Why it matters: Lightweight handgun-rated armor plates are sold widely to civilians, and many carry a "IIIA+" label that no NIJ standard defines. A new range video puts one of them, from a Taiwanese maker the host says is entering the US market, in front of 9mm and 5.7x28 rounds.
The YouTube channel Lilly Tactical published a body armor test on October 5 built around a handgun-rated plate from XSPEED. The video's title is half English and half Japanese; the Japanese half asks whether the plate will protect her. The host says viewers had been asking what plate she runs in her plate carrier, and that XSPEED sent the plates for her to test in the field and at the range. She describes XSPEED as a Taiwan company expanding into the US, Europe and Japan.
XSPEED IIIA+ plate specs: weight, thickness and rating
Before any shooting, she walks through the specifications. The plate weighs 820 grams, under two pounds, is 22 millimeters thick and has a slight curve that she says fits the body well. XSPEED's own product listing matches those figures: a curved 240-by-320-millimeter plate made of ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene at 820 grams, with a multi-curved version listed at 1,000 grams. She says she wore the plates for two days at an airsoft event in the desert, in heat near 100 degrees, and found them comfortable for hours at a time.
Under the cover, she says, XSPEED uses what she calls "super cushion technology," an energy-absorbing layer meant to reduce back face deformation. That is the dent the back of a plate pushes toward the wearer when it stops a bullet, and she notes it can be enough to break a rib. The plate's product page does not describe a cushion layer; the company's site lists a 3D lattice cushioning pad as a separate product.
She also sets out the plate's limits. She calls it "a handgun armor system" and says it is not designed to stop rifle rounds such as 5.56. XSPEED's listing reports tests at Element U.S. Space & Defense against 9mm 124-grain FMJ, .44 Magnum 240-grain SJHP, 5.7x28mm SS197SR 40-grain and 7.62x25mm Tokarev FMJ, with no penetrations. It gives average back face deformation of 23.1 millimeters for the .44 Magnum and 17.16 millimeters for the 5.7x28. The listing labels the plate "NIJ HG2 IIIA+" and does not mention NIJ's Compliant Products List.
Range test with 9mm FMJ, hollow points and 5.7x28
The range segment was shot outdoors in the mountains. She lists four guns for the day: a Glock 19, a Sig Sauer P365, a .40-caliber Glock and an FN PS90 chambered in 5.7x28. The .40 did not fire; she says it had sat in a friend's closet for a long time, and it drops out of the test.
The first shot was 9mm full metal jacket. The plate stopped it, and she says she could feel "a tiny bump" on the back, which she called "minimal back face deformation." The second was a 9mm hollow point placed lower on the plate. It was also stopped; she says the dent looked slightly larger than the first, estimating it at no more than a centimeter. A third shot, another hollow point from the Glock 19, stopped with what she described as a slight dent.
“The deformation figures in the video are the host's estimates by sight and feel; a lab measures the same dent in clay.”
Avery Lindqvist, The ReticleThe fourth was a 40-grain 5.7x28 load, which she called the strongest round on hand. She points to a small hole in the strike face that did not go through, and estimates the dent on the back at under a centimeter. She adds that it may have merged with the dent from a nearby hollow point hit.
Rapid-fire string and back face deformation estimates
She then switched to what she calls "FRT mode" and fired a rapid string at the plate, later saying she had "dumped half a mag." By her count, two or three rounds missed. Taking the plate out of its cover, she points to cracking on the face and near the top edge, and to a spot low on the plate, where most of the string landed, that left a dent protruding from the back. She says none of the rounds went through.
The deformation figures in the video are the host's estimates by sight and feel rather than measurements. Lab testing under NIJ protocols measures back face deformation as the depth of the dent in clay backing material placed behind the armor.
She closes by saying that for a "lightweight, comfortable plate for everyday handgun protection and training," the plate "delivers exactly what it promises," and thanks XSPEED for "supporting my channel and sending out these amazing armors." The video description directs viewers to product links in the comments. XSPEED's Taiwanese listing prices a pair at NT$12,000 to NT$18,600 depending on configuration; the video does not give a US price.
For context
- NIJ Standard 0101.07 renamed the handgun armor levels, with HG2 replacing the old Level IIIA; plus-sign labels such as IIIA+ are manufacturer designations, not NIJ ratings.
- Handgun-rated armor is not built to stop rifle rounds such as 5.56 NATO, which call for rifle-rated plates.
- Commercial 5.7x28 ammunition sold in the US, including the 40-grain SS197SR load XSPEED lists, is a different cartridge loading from FN's military SS190 armor-piercing round.
- XSPEED is the brand of Hong Yi Law Enforcement Equipment Co., a Taiwanese police-gear supplier that says it has operated since 1999.
