German SEK Teams Are Bringing Back Chainmail

In Germany, police officers incorporate chainmail for added protection against knife threats, blending medieval techniques with modern policing.

Chainmail, Stab Vests, and Ballistic Armor: Three Different Answers to the Knife Problem

Photos of German SEK officers in medieval-like chainmail aren’t cosplay—they’re a very rational response to a very specific threat: close-range knife attacks.

When you zoom out and compare German special police units, London’s Metropolitan Police, and typical American law enforcement, you see three distinct armor philosophies shaped by very different violence profiles and legal environments. That’s the point of this post: not to sell gear, but to encourage threat-driven protection decisions.

1. Germany: Medieval-Looking Chainmail for Modern Knife Attacks

Germany’s Spezialeinsatzkommando (SEK) units are using stainless-steel chainmail as stab protection. It’s typically worn under a ballistic carrier during high-risk calls involving edged weapons—hostage situations, mentally disturbed persons with knives, or close-quarters entries.

German SWAT operators equipped with chainmail gear, combining traditional protection with modern tactical equipment for high-risk operations.

Modern police chainmail:

• Uses pre-shaped stainless or alloy rings designed to integrate with ballistic vests

• Is highly effective against slashes and many stabs that can slip between Kevlar fibers

• Still requires a ballistic vest on top for firearm threats

Knife violence in Germany is not theoretical. In 2023, police recorded 8,951 cases of serious bodily harm involving knives, almost a 10% increase over the previous year. The GuardianTrauma registry data also show that the proportion of severe stabbing injuries among seriously injured patients has climbed from under 2% to over 3% between 2014 and 2023—meaning more people are arriving in ICU with life-threatening stab wounds.

For SEK, the mission profile is often very close range, indoors, and blade-heavy. Chainmail makes sense there.

2. London: “Stab Vests” That Look Ballistic, Built for a Knife-Dominant Environment

Frontline officers in London wear what many American cops would visually read as a ballistic vest—but the primary design driver is edged and spike threats, not rifles. Stab-resistant vests are standard issue across UK policing and are built to Home Office CAST standards (e.g., KR1/SP1 or KR2) to stop knife and spike attacks at specific energy levels.

A standard issue anti-stab vest for UK police officers, featuring durable material and designed for enhanced protection in the field.

Modern UK stab vests typically:

• Use high-strength aramid fibers combined with tightly woven structures, thin steel, composites, or chainmail inserts

• Are tested to stop knife attacks at 24–36 joules (KR1/KR2) and spikes (SP1), mimicking real assaults rather than just lab pokes

• Often provide some handgun protection (dual-threat models), but they’re not built around U.S. NIJ rifle standards

From my own work with Metropolitan Police officers, I’ve seen these vests up close:they look like “normal” armor to the public, but their test protocol is clearly optimized for knives and improvised spikes, not high-energy firearms.

Again, the context matters:

• In England and Wales, there were about 53,000 offences involving a sharp instrument in the year ending March 2025—roughly 145 knife-related offences every day.

• Knives are involved in around 40–46% of homicides, and in 2023–24, roughly 83% of teenage homicide victims (13–19) were killed with a knife.

• In much of Europe, only about 25% of homicides involve firearms, meaning the majority are carried out with other weapons—often sharp instruments. If guns are relatively rare but knives are everywhere, a dedicated stab vest is a logical baseline.

It’s not perfect—recent research and officer surveys highlight real comfort and health issues with ill-fitting vests, especially for female officers—but the data strongly support stab vests as a major control on officer injury and fatality from knives.

3. United States: Ballistic First, Because Firearms Drive the Risk

In the U.S., the threat picture looks very different. FBI data show that roughly three-quarters of officers feloniously killed in the line of duty are killed with firearms, not knives.

U.S. soft body armor is built around NIJ ballistic standards (0101.06 / 0101.07), which explicitly focus on handgun and rifle threats; knife and spike threats are handled under a completely separate stab standard (NIJ 0115).

One large study using LEOKA data found that officers shot in the torso were 76% less likely to be killed if they were wearing body armor versus those without armor. That’s a massive survival benefit in a firearm-dominated environment.

Most U.S. agencies therefore issue:

• Soft ballistic vests (NIJ II/IIIA) for daily wear against handgun threats

• Hard rifle plates (III/IV) for higher-risk operations

• Stab-resistant or multi-threat panels only in specific roles (corrections, transport, specialized units)

The trade-off is obvious: standard ballistic soft armor is not optimized to stop knives. The NIJ ballistic standard itself states that it does not address knives or spikes. So if your environment starts to look more like London or Berlin in terms of knife assaults, your armor strategy has to evolve.

What This Means for Agencies, Trainers, and Protectors

Taken together, these three approaches tell a simple story:

• Germany (SEK): Layered ballistic armor plus full or partial chainmail for high-risk, close-in edged-weapon incidents.

• London / UK patrol: Stab-dominant, multi-threat vests as baseline PPE, with firearm protection calibrated to their comparatively low gun homicide rates.

• United States patrol: Ballistic-dominant armor because firearms remain the primary killer of officers and civilians in violent crime.

Related: Does the UK Have a Knife and Gun Problem?

None of these solutions is “right” or “wrong” in isolation. They’re situationally correct because they follow the threat.

A few practical takeaways I’d offer to leaders, trainers, and security professionals:

1. Let data drive your armor decisions.Look at your local assault data on officers and victims: proportion of firearms vs. knives vs. other weapons, plus