Editing Bulletproof vest (section)

===Recent years===
[[File:Modular Tactical Vest Okinawa.jpg|thumb|upright=1.3|US Marines being issued the [[Modular Tactical Vest|MTV]] at [[Camp Foster]], [[Okinawa Prefecture|Okinawa]], Japan]]
During the 1980s, the US military issued the [[PASGT]] kevlar vest, tested privately at NIJ level IIA by several sources, able to stop pistol rounds (including 9&nbsp;mm FMJ), but intended and approved only for fragmentation.  [[West Germany]] issued a similar rated vest called the Splitterschutzweste.{{Citation needed|date=January 2012}}

During the early 1980s, body armor vests began to see widespread use by several countries in addition to more prolific users like the US and UK. Following the 1982 Israeli intervention during the [[Lebanese Civil War]], body armor was widely issued to Israeli troops as well as European peacekeepers and to a lesser degree, by Syrian troops. During the Soviet-Afghan war the obsolete 6b1 was rapidly replaced by the 6b2, which was issued from 1980 onward and by 1983 was issued to the vast majority of the 40th army.

Kevlar soft armor had its shortcomings because if "large fragments or high velocity bullets hit the vest, the energy could cause life-threatening, blunt trauma injuries" <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://onlinesafetydepot.com/kevlar-and-behind-armor-blunt-trama-babt/|title=Kevlar and Behind Armor Blunt Trauma (BABT)|date=11 January 2023 }}</ref> in selected, vital areas. [[Ranger Body Armor]] was developed for the American military in 1991. Although it was the second modern US body armor that was able to stop rifle caliber rounds and still be light enough to be worn by infantry soldiers in the field, (first being the ISAPO, or Interim Small Arms Protective Overvest,) it still had its flaws: "it was still heavier than the concurrently issued PASGT (Personal Armor System for Ground Troops) anti-fragmentation armor worn by regular infantry and ... did not have the same degree of ballistic protection around the neck and shoulders." {{Citation needed|date=March 2014}} The format of Ranger Body Armor (and more recent body armor issued to US special operations units) highlights the trade-offs between force protection and mobility that modern body armor forces organizations to address.

[[File:BelgianMalinoisasK9unit.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Bulletproof vest with [[Belgian Malinois]] as [[Police dog|K-9 unit]]]]
Newer armor issued by the [[United States armed forces]] to large numbers of troops includes the [[United States Army]]'s [[Improved Outer Tactical Vest]] and the [[United States Marine Corps]] [[Modular Tactical Vest]]. All of these systems are designed with the vest intended to provide protection from fragments and pistol rounds. Hard ceramic plates, such as the [[Small Arms Protective Insert]], as used with Interceptor Body Armor, are worn to protect the vital organs from higher level threats. These threats mostly take the form of high velocity and armor-piercing rifle rounds. Similar types of protective equipment have been adopted by modern armed forces over the world.

[[File:Indonesian BRIMOB police officers.jpg|thumb|upright|Indonesian Special Police "[[Mobile Brigade (Indonesia)|Brimob]]" personnel and an officer (left) with bulletproof vests in [[Jakarta]] during the [[2016 Jakarta attacks]]]]
Since the 1970s, several new fibers and construction methods for bulletproof fabric have been developed besides woven Kevlar, such as [[DSM (company)|DSM]]'s [[Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene|Dyneema]], [[Honeywell]]'s [[Gold Flex]] and [[Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene|Spectra]], [[Teijin Aramid|Teijin Aramid's]] [[Twaron]], Pinnacle Armor's [[Dragon Skin (body armor)|Dragon Skin]], and Toyobo's [[Zylon]]. The US military has developed body armor for the [[Dogs in warfare|working dog]]s who aid soldiers in battle.<ref name=DoD20050225>{{cite news|url=http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=25801|title=Canine Units in Afghanistan Issued New Protective Vests|agency=[[American Forces Press Service]]|work=DefenseLINK|first=Cheryl|last=Ransford|date=2005-02-25|access-date=2008-01-25|quote=Army Sgt. 1st Class Erika Gordon, kennel master for the 25th Military Police Company, uses a building for cover while her military working dog, Hanna, clears a doorway at the military-operations-in-urban-terrain training site at Bagram Air Base, Afghanistan recently. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080113185834/http://www.defenselink.mil/news/newsarticle.aspx?id=25801|archive-date=13 January 2008|url-status=live}}</ref>