Damn Near Invisible: The Crye LVS

(Courtesy of Breach Bang Clear)

Damn Near Invisible: The Crye LVS
Chris Hernandez

I’ve been wearing body armor for over twenty years. From old USMC flak vests in 1989 to my first soft body armor as a cop in 94 to an IBA in OIF 3 to a plate carrier in OEF 9, I’ve spent a lot of time wrapped in Kevlar and ceramic. Now that I’m retired from the military and no longer work the street, I only wear body armor on rare occasions when I’m in uniform or going into public in plainclothes with a police jacket.

As a Marine and Soldier my body armor was no secret, and pretty much screamed “Come at me, bro.” My police body armor, on the other hand, is “concealable”; that is, as long as my suspect is blind and hasn’t watched a cop movie in the last thirty years, he’ll have no idea I’m wearing a vest. Police body armor stands out, which is kind of a problem.

Crye, on the cutting edge of tactical technology as usual, recently released their new LVS body armor. LVS stands for Low Visibility System, and the name isn’t just an advertising gimmick. In a nutshell, the LVS is a stiff-but-extremely-thin conventional concealable armor vest. The base vest disappears under uniforms and street clothes, and can fit into LVS-specific overt tactical carriers. I’ve had the opportunity to test pre-production LVS armor over the last few months, and for people like me who need our concealable body armor to actually be concealed this may be a game changer.

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