Improved Ballistic Test and Evaluation Methodology

Ballistic test and evaluation of body armor is of great priority for the US Army to meet current operational needs. The current experimental design process centers on standardized threat level classifications and a baseline ballistic limit velocity, V50; both measures originate from the National Institute of Justice circa 1979. The measures are complex, statistical in nature, and yield large quantities of data. A methodology incorporating response surface techniques improves ballistic test and evaluation from a pass fail analysis of data to iterative, directional experiments with design intelligence. Without this mathematical direction, it is extremely difficult to analyze the multitude of factors and their interaction effects in order to attain product improvement. We provide a ballistic experimental design example to demonstrate the usefulness of this methodology and identify the potential for its application in future armor developments.