The Army issued a Safety of Use Message (SOUM) on March 17, 2006, banning the use of personally procured, commercially available body armor products in a combat zone. The SOUM made soldiers aware that commercially available body armor did not meet the military specifications for ballistic protection.

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) standards are used for law enforcement armors. The US and NATO military armor designs are tested using a standard set of test methods under ARMY MIL-STD-662F and STANAG 2920 Ed2. This approach defines the test process under the 662F/2920 standard. Each armor program can select a unique series of projectiles and velocities as required. These military procurement requirements do not relate to NIJ, HOSDB or ISO law enforcement armor standards, test methods, garment size, projectiles or velocities.

The National Guard’s role in the Defense Support of Civil Authorities (DSCA) missions has included: responses to natural and man-made disasters, law enforcement support, special events, and other domestic activities. It is also critical to understand that the military is always in a supporting role and never the lead. In these types of support missions the Guard uses their military issued IOTV armor. The psychology of uniforms research has revealed that the uniform has a subconscious psychological influence on people, based on the person’s preconceived feelings about the wearer's authority, capabilities, and status. When a person wears the police uniform, citizens tend to be more cooperative with his or her requests, while a Soldier’s uniform can convey combativeness. Soldiers in a DSCA role wearing military issued IOTV armor are not interoperable and do not support the law enforcement uniform image portrayal to the public. To appropriately support law enforcement it is imperative that the National Guard be authorized and funded to wear under the uniform ballistic vests / gear equivalent to their Law Enforcement counterpart.