A systems approach to personal armour design

An objective of the attacker is fulfilled by killing or injuring a victim. Their vulnerability assessment is characterised by the probability of incapacitation. This is the chance of a victim being, for instance, killed or seriously injured. The attacker wants to maximise P.  

Survival of the victim is an objective of the defender. This is the chance of the target not being killed or injured. The defender wants to minimise P. Survivability assessment is therefore characterised by maximising the probability of survival, 

In order to assess the protection afforded by armour, the following five-stage model has been proposed (Couldrick, 2004) and is illustrated in Fig. 9.3. 

Stage 1 - Occurrence Estimate the probability of each threat scenario occurring (for example, the chances of being shot at by a sniper using rifle bullets unified with the likelihood of fiagmenlationftom an explosion, while walking in a patrol). 

Stage 2 - Incidence Estimate the probability of being hit, by each threat on each part of the body. For example, the sniper will most likely be aiming for the target s head and torso, while the chances of being hit by a fragmenting munition are more dependent on the exposure of each body part. 

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