The body armor supply chain
Every ballistic panel on the NIJ CPL traces back to a handful of fiber producers, ceramic suppliers, and prepreg makers. This is the upstream supply chain that every US armor OEM depends on — thin, globally consolidated, and rarely visible to procurement officers.
Fiber → Prepreg → OEM → End item
Ceramic, adhesive, coating, and labeling suppliers feed in at the OEM layer alongside fiber + prepreg.
Fiber producers
Ballistic fiber — UHMWPE (Dyneema, Spectra) and aramid (Kevlar, Twaron, Heracron). The most consolidated layer of the supply chain.
Prepreg / composite producers
Take fiber from upstream, weave or layer it, and pre-impregnate with resin to produce armor-ready fabric. Barrday, JPS, Hexcel.
Ceramic suppliers
Alumina, silicon carbide, and boron carbide strike-face ceramic for hard armor plates. Morgan, 3M Ceradyne, CoorsTek, Saint-Gobain.
Adhesives
Industrial-grade bonding adhesives used in ballistic laminate construction. Henkel (Loctite), H.B. Fuller, Bostik, Master Bond.
Environmental coatings
Protective / weatherproofing coatings and CARC (Chemical Agent Resistant Coating) for armor surfaces. AkzoNobel, PPG, Sherwin-Williams.
Labeling
ASTM F3115-compliant care-label printing systems and serialization for armor traceability. Brady, SATO, Avery Dennison.