M97 Ballistic Armor

[Ga Shooter]

I have been looking at BAE Eclipse RBAV-SF body armor. It has a choice of level NIJ IIIA or M97Ballistic insert. I am familiar with IIIA but know nothing about M97 and have not been able to find out anything really.DocGKR have you heard of this or know what it is or which is better?

Thanks

[Ga Shooter]

Bump hoping for answer

[deadlyfire]

M97 ballistic armor is currently only for SOCOM members.

and I quote "M97 is restricted to SOCOM only per BAE's guidelines."

[Apricotshot]

It may be just rated for explosive fragments and not ballistic threats such as bullets. Similar to how the old interceptor armor was.

[deadlyfire]

From word of mouth,:jester:, I've heard it's notably lighter than standard IIIA vests, other than that it's a mystery.
I looked at the solicitation by the government for 200 sets of M97 armor and it's the only one that passed SOCOM specifications and testing for soft armor. With that said I'm going to assume it's rated for ballistic and fragment threats.