Description
Ballistic Mandible – NovaSteel™
The NovaSteel Ballistic Mandible offers affordable and effective face protection from ballistic threats. Without optical distortion or excessive field-of-view restriction.
The advent of truly effective body armor has resulted in new patterns of wounding. Torso injuries are down 13% since Vietnam. Face and neck injuries are up 30%.
If you’re wearing the modern panoply of armor plates and helmet, your face has just become the most vulnerable area of your body. By some accounts, it is hit 730% more frequently than its surface area would indicate.
Injury simulations clearly illustrate the vulnerability of the face to ballistic impact, even at low velocities.
Personal Vulnerability Simulation being used to compare the predicted damage of structures in the thorax. Using a 8 mm sphere at 400 m/s (left) and the 12 mm sphere at 800 m/s (right). Severity increases from 1 (minor) to 6 (maximal).
[From Breeze, John & Lewis, Eluned & Fryer, Robert. (2016). Optimising the Anatomical Coverage Provided by Military Body Armour Systems. 10.1007/978-3-319-21867-0_28.]
The NovaSteel™ Ballistic Mandible was created with this problem in mind.
Offers enhanced protection from ballistic threats — covering the face, the side of the head, and a portion of the anterior neck.
Protection from blunt impact, blast overpressure, and debris.
Mounts rapidly and securely to the helmet via the four retention system holes on the shell. Is fully compatible with most ballistic glasses and goggles.
Fits closely around the face, so field of vision is not constrained. Aiming down sights is still possible in most instances, and using standard optics is easy.
Is significantly lighter and tougher than transparent ballistic visors. With none of the fogging and optical distortion (fishbowl effect) that those visors are infamous for, and none of their ability to pick up scratches.
Simply put, the NovaSteel™ Ballistic Mandible module offers practical, no-nonsense ballistic face protection.
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Ballistic Mandible – Combat Helmet Accessory
Add-on armor designed to upgrade the area of coverage of the NovaSteel ballistic helmet, so that it can offer facial protection from high-velocity fragment, blunt impact, and pistol-caliber threats.
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ACH & ACH-Gen II Helmet Specification
The ballistic protection that the NovaSteel Ballistic Mandible offers exceeds the criteria set out in the ACH and ACH Gen II helmet specifications, though the specifications do not include any provision for ballistic mandibles. Blunt impact and backface deformation limits are also well within spec. The Mandible will stop 9mm FMJ at 1450 fps as well as similar/lesser threats and certain special handgun threats. No ballistic mandible offers a higher ballistic protective rating; most are rated to 9mm FMJ at a reduced velocity.
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VPAM-3 Helmet Specification
Though VPAM has no test protocol for ballistic mandibles, the NovaSteel Ballistic Mandible is in broad compliance with the stringent VPAM helmet test protocol. BFD is always within spec — and in many cases there is none at all, due to a large standoff between the mandible and its wearer’s face. It is capable of stopping edge shots, even to within 0.78″ of the rim. Lastly, it is capable of withstanding high temperature conditioning, to 168°F and perhaps beyond.
