Armoured Car Protection Levels Explained: BR, VR and STANAG

A brochure says B6. A test laboratory says VR7. A defence ministry says Level 3. All three are answers to the same question: what will this vehicle stop? They are not the same answer, and reading them side by side is easier than it looks.

The three scales at a glance

Each scale climbs from handguns, through rifle ammunition, to armour-piercing rounds. Only STANAG goes on to machine-gun and cannon fire.

EN 1063 and EN 1522: the B levels

The European standard EN 1063 rates bullet-resistant glass. Its sister standard EN 1522 rates the opaque parts of a build: ballistic steel, aramid and polyethylene panels. The classes run from BR1 to BR7, and dealers write them B1 to B7.

Class	Ammunition	Bullet	Speed
BR1	.22 LR	lead, 2.6 g	360 m/s
BR2	9×19 mm Parabellum	full metal jacket, 8.0 g	400 m/s
BR3	.357 Magnum	full metal jacket, 10.2 g	430 m/s
BR4	.44 Magnum	full metal jacket, 15.6 g	440 m/s
BR5	5.56×45 mm NATO	full metal jacket, 4.0 g	950 m/s
BR6	7.62×51 mm NATO	full metal jacket, 9.5 g	830 m/s
BR7	7.62×51 mm NATO	hard steel core, 9.8 g	820 m/s

Each test fires three shots into a 500 × 500 mm sample, within 120 mm of one another. BR6 is the class people usually mean by “serious” rifle protection. BR7 is the top of the scale, and the only EN class that answers armour-piercing rounds. (EN 1063 on Wikipedia)

VPAM BRV: testing the whole vehicle

The EN standards rate materials. VPAM, a German association of independent ballistic laboratories, rates the finished car. Its BRV guideline is the one behind the VR classes, short for Vehicle Resistance.

• The laboratory fires at the assembled vehicle, and it aims at the weak points: door joints, pillars, seams and glazing edges.
• The 2009 edition tests multiple impact angles, where the 1999 edition tested two.
• A VR class is awarded only if every round is stopped. A single penetration fails the vehicle.

In the rifle range, VR6 answers the 7.62×39 mm round, VR7 the 7.62×51 mm ball round and VR9 the armour-piercing 7.62×51 mm. That is why B6 is commonly matched with VR7 and B7 with VR9. (VPAM BRV guideline)

STANAG 4569: the military scale

NATO’s AEP-55, better known as STANAG 4569, sets protection levels for occupants of logistic and light armoured vehicles. It goes beyond bullets to cover artillery fragments and mine blast.

Level	Kinetic threat	Range
1	7.62×51 mm ball, 5.56×45 mm ball	30 m
2	7.62×39 mm armour-piercing incendiary	30 m
3	7.62×51 mm AP, 7.62×54R armour-piercing incendiary	30 m
4	14.5×114 mm armour-piercing incendiary	200 m
5	25×137 mm APDS-T	500 m
6	30 mm APFSDS or AP rounds	500 m

(STANAG 4569 on Wikipedia)

How to read a rating

The number is not the whole story. Glass rated BR6 in a door that was not tested with it proves little. Ask which standard was used, whether the class applies to the whole vehicle, and see the test report.

Every step up costs weight. DARTZ publishes its own example: the Aladeen Edition MMXXII is provisionally 2,200 kg with BR2 armour and 3,100 kg with the optional STANAG 2 package.

Protection is chosen, not maximised. The right level is the one that matches a real threat and a real way of using the car.

Where DARTZ stands

DARTZ builds every Prombron’ armoured or non-armoured, to the client’s specification, and calls its armouring system GBOL. The level is agreed in a private consultation with the office of Leonard F. Yankelovich, not picked from a brochure. The Black Dragon CLV has been shooting-tested on camera, the Aladeen Edition MMXXII is armoured to BR2 as standard with STANAG 2 available. DARTZ says its GBOL armoured cars weigh about the same as their donor cars. Even the non-armoured Black Alligator keeps its carbon-covered Kevlar and steel-cage structure, which DARTZ told Top Gear makes it “safer than regular”.