Shoulder Armor: Coverage and Purpose
Modern torso armor plates are designed primarily to protect the vital organs, such as the heart and major blood vessels, from direct frontal gunshot wounds. When sized and fitted properly, these plates cover the critical anatomical targets that could lead to rapid fatality if compromised.
The effectiveness of proper plate coverage has been studied extensively over the past several decades. Research efforts at institutions like the UK’s Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, led by Dr. Johno Breeze and colleagues, have refined how we determine the ideal fit, coverage area, and protective capacity of these vital plates.
This focus on the torso’s frontal area makes sense, as most ballistic threats are conceptualized as coming from the front. A well-fit plate provides substantial coverage of the central “black” zone in the image below – representing the heart and major vessels – and extends over much of the red and orange zones.
The trouble is that gunshot wounds don’t always enter directly from the front. Real-world engagements rarely follow a neat frontal pattern.
An Iraq-era USMC report found that nearly 42% of lethal wounds occurred outside the traditional plate coverage areas, particularly along the shoulders, upper arms, and sides.
Simply put, infantrymen are often exposed to shots from oblique angles which can penetrate even a plate-covered torso and punch through the most vulnerable areas of the torso. And of all parts of the body, the shoulder was the region most likely to be hit by small-arms fire.
Percent of Injuries By Location & Mechanism
|
Body Region |
Explosion (%) |
Small Arms (%) |
Total (%) |
|
Upper Arm/Shoulder |
5.9% |
21.1% |
15.4% |
|
Superior to Plate |
23.5% |
15.8% |
18.7% |
|
Inferior to Plate |
8.8% |
7.0% |
7.7% |
|
Lateral to Plate |
11.8% |
19.3% |
16.5% |
|
Mid-axial Plate |
26.5% |
19.3% |
22.0% |
|
Plated Area |
8.8% |
3.5% |
5.5% |
|
Totals |
85.3% |
86.0% |
85.7% |
Many of these hits resulted in fatalities, for what happens when a high-velocity projectile hits your shoulder from the side is typically that it’ll continue into your chest cavity, injuring the heart, aorta, or other vital structures. Correspondingly, bullet entries through the shoulder (deltoid and shoulder) were number two for small-arms fire fatalities.
Lethal Injuries by site and Mechanism:
|
Body Region |
Explosion |
Small Arms |
Other |
Total |
|
Deltoid Plate (Upper Arm) |
1 |
10 |
0 |
11 |
|
Shoulder Plate (Shoulder plate) |
1 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
|
Superior to Plate (Above plate) |
1 |
5 |
0 |
6 |
|
Plate Edge |
|
|
|
|
|
Superior to Plate |
7 |
4 |
0 |
11 |
|
Inferior to Plate (Under plate) |
1 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
|
Plate Edge |
2 |
4 |
0 |
6 |
|
Lateral to Plate (Next to Plate) |
0 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
|
Plate Edge |
0 |
10 |
4 |
14 |
|
Mid-axial Plate (Side plate) |
9 |
11 |
1 |
21 |
|
Behind Plated Area |
3 |
2 |
0 |
5 |
|
Extensive Injuries (Not categorizable) |
5 |
8 |
1 |
14 |
|
Totals |
34 |
57 |
2 |
93 |
(Both tables from: Armed Forces Institute of Pathology. (2005). Marine lethal torso injuries: Preliminary findings (Technical Report No. ADA442169). U.S. Department of Defense. Marine Corps Systems Command, Quantico, VA. Approved for public release; distribution unlimited. https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/citations/ADA442169”)
It’s not just a military or wartime problem. Between 2005 and 2022, 152 US police officers received fatal torso wounds despite wearing soft body armor. Bullets that penetrated from the side, through the armor’s armhole/shoulder area, were consistently the most common cause of these fatalities.
There are two illustrative tables from the FBI’s LEOKA data set:
This shows that it’s not only rifle rounds that can penetrate through the shoulder or arm and into the chest cavity. Many handgun rounds will do the same. And now consider that police officers are often attacked via ambush, when seated in vehicles. This, we believe, supports the notion that shoulder armor isn’t only for soldiers and SWAT officers – if it gets lighter, thinner, or just more comfortable to wear, it’ll be just common sense to wear it together with body armor.
Granted, it historically hasn’t been very light, thin, or comfortable to wear. We’re working on rectifying this. The NovaSteel Shoulder Armor plates are ideal for security operatives, and are thin and form-fitting enough to be (at least somewhat) concealable under outerwear. Forthcoming Adept shoulder rifle plates will be light – and designed in such a way so as to not unduly increase a soldier’s thermal load.
We firmly believe, in light of the existing evidence, that shoulder armor serves a critical function in covering areas exposed to injuries which might be immediately fatal. In mitigating the risk of injuries that occur when attacks don’t come from a direct frontal angle, and in offering protection from lateral or elevated angles, we think that there’s a very strong case to be made in support of shoulder armor for police, military, and security personnel.
