My office was directed by Congress to look into the testing done. Dragonskin was found to be acceptable under some circumstances, but not under others. The heat and age thing was the major flaw. Then, to make matters worse, Pinnacle certified that they had performed and passed all the DOJ standard tests when they had not. That's grounds for decertification.
He believes the company is being hampered by more red tape than other protective armor firms, in part because of the ongoing fights with military officials.
Yeah, that whole oversight thing is pesky when you get caught lying, isn't it.
TC
While I don't know the physics behind the material, I fail to see how ceramic plates can just arbitrarily break down due to heat or cold, at least the amounts a person may be exposed to. What I have seen on a couple of TV shows was impressive, to say the least.
Basically, military equipment has to meet certain requirements that seem odd, but aren't. We have troops in Alaska (and exercises in Norway, etc) that need to be able to use it in extreme cold. We have troops in deserts that need to be able to use it in extreme hot. Plus, we have these wonderful (evil) thingies called CONEX's. Big metal box with wood floors that turn into a #%#( oven if you shine a flashlight on them, let alone the NTC or Saudi sun. If someone is dumb or unlucky enough to toss anything wet into these metal boxes and then close the door, humidity will go through the roof and stay there. Each disc is made of silicon-carbide ceramic matrix and laminates. Said laminates don't react well to extreme temperates and definitely not drastic temporate changes. Delamination in your body armor is definitely what we consider A Bad Thing.
From what I understand about Dragon Skin, it works very well. It does stop bullets better than IBA under 'normal circumstances'. But it's more sensitive to heat extremes. Plus, they shot themselves in the foot repeatedly in their dealings with procurement procedures. They definitely screwed themselves with the NIJ certification fiasco. Personally, I'd prefer a Dragon Skin over IBA if I knew I wasn't going to use it in extreme temperatures or longer than 2-3 years. Definitely not the six years as advertised by Pinnacle.
I recommend checking out http://www.evolutionarmor.com/Rifletile.htm