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US Soft Body Armor Market
After an exhaustive search through various industry publications, media articles, websites, press releases, and annual budget publications of various US federal and state agencies, we were able to locate the body armor budget estimates only for the US Department of Defense. The US Department of Defense had budgeted total spending of $233.7 million for body armor requirements in FY 2020. We have provided below a detailed overview of the same, along with other useful findings.
US Federal/State Agencies Body Armor Budgets
The US Department of Defense
- As per the FY 2020 budget estimates by the US Department of Defense, it had budgeted total spending of $233.7 million for body armor requirements in FY 2020. This indicated a decrease of $50.8 million in the total body armor requirements by the Department of Defense when compared with a $284.5 million budget for the same in FY 2019.
- Out of the total FY 2020 budget for body armor requirements, the Army was appropriated $179.4 million, the Navy was appropriated $15.9 million, Marine Cops was provided $25.5 million, the Air Force was given $0.6 million, and the US Special Operations Command was appropriated $12.3 million in FY 2020.
- The total FY 2020 body armor requirement budget of the US Department of Defense included a base budget of $126.1 million and an overseas contingency operations (OCO) budget of $107.6 million.
- Out of the total FY 2020 overseas contingency operations (OCO) budget for body armor, $54.3 million was for body armor components, $40.5 million for combat helmets, and $12.8 million for protective eyewear.
- The corresponding FY 2019 budgets for the above-mentioned categories were $51.9 million for body armor components, $15.7 million for combat helmets, and $12.0 million for protective eyewear. This implies that the US Department of Defense has increased its OCO budget for body armor across all the categories in FY 2020.
Other Helpful Findings
- According to the federal spending data from the watchdog group OpenTheBooks.com, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spent over $200,000 on body armor during the Obama administration years as compared to just $30,000 in the previous three fiscal years.
- Also, the data states that over $71 million has been spent by 44 traditionally administrative US agencies since FY 2006 on items like body armor, riot helmets and shields, cannon launchers and police firearms, and ammunition.
- Out of the above, nearly $2 million was spent by the Department of Veterans Affairs "on riot helmets, defender shields, body armor, a milo return fire cannon system, armored mobile shields, Kevlar blankets, tactical gear, and equipment for crowd control."
- As per an article from Intercept, approximately $24,115 million was spent by the EPA in 2018 on a variety of tactical clothing and body armor in seven separate orders under the leadership of Scott Pruitt.
- The Body Armor Grant Program (BARM) from the Maryland Governor's Office of Crime Prevention, Youth, and Victim Services provides funds to assist local law enforcement agencies in procuring protective body armor and stab-resistant vests for their officers. For FY 2021, nearly $49,088 has been made available under this program by the state agency.
- As per the FY 2021 performance budget of the US Department of Justice, $25 million has been allocated for the matching grant program for law enforcement armor vests.
Research Strategy
We began by scouring through the websites, press releases, annual budget publications, performance reports, and management comments of the various US federal agencies like the US Department of Defense, the US Department of Justice, the Department of Veterans Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), among others. We also investigated the budget reports of state agencies like the Maryland Governor's Office of Crime
Prevention, Youth, and Victim Services, Ohio Department of Veterans Services, and the Arizona Department of Homeland Security, among others. However, we were able to only find the body armor budget estimates for the US Department of Defense. None of the other agencies have disclosed their body armor specific budgets in their annual budget publications. All the data found was centered around their overall budget projections and allocations to various sub-departments. Next, we searched through the various industry publications from Deloitte, McKinsey, IBIS World, Bloomberg, PR Newswire, etc., to check if any of them have published any data around the body armor industry spend by various US federal and state agencies, but no pertinent information could be garnered. We only came across reports on the US and global body armor manufacturing industry size and its growth. Next, we searched through the media articles from Forbes, WSJ, Bloomberg, Businesswire, Live Mint, etc., but again no relevant information could be found. We only came across an article from the watchdog group OpenTheBooks.com that highlighted the increased spending by the EPA and the Department of VA on body armor and related equipment during the Obama rule.
Lastly, we tried to triangulate the information by looking at the overall budget estimates of the individual state and federal agencies and any data around the percentage allocation to body armor spending. We could have then triangulated the absolute amount of spending budgeted for the body armors by the various agencies. After an exhaustive search through the above-mentioned sources, while we were able to procure the budget estimates for the various agencies, no data around the percentage allocation to budget armor spending could be found. Hence, the triangulation strategy did not materialize.