Mechanical engineers at Brigham Young University created a man-portable and lightweight bulletproof shield that was inspired by origami. The shield is flat when stowed, but quickly folds up to an encompasing shield made of 12 layers of Kevlar fabric.
In testing the barrier was capable of stopping loads upwards of .44 Magnum, making it roughly equivalent to Level IIIA body armor in protective capability.
While there’s likely still some development to undergo before this becomes a fully-realized product, it shows great promise, especially if the positive response from the Law Enforcement agents testing the device is anything to go by.
Tags: Brigham Young University
Guess those deployable shields in Rainbow 6 will be reality soon.
It will be interesting to see how this new product develops.
It reminds me of the Baker Bat Shield.
They’re working on one that folds down to the size of a wallet to be easily carried…
My TL is looking for something like this when we go busting doors. Are SOP is to knock, then listen for a bit. Then do a dynamic entry once we get the squeezes. My TL wants to set this up after we make entry. He’s been doing CQB since ’91 when he got back from Desert Storm.
Horshack, set it up after you make entry?? Are you carrying this thing in like a shield? Or setting it up behind you at the breach point to cover your six? Typically on an entry we have the first 10 guys in carry shields. And most of them run them with M4’s, which I don’t recommend unless you can get to the range almost once a month like we do. Some of the guys even run level III rifle shields, but these dudes are freaks in the gym.
We are going to make one out of cardboard and practice with it next time we have training which is in April. I like your idea of setting it up behind us in the stack for cover. My ATL saw a perp jump in the stack one time so this might be good for that! Are number 1 guy gets the AR crashing the door so are number 2 would set this up asap.
THe number 3 guy carries a pistol with a light on it. After we make the dynamic entry, the number 1 and number 3 switch so everyone gets a fresh door. GoldOper8tor, do you think that we can set up after we knock inside and at the fatal funnel?
Honestly Horshack, I don’t know you or your team, but from the sounds of it we are not anywhere near the same level, so I’m not sure what I would or wouldn’t recommend for you guys. However one good idea I may have thought of for teams with lower budgets, and or lacking APC’s would be to figure out a way to affix a few of these to whatever vehicle you use to get you on target. I could see us T&Eing a few to use with our helos, but like I said, different levels.
That’s a great idea GoldOper8tor! We’d probably need 6 of these. Four fro the car, and 2 for the fatal funnel. We use my TL’s car usually for doing ops, he’s got a “98 Camery that works perfect for low vis. Usually our ATL rides up front with a long gun pulling cover. The back doors have those child locks and their broken so the TL and ATL have to let us out of the back. THese would be great cover for that.
Gecko45?
Hey bro, not sure what Gecko45 is. Would it be something that me and my team can crash doors with? My TL and ATL would be cool to hear about it.
So much winning 🙂
My Monday has been complete shit… these comments totally improved my mood… 🙂
Haven’t laughed this hard in a while, thanks dudes.
Sacrificing actual PROTECTION because some LE guys want to play “let’s breach” and don’t know how to work their lats to lift a real target that actually PROTECTS? Give mea break.
Srsly US of A needs strong soldiers again who can lift real riot shields and stop with this folding paper bull. Thankfully Marines still have some BAMF kickn doors.
M8rine45, my TL is just trying to better are team and thought this might be right up are alley. We hit the gym pretty hard when we can. We got a universal machine donated by the VFW when they got a new one. My ATL can max at bench press. For only being 5′ 4″ he’s really strong. What shield are you guy rocking when your crashing doors?
Horshack sounds like you’re green side and pretty boot bro remember it’s not allabout maxing on weights it’s about what you can DO
Marines train CrossFit and Gym jones style bro training for capability not just show
If you train right you don’t waste tax $$ bro on lightweight nonsinse that probabaly can’t stop a .45 close range and you roll up just in on some well armed insurgents this shield won’t do anything bruh
Steel And Kevlaris all that protects our boys my FT wouldn’t use anything lightweight no one in MARSOC either train for the right gear not get great for how you’re trained basic bro
Bro, you sound like a hard charger! My TL served with some marines during the big war in Saudi. He said they were top notch. Semper Fi bro! What are you guys crashing doors with?
Bruh I don’t look at NAMES or BRANDS its what the armorer uses lol just Standard Issue forreal, caring about brands is for some airsofters.
Point is shields like this look fancy but real deal guys don’t us em SEMPER FI
BTW I didn’t know your TL but I’m sure he was watching while we were doing all the WORK!!! #MarineLife
Horshack, excellent idea about using field-expedient supplies to train shields with. (keep expensive equipment pristine for live ops) I might suggest though, instead of cardboard, go to Home Depot and get some clear plexiglass.. its weighs about the same as a real L-IIIA shield and you can score it to any shape with a razor. Hope that helps and keep up the ingenuity!