"people who sell armor to the LE market, IIIA "+" is not a term in common use. The only place I see the "+" designation being commonly used is with level III hard armor to denote a level III plate capable of either 7.62x39 MSC (less commonly) or M855 (more commonly). it is a disservice to the community to confuse an already out of date rating system even further by denoting "+" on handgun cert armor. That isn't NIJ at all doing that...."
https://www.armorexpress.com/product-category/hard-armor-plates/ they do use the + symbol on their plate.
Not sure how it is a disservice, unless you can't read the claims made by the manufacturer.
Yes, this is the NIJ's fault, for not updating the standards leaving the companies forced to come up with their own to accomdate different threats being faced out there.
"I have seen more than one manufacturer claim to have tested to .07, even though we are not 100% sure what it will look like"
https://nij.ojp.gov/media/document/16126 uh here it is......
Most of the armor makers websites, have this pdfs available to read what it is tested against. Like on RMA's website, they the lab report, their file saying what it is rated for. You can click on the red items and read if you don't know what it is rated to stop. When the standard does gets changed, RMA is claiming this armor will be at this rating. Until then it fits the III+ industry standard (not by NIJ)
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"A clear and concise explanation of exactly what will and will not stop via a consistent threat level rating system is much needed. things like this just confuse the matter. I see it every. damn. day."
You can't have a list of what it can't stop, there are far too many calibers out there. The test is against the most common of threats. RMA does (so does the companies I have listed above) have a list of rounds stopped by their armor.
In these posts, I am not seeing the claim that RMA has a discrepancy in what their armor will stop. I see you gentlemen are confused, possibly need to do more research on body armor and the industry as a whole.