Over the year, there have been notable changes in the development of ballistic helmets as well as the materials used and the process involved in its production. From the use of heavy steel, ballistic helmets are now been made with metal fabrications, ballistic-rated fiber, polyethylene, and ceramics. It is not news that a ballistic helmet’s performance is heavily dependent on the kind of materials used. Hence, in a bid to understand the performance of modern-day ballistic helmets, one must first understand its materials.

Most of the earliest ballistic helmets that can be found on the modern day combat ground have their history rooted in the WWI long. Many of them are improvements of these old helmets. Before the use of Kevlar, Aramid materials and other advanced fiber materials, ballistic helmets as well as combat armory were based on steel and heavy metal materials. This made fighting impractical due to its belaboring weight. Most soldiers had to resort to stationary fighting because their mobility was impeded by the heavy hears.

Although metal were the norm for several years, their weight soon became unbearable leading to the invention of light weighted helmets. Today, the ballistic performances of the old helmets have been drastically improved upon. But notably, the weight of ballistic helmets has drastically been reduced to few ounces.

In 1965, the rise of what would become the norm of modern day ballistic helmet began. DuPont, a manufacturing company, created the Kevlar material; a special ballistic rated fiber material. Over the last couple of decades, the Kevlar material has been used in the manufacturing of the Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops (PASGT) helmets. DuPont Kevlar KM2 fibers were then used for the ACH (Advanced Combat Helmet) fielded in 2003. Till today, it remains a key factor in the performance of most ballistic helmets.

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