Ballistic Shields

Abstract

A novel hand carried ballistic shield is disclosed. Optimal shields have a shield plate, a forestock seat, and a forearm carrier generally provided as a plurality of adjustable straps. If fixed to the plate, the straps are aligned at an upward forearm angle; if the carrier is rotatably adjustable with straps mounted on the rotatable plate, the angle of the forearm relative to the horizontal lever of the shield plate can be individually adjusted to achieve an optimum upward angle of the forearm to avoid anatomical strain, and to place the forestock hand just below the forestock seat. The forestock seat is formed in the shield plate at an upper corner of the plate and inset in an upper corner cut-out in the plate. The bottom of the cut-out desirably has a rounded profile to optimally receive the forestock of the primary weapon. The seat is positioned in the shield plate to be just above where the forearm straps position the user's hand.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation-in-part to U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/632,065 filed Sep. 30, 2012 which claimed priority to U.S. Provisional Applications 61/543,807 filed Oct. 5, 2011 and 61/655,442 filed Jun. 4, 2012, all three of which are hereby incorporated herein by this reference as if fully set forth.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure relates to protective equipment and personal armor; more particularly it relates to hand carried ballistic shields.

BACKGROUND

Hand carried ballistic shields (also known as tactical shields) are used by military and police to provide frontal ballistic protection during an assault or raid on an armed position or assailant. Such shields are notoriously heavy, and they are awkward to carry when conducting fire and maneuver tactics. They are generally square or rectangular and visibility is limited to peeking over the top edge of the shield, while firing is limited to single hand carry of the weapon and firing around or over the shield. Accuracy is virtually impossible and most men cannot carry a conventional ballistic shield for any great length of time or distance. In addition, the size and weight of a conventional shield limits where and how it can be transported to the tactical scene.

Conventional shields force a rifleman to choose. He must either hold and work the shield, or shoot, but not both.

What is needed is a relatively lightweight hand carry shield that can be carried on the forearm leaving both hands free to carry, aim and fire a weapon.

DISCLOSURE

A relatively lightweight hand carry shield that can be carried on the forearm leaving both hands free to carry, aim and fire a weapon is disclosed.

A novel hand carried ballistic shield is disclosed. Optimal shields have a shield plate, a forestock seat, and a forearm carrier generally provided as a plurality of adjustable straps. If fixed to the plate, the straps are aligned at an upward forearm angle; if the carrier is rotatably adjustable with straps mounted on the rotatable plate, the angle of the forearm relative to the horizontal lever of the shield plate can be individually adjusted to achieve an optimum upward angle of the forearm to avoid anatomical strain, and to place the forestock hand just below the forestock seat (see below).

In addition, the weight bearing center of the forearm carrier (typically the geometric center of the two straps in a fixed-strap configuration) is located at or near the center of mass of the shield to achieve what is called a complete neutral balance, as described elsewhere herein.

The forestock seat is formed in the shield plate at an upper corner of the plate and inset in an upper corner cut-out in the plate. It is not just a missing corner. The bottom of the cut-out desirably has a rounded profile to optimally receive the forestock of the primary weapon. The seat is positioned in the shield plate to be just above where the forearm straps position the user's hand. This provides an upper corner weapon seating, weapon steadying cut-out right above where the user's hand is naturally positioned by the straps. On the outside of the forestock seat cut-out there is an upwardly projecting shield extension that in part forms the outer boundary of the cut-out, and also provides additional armor protection for the user's head while sighting or firing.

The strap design and alignment, and forearm positioning interact with the position of the forestock seat to provide a shooting platform in any position or state of carry or advance that is natural and ergonomic, and leaves all the weight of the shield on the user's carrying forearm, so that the user always has both hands free to handle the primary weapon.

The disclosed shield desirably has a height (shield length) optimized to cover a kneeling user from the ground to above the top of the user's head. The height of the bottom of the forestock seat above ground or above the bottom of the shield is optimized for an optimum kneeling shooting platform. The height or length of the shield to the bottom of the forestock rest is generally set to be an optimal shooting rest height for a kneeling shooter.

