Well, well. Just a few days back, a Marine report came to light blaming some troops' deaths on the lack of plates in their body armor -- particularly side plates that protect the warfighters' flanks.

The Plate Specs: Light, Lean, and Level IIIA. The West Coast Armor Level IIIA plate weighs in at a featherweight 1.3 pounds. Yes, you read that right.

The Marine Corps is planning to field lighter and better fitting plate carriers and body armor, ... small long, and a 6-by-6 inch side-plate," Hamby told Marine Corps Times.

After years in the making, the Marine Corps has finally started fielding the next-generation Plate Carrier Generation III body armor to lighten the load for grunts in the field ...

PENTAGON (June 14, 2010) -- The Army recently issued a message for all troops and units to inspect their body armor, specifically the Enhanced Small Arms Protective Inserts, or ESAPI, in search of ...

Nov. 24, 2012— -- Thousands of body armor plates worn by U.S. Special Operations troops are being recalled after it was discovered that a small percentage of the plates have safety defects.

The Army's Research Laboratory reduced the weight of a size medium Enhanced Small Arms Protective Insert plate from 5.45 pounds to 4.9 pounds as part of the Advanced Body Armor Project.

Body armor is something Golden-based CoorsTek knows well. It has produced ceramic plates used to protect soldiers from bullets and shrapnel since the 1960s.

A bullet is a metal mass at velocity, designed to tear a hole in a person. Bulletproof armor, from early metal plate to kevlar to more advanced concepts, works by dispersing that energy as quickly ...