Steel vs Ceramic Body Armor

When it comes to body armor materials, you've got more choices than ever. Two of the best hard body armor options are steel and ceramic armor. Both have low backface deformation and are less expensive than polyethylene, which makes both of these exceptional options for rifle-rated protection. You may then ask:

• What’s better, steel or ceramic body armor?
• How do you know which body armor material is right for you? 
• What's the difference between the two plates? 

In this article, we’ll compare steel vs ceramic plates in the following categories:

• Protection & Capability
• Durability
• Comfort & Mobility
• Price
• Pros & Cons

Steel Alloy Armor

Steel alloy body armor plates are made from high-carbon metal alloys.

Protection & Capability

AR500 and AR550 steel is a perfect balance of high carbon steel and thickness. This balance creates a hard enough strike face (side of the plate that should face outward (away from the body) and the direction it is designed to get hit by the projectile) to break apart a high-velocity rifle projectile while being flexible enough to withstand the kinetic forces of a bullet. This creates a true multi-hit armor plate where the plate can often stop projectiles well past its fragmentation coating and the plate carriers' capability to hold the plate secure. 

Due to this flexibility balance, level III is the highest threat level AR500 steel can achieve through current NIJ 0101.06 standards, which are: 6x rounds of 7.62x51mm M80 Ball at 2,780 feet per second (FPS) at 51’ from the target. 

Because this standard does not quite cover all modern rifle threats, the steel found in most level III+ armor (including our A1 and A2 Plates) is AR550, which is capable of defeating all 5.56x45mm and various special threat type ammo. Some level III+ plates deviate from just a monolithic steel plate and instead use a combination of armor materials, such as with our A3 plate. The A3 plate effectively achieves III+ threat-stopping capabilities by combining a thin hardened steel strike face with a UHMWPE backer. 

Level 3 Will Stop:

• 7.62x51mm M80 Ball at 2,780 feet per second (FPS)
• 5.56x45mm M855/SS109 (Green Tip) at a velocity of 2,780 FPS

Level 3+ Will Stop:

• 7.62x51mm M80 Ball (and all .308 commercial loadings) at 3,000 feet per second (FPS)
• All 5.56x44mm (M855/SS109, M193, and all .223 commercial loadings) at 3,100 feet per second (FPS)

In addition to being multiple hit-rated, steel also claims edge-to-edge protection. Most people don’t realize the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) standards allow your armor to perform within a particular edge shot zone. That means your 10” x 12” ballistic plate, which you expected to give 120 square inches of protection, may only give you about 80 square inches of ballistic protection. With steel armor, you get the benefit of ballistic protection on the whole surface area.

The most common complaint you’ll hear about all steel armor is the risk of fragmentation. Bullet fragmentation, or frag, is the explosion of metal that occurs when the bullet strikes the steel plate and breaks up into pieces. With a bare steel plate, that could be a bad day for the wearer. 

Make no mistake, fragmentation from steel is a serious issue. Thankfully it’s one we have addressed with an equally serious response through a polyurea fragmentation absorbing coating called FragLock. 

Other steel armor companies provide inferior fragmentation coatings such as truck bed liners or worse, no fragmentation coating at all, and this can give people a broad spectrum opinion that all steel plates are bad. 

Likewise, even highly effective coatings like our Fraglock can be shot off after a high number of plate strikes and the results that follow will be akin to bare steel. These “tests” do not highlight the reality of a gunfight which is: you will probably be taking 2-3 rounds max before you are on the ground for that fight due to kinetic energy transfer. This round count is well within our fragmentation-stopping coating’s capability to keep you safe. For more information on fragmentation and our Fraglock coating check out this video: 

Durability

Materials like AR500 and AR550 are highly abrasion-resistant and able to withstand substantial impact. As we mentioned previously, these plates are multi-hit rated. AR500 steel is often used for industrial purposes such as on armored vehicles and dump truck beds due to its strength.  

How long does steel body armor last? Steel plates have a 20-year shelf life, compared to the five-year shelf life of most ballistic plates. You don’t have to worry about steel armor going bad and most people will not need to replace their steel plates more than once in their lifetime. That's just one area where steel has a clear advantage over ceramic, which we'll cover more on below.

