Ukraine's female soldiers test Canadian body armour
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- NP Aerospace, a Canadian company with manufacturing in Coventry, England, designed curved ballistic plates paired with vest carriers by Logistik Unicorp, also based in Canada, specifically for women's bodies.
- The U.K. donated 2,000 sets of the female-specific armour to Ukraine in June, while more than 10,000 Ukrainian women serve in combat roles on the front lines, most still wearing ill-fitting men's plates.
- NP Aerospace's modeling shows its curved plates provide 48% more protection than flat plates, and the company says ill-fitting men's armour creates gaps near the neck and lower torso leaving soldiers exposed to bullets, shrapnel and drone strikes.
- National Guard officer "Kudriava," serving for nearly 15 years, said ill-fitting armour is distracting during operations and that gear should fit like a "second skin" so soldiers can focus on saving lives.
- Ukrainian MP Iryna Nykorak founded NATO-supported NGO Arm Women Now, which has provided 350 sets of female body armour, and is pushing the EU, Canada and the U.K. to follow suit.
- Canada's Department of National Defence said it is working on releasing its first body armour system specifically designed for women this year for the army's light forces.
Why it matters: With more than 10,000 Ukrainian women serving in combat and women's roles expanding across allied militaries, standard men's body armour leaves fatal gaps near vital organs — the U.K.'s 2,000-set donation and Canada's first female-specific system mark a concrete shift from ad-hoc solutions to institutional fit, and Nykorak's NGO shows the gap until allies catch up.