Disclosed shields have an optional high intensity lamp on the front of the shield for night operations, and an armored viewing system that avoids putting a glass viewport in the shield. The viewing system is armored in that it has separate front of shield and back of shield components, on either side of the shield armor. It has an image capture device such as a camera or view finder on the front of the shield and a view screen on the back or inside placed at viewer eye height. These components are desirably electronic and may have optical componentry and night vision capability as well.

In other words, the shield has a distinctive cut away at the right upper corner of the shield. At the point where the hand on the shield-bearing forearm is gripping the forward part (stock) of the rifle (typically left hand grip for a right-handed person), the shield is cut away so the weapon can optionally rest in the cutout for when the person's left hand is holding the weapon's forward grip or hand guards. A left hand optimized model is also disclosed, with the cut away on the left upper corner of the shield.

A shield is advantageously provided with a carrying member that provides for complete neutral balance for the hanging shield. “Complete neutral balance” means that the shield hangs from the person's forward arm and is balanced to “float” in an upright position, both laterally (side to side) and fore and aft without the person having to hold a handle with the forward hand. This leaves the person's forward hand free (which in conventional shields is normally engaged with a conventional handle), so both hands can be on a primary weapon (such as a rifle or other long gun).

Advantageously, the carrying member comprises a conventional adjustable snow board binding (conventionally used to attach the board rider's feet to the board) that is attached to an intermediate plate, and the plate is adhered to the back of the shield without any bolts or holes that pass through or into the shield. The binding is adapted as necessary to fit a forearm rather than feet.

When a person is in a forward facing shooting position with both hands on the weapon, the shield hangs off of the left arm (typical) in such a way that his body is covered, at least from the left, and both hands can be on the weapon. This also allows for magazine change without putting down the shield.

All disclosed shields are relatively lightweight advanced composite armor materials, such as those made with a Boroclave and can be specified to provide various conventional standardized levels of protection to the person using the shield.

Each shield is optimized for advanced tactical hand carry by a single person. A shield optimally has a digital view screen or screens on the inside of the shield that connect(s) to one or more video cameras (or other like image-capturing technology, such as that found in digital camera view finders) on the front of the shield. This feature is believed to increase safety and reduce weight that would otherwise be an issue with a glass window in the shield. The front camera(s) are also optionally night vision enabled.

Also a shield optionally has a front mounted (advantageously center mounted) multimillion candle power lamp with an activation switch on the back of the shield, preferably within thumb reach of the shield carrying person. This can be any conventional switch, such as pressure switch. A person may thus see an intruder using the shield night vision mode in the dark and then trigger the lamp to temporarily compromise the intruder's own vision just prior to engaging the intruder.

Also disclosed is an alternate ballistic shield that is sized and shaped to be a removable fit on the inside of a police cruiser door panel. Then when the police car door is opened and used as a shield there is some actual ballistic shielding available to the officer even when the cruiser is not equipped with ballistic doors. Additionally, and optionally, the door shield is removably attached to, or pocketed in, the door, and can advantageously be removed easily and quickly by an officer in pursuit, who then has at least a first response shield, with at least some of the properties disclosed above, for protection.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a rear isometric schematic view of the disclosed shield.

FIG. 2 is a rear elevation of the ballistic shield.

FIG. 3 is a schematic rear elevation of the ballistic shield.

FIG. 4 is a front elevation of the ballistic shield.

FIG. 5 is a side isometric schematic view of the disclosed shield.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Turning now to the drawings, the disclosed ballistic shield will be described by reference to the numerals of the drawing figures wherein like numbers indicate like parts.

FIG. 1 shows ballistic shield 100 in schematic perspective with the user or holder holding both the shield and weapon 50 at the same time (forearm straps not shown—See FIG. 2).

