The Safariland Group announced the expansion of the X-CAL line of hard armor plates sold under its Protech brand. The new plates are a special threat plate that has been tested to meet the Level III requirements under the NIJ 0101.04 standard.

The X-CAL line is made up of hard plates that are designed to be used in conjunction with soft body armor. Safariland refers to this type of plate as “ICW” (in conjunction with). For a police officer or other armed professional who wears soft body armor as part of their normal uniform, the ICW-type plate allows you to upgrade your protection to defeat many rifle rounds without the bulk and weight that a stand alone plate has.

The new X-CAL US plate weighs less than four pounds and is designed to defeat the M855/SS109 round. Safariland advises the X-CAL US saves about two pounds as compared to a stand along plate of a similar protection.

Safariland states that the X-CAL US will work with the company’s own Summit SM02 IIIA, Xtreme XT03 IIIA and Xtreme SX02 IIIA soft body armors. The plate is 0.75″ thick and comes in a 10″x12″ size with a swimmers cut. The MSRP is $710.

According to Safariland, this plate technology was developed in conjunction with the Hesco Corporation.