two tables that identify the factory velocities for each rating level and includes:

Of note, one passage in NIJ Standard 0123.00 also states “NIJ anticipates that future revisions of its performance standards for ballistic-resistant helmets and shields will also reference this document”. This could possibly indicate the NIJ is about to begin re-certification of ballistic helmets and shields as it had previously stopped doing so citing inability to attain consistent data along curved surfaces. So it is possible the NIJ has also found a way to overcome that testing challenge.

So Where Does That Leave Me?

As noted in our previous post about the NIJ and its testing system, this new NIJ rating scale keeps the same testing process and is mostly unchanged for those with armor (mainly soft) using the previous handgun rating scale. The largest change however will be for those with Level IV or those with non-NIJ certified “+” special threat plates. Those threat profiles will be merged and placed within the RF1 and RF2 rating, and RF3 remains reserved for plates that still meet the previous requirement of stopping a single round of 30-06. So it is likely that while you previously had a Level IV ballistic plate, that plate now falls within the RF1, RF2, or RF3 range depending on its ability to stop a variety of specific calibers (like M80 Ball or M193) and MSC ammunition. It is possible that while a previous Level IV plate was tested and certified to stop 30-06, because it wasn’t rated for MSC projectiles it could be found the plate falls into a lower RF rating. So your ballistic plate doesn’t have any less ability to protect you, it would just fall into a more nuanced rating level now, and something to be aware of.