FIG. 2 shows ballistic shield 100 (for right handed user) from the rear, that is from the perspective of the user or holder of the shield. Shield 100 has armored shield plate 110 which is advantageously made from lightweight composite materials and created with advanced HIP presses such as our Boroclave brand presses disclosed in our U.S. Pat. No. 7,862,323. Shield 100 has carrier 120 mounted on the back of shield plate 110. Carrier 120 is shown as two forearm straps 122 and 124 each mounted to plate 110 with mounting hardware 123 which is illustrated as bolts but could alternatively be a high strength epoxy adhesive bond or the like. Straps 122 and 124 are adjustable by means of strap adjustment 125 to fit various sized forearms. Strap adjustment 125 is advantageously a releasable adjustment such as hook and pile.

Carrying straps 122 and 124 are aligned and mounted so that with the forearm in place and the weight of the shield being carried on the forearm, the hand of that arm is in position to hold the forestock of a rifle without anatomical strain. In general, it can be seen from the drawing that from the center of strap 122 and the center of strap 124, alignment line 127 proceeds at an upward angle.

Shield plate 110 has a cut-out 105 in the upper right corner of shield 100 (upper left corner for a left-hand shield) within which to rest and steady the forestock of a rifle or other long gun. Cut-out 105 defines in part rifle-side shield extension 115 which provides additional protection to the user when sighting over the weapon through cut-out 105. Shield extension 115 can be any length and width consistent with overall shield size and requirements.

View screen 130 for the front mounted electronics and thumbswitch 140 for the front lamp are also schematically illustrated.

FIG. 3 illustrates an alternate forearm carrier 120 incorporating well-known snow board binding technology, or the like. Carrier 120 has adjustable forearm straps 122 and 124, as in FIG. 2, and these straps can be bolted or otherwise adhered to carrier plate 120. Carrier plate 120 is lockably and rotatably mounted on base plate 128 with swivel mechanism 129 (well-known lock mechanism not shown). Swivel 129 and base plate 128 can be standard snow board components, or such like as will be known to those skilled in the art. Base 128 is advantageously adhesively adhered to shield plate 110 by any well-known high strength bonding means so that there are no through bolts or bolt holes in plate 110.

FIG. 4 is a front view of shield 100 showing illustrating schematic placement of view electronics and optional optics 150 and high candle power lamp 160.

FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of shield 100 in use by a kneeling holder. Holder with weapon (shown in phantom lines) is shown with shield 100 resting on the ground for improved stability as a shooting platform. Holder has weapon steadied in the cut-out, and has forearm secured within carrier 120. Shield height as a measurement of length is advantageously size to allow the holder to thus kneel and to be sufficiently concealed behind the shield while kneeling and to be able to steady the weapon in the cut-out in an appropriate aiming and shooting position. It is anticipated for shields to be offered in various lengths (height) to accommodate different sized holders.

In compliance with the statute, the invention has been described in language more or less specific as to structural features. It is to be understood, however, that the invention is not limited to the specific features shown, since the means and construction shown comprise preferred forms of putting the invention into effect. The invention is, therefore, claimed in any of its forms or modifications within the legitimate and valid scope of the appended claims, appropriately interpreted in accordance with the doctrine of equivalents.

Claims

1. A ballistic shield comprising a shield plate, a forestock seat, and a plurality of forearm straps, the straps aligned at an upward forearm angle, the forestock seat formed in the shield plate at an upper corner of the plate and inset in an upper corner cut-out in the plate the cut-out having a rounded shape at its bottom, the forestock seat positioned to be just above where the forearm straps position a user's hand.

2. The shield of claim 1 further comprising on an outer side of the forestock seat cut-out a shield extension.

3. The shield of claim 1 having a height optimized to cover a kneeling user from the ground to above the top of the user's head.

4. The shield of claim 2 having a height of the bottom of the forestock seat optimized for optimum kneeling shooting platform.

5. The shield of claim 1 further comprising a rotatably adjustable forearm strap carrier.

6. The shield of claim 1 having a weight bearing center of the forearm carrier located at or near a center of mass of the shield.

7. The shield of claim 1 further comprising a viewing system.

8. The shield of claim 7, the viewing system comprising separate front of shield and back of shield components, a back on shield component comprising a view screen, a front of shield component comprising an image capture device.

9. The shield of claim 1 further comprising a high intensity lamp on the front of the shield.

10. The shield of claim 1 wherein the straps are adjustable to fit various sized forearms.