Comfort & Mobility

There’s no getting around the fact that steel is hard and heavy. We have seen a trend of the misconception that ceramic is always lighter than steel. The reality is depending on the size, cut, protection level, and thickness, steel, and ceramic can actually be pretty even in weight. 

If weight is the primary concern with your armor selection, chances are both steel and ceramic will not be the best option. You may want to check out our Polyethylene page which details the pros and cons of this plate. One pro is that it offers one of the lightest options in rifle-rated protection.

Price

Steel’s affordability has made it an increasingly popular material for body armor. Steel armor gives you a high ballistic rating, multi-hit capability, edge-to-edge protection, extreme durability, and long shelf-life. With steel, you get all these features and could pay roughly $75 to $125 less per plate than ceramic. 

But don’t rule ceramic out just yet. Here’s a recap of the pros and cons of steel armor. Then we’ll take a closer look at ceramic plates.

Pros and Cons of Steel Alloy Body Armor

Pros

• Extreme durability
• Multi-hit capability and edge-to-edge protection
• Affordability

Cons

• Heaviness
• Risk of fragmentation

Ceramic Armor

The benefits of steel armor were pretty impressive. But there are plenty of fans of ceramic and for good reasons. Is ceramic armor better than steel? Let's take a look at what it has to offer, as well as some drawbacks.

Protection and Capability

Your primary benefit with Level 4 ceramic plates is that they stop most armor-piercing rounds. The NIJ 0101.06 standard for a plate to achieve Level IV protection is to be able to stop one 30-06 M2 AP round. This round was established as a standard because it was one of the most powerful small arms cartridges in the U.S. military's inventory - that if stopped, could still be considered survivable. 

Ceramic works differently than steel's combination of flex and hardness to stop a projectile. Ceramic, instead, provides a surface hardness that is close to that of a diamond. This hardness means the cellular structure of the ceramic is quite brittle in nature. This is why ceramic is excellent at stopping a single powerful threat but is not very good at defeating multiple hits and is susceptible to rough handling. 

Make no mistake, most ceramic can function for multiple hits, there is just simply no guarantee on how many hits. That said, in keeping with the realism highlighted above, the ceramic plates we have tested will stop the 2-3 round count mentioned above before you are realistically “on the ground” from kinetic energy displacement. 

Can ceramic armor take multiple hits? Ceramic is not multi-hit rated. When we say this, we are not saying that every ceramic plate out there is useless after being struck by one round. You may see ceramic armor test videos online where the ceramic plate appears to hold up quite well to multiple hits. Most ceramic armor is single-hit rated, however, manufacturers who produce multi-hit level IV plates typically do so with the discretion that the hits are spaced at a minimum of a few inches apart. 

Manufacturers do not construct ceramic armor with the primary goal of defeating multiple rounds. Per NIJ standards, they must pass the test of defeating one round of the test ammunition. It is certainly possible to outperform that, but it's best not to expect it. 

With its monolithic strike face, one round will drastically lower the ceramic's reliability. When a ceramic strike face dissipates a bullet’s impact, the ceramic cracks as it slows the bullet down. Depending on the threat, this can affect an area of several inches. So, ceramic is particularly vulnerable when bullets strike in a tight group.

The NIJ standards allow the outer edge of your armor not to be a ballistically-rated zone. We've talked about this being a factor for polyethylene armor. It’s also a factor for ceramic armor. Steel has an advantage here for its edge-to-edge protection.

What about fragmentation? Another common misconception we see frequently is that ceramic armor does not Fragment or Spall. This statement is completely fictitious. Ceramic armor is not only susceptible to fragmentation like steel, but it (unlike steel) is also susceptible to spalling. 

Due to the surface hardness of ceramic, all projectiles are immediately shattered upon impact, similar to steel. However, because the ceramic is brittle, when it is hit, it will break apart into itself, causing a slight deceleration of the projectile before fragmenting it outward. This means although fragmentation is certainly present, due to its slight deceleration, most of it will not make it out of the plate carrier's fabric material. Despite this, potentially life-threatening injuries from fragmentation while using ceramic is certainly something to be advised of.

Next is the Spall hazard. Spalling is when a piece of the armor plate (front or back) breaks off and becomes a projectile itself. Again this is not something that happens to steel due to its flexibility. Most spalling from ceramic comes off its back side. Because of this, all standalone type Level IV ceramic armor inserts have to have some type of soft armor or fiber backer. This backer catches any spalling that would break off the body side of the monolithic strike face and become a projectile into the wearer. This is the primary reason for the five-year shelf life of ceramic, as once this backer expires, spalling penetration becomes a real issue with continued use. 

Durability

The most well-known weakness of ceramic armor is its brittle composition. That's due to the nature of its manufacturing method. Unlike steel, you can't expect your ceramic plate to endure much punishment. Ceramic is susceptible to hairline cracks from tossing it in your trunk, falling on a rock, or dropping it to the ground. You may not even realize the cracks are there without x-raying your plate. Steel armor tends to be more durable than ceramic. 

How long does ceramic body armor last? Ceramic body armor, like PE and soft armor, has a five-year shelf life. Again, this is due to the composite or fiber backer that will protect you from spalling.

Comfort and Mobility

Some may find the thickness of ceramic armor just right. It’s thinner than polyethylene but thicker than steel. You may find that compared to steel, the thickness of ceramic limits your mobility. 

A ceramic plate can save or cost you one to two pounds per plate compared to a steel plate. This can ultimately depend on the size, cut, threat level, material, and manufacture of the armor plates compared. The weight difference between ceramic and steel is usually not enough to sway one way or the other unless things like protection level, armor durability, shelf life, and cost are all taken into consideration. 

You may want to ask yourself a few questions:

• How active do I plan on being while wearing my ballistic plates?
• Will I be traveling in vehicles or going through confined doorways or staircases in armor? (thinner plates work better for this application) 
• Is the ability to stop 30-06M2 AP (7.62x63mm) vs .7.62x51mm AP worth the cost difference? Ceramic armor has to be replaced every 5 years compared to steel’s 20 (more on this below)
• Can I guarantee between now and the next time I'll need my armor to protect me that I can keep my ceramic in “pristine like” condition AND still be able to train in it? 

Price

Prices vary from manufacturer to manufacturer and fluctuate over time. For example, at the time of writing this (prices are always subject to change) our C2 Multi-Hit Ceramic Level IV plate is $299 per plate. Our A2 plate for comparison is $189 with our Fraglock Build-Up coating.

Although this may seem like only a $110 price difference per plate, the reality is the ceramic plate has to be multiplied for a true 20-year shelf life comparison. 

What do you get for that higher price tag? An increase in threat-stopping capabilities from 7.62x51mm AP rounds up to 7.62x63mm (30-06) AP rounds. 

What do you lose in comparison to steel? Aside from overall cost; durability, edge-to-edge protection, multi-hit capabilities, and a longer shelf-life.

Pros and Cons of Ceramic Body Armor

Pros

• Lighter than some steel
• Higher threat level rating

Cons

• Brittle composition
• Not multi-hit capability
• Inconsistent edge protection

Conclusion

So, are ceramic or steel plates better? Steel is a smart choice for people who are preparing logically for the current threats we actively face in the U.S. Here is a list of considerations to go through if you think steel may or may not be a good option for your usage:

1. Most armed encounters in the U.S. consist primarily of handguns, both for offensive and defensive use. 
2. Armed encounters in the U.S. where rifles are used, do not consist of armor-piercing rifle rounds as these rounds are restricted for sale (M855 is NOT an armor-piercing round).
3. The rifle calibers that are used are almost exclusively:

   • 5.56x45mm (AR-15) 

   • 7.62x39mm (AK-47)  

   • 7.62x51 (AR-10/ FAL / G3) 

4. Most citizens are in charge of their finances, want to keep costs to a minimum, and do not have an agency issuing them replacement body armor once expired. 
5. Most citizens do not want to be gentle with their armor and armor storage methods. This is especially not possible when training for accurate and realistic self-defense situations.   

If numbers 1-5 make sense to you, steel armor may be all you need. 

Ceramic may be what you need if you are: 

1. Traveling to or anticipating being in an environment where explosives are present
2. Traveling to or anticipating being in an environment where large-caliber armor-piercing rounds are accessible to the opposition forces.
3. Do not have cost or shelf life restraints on armor
   
   

Lastly, if there is one overarching takeaway we hope to dispel with this article it is thus: If you do not think steel armor is for you because of Fragmentation or Weight when compared to ceramic, you simply have not been informed accurately on the most up-to-date testing and technology we provide at Armored Republic. We hope this article has helped provide better insight into the steel vs ceramic topic.