The BYU shield is a Class III-A, which protects against nearly all pistol rounds (not sure about the S&W 500). Class IV body shields that protect against rifle rounds usually incorporate a high hardness steel panel, which would make simply incorporating steel panels too heavy for the intended quick, easy deployment. There are ongoing experiments with composite panels that might be acceptable, but the end result would still be imposingly heavy.

Can it be combined with the bullet-stopping foam that was mentioned here a few days ago?
https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...

PBS had a program on Origami and the current uses in real world products. That Police Shield has layers of ballistic materials that are folded in origami fashion to stop handgun rounds. There is research being done according to the program to developes a shield to stop higher velocity rifle rounds.

Very impressive. I do not know much about firearms. I assume that you mean that the .223 (is that the NATO assault rifle?) and the .308 (is that a hunting rifle?) usually penetrate most kevlar. Well, it is always a conflict between arms and armor, going back to ancient times. Even Jules Verne's From the Earth to the Moon opens with such a contest at the Baltimore Gun Club.

Personally, I think that that next advance in armor will be some kind of "field".

In any case, hats off to the BYU engineers. Kids have bright ideas.

Just need to combine it with the invisibility cloak;^)