First, From the Manufacturer:
http://www.pinnaclearmor.com/body-armor/sov.phpOther Articles:
http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,14632,Soldiertech_PArmor,00.htmlhttp://www.defensereview.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=827http://www.ocnus.net/cgi-bin/exec/view.cgi?archive=80&num=20965The Big Issue seems to be cost, The present set of Armor, the Interceptor body armor, cost about $1100 for a set of Body armor, while the Dragon Skin of the same nature costs over $5000.
The reason for the Difference is HOW the Armor is made, Dragon Skin is "Scale Armor" where you have individual "scales" overlapping each other. These scales have to be kept together, this is done by connecting the scales to each other like Medieval Chain mail (except in Scale Armor the protection is solid scales instead of the very tight weave of Medieval Chain Mail). Thus you will see Dragon Skin called both Scale Armor and Chain Mail, through from its description Scale Armor is the more accurate term.
On the other hand what the Army is using now, the Interceptor body armor, is a "Conventional" Design i.e. solid material woven to together and than cut to fit (All by heavy duty machines) best compared to Plate Armor of the Middle ages (and I refereed to a Pseudo-Plate). In Front of the vest a Ceramic Plate is installed to provide additional protection from Bullets (This plate is generally usable only once, i.e. once fired on or hit by explosives must be replaced even if it looks solid).
Now all vests use long string man made fibers (Kevlar was the first and still one of the longest fibers ever made). This length is the key to these vests. The Long fiber spreads the impact of the bullet or explosion over a wider area than shorter fibers (Such as Nylon or natural fibers) and thus the "bullet proof" part of a Vest is based on these long Fibers. The problems is such long fibers do deteriorate over time (For Example Nylon will deteriorated under direct Sunlight almost over night unless protected by a coating, thus ALL Nylon has a coating applied to it so it does not break down the first time it is exposed to Sunlight).
Such coatings are important, but sometime the newer longer fiber breaks down for other reasons. For example around 2001 the Army was looking at Zylon to replace Kevlar, but found out that after a few years Zylon deteriorated. Thus when New Zylon was stronger than Kevlar, but after a few years (and sometime months) it was not. When this was found Zylon died as a material.
I have NOT heard of any problems on deterioration of either the Interceptor body armor or Dragon Skin. I suspect both are made from the same basic material (Kevlar or one of its newer better cousins) thus the difference is in the Constructions of the two types of Body Armor, Scale vs pseudo-Plate. Just some background on Armor and the Material it is made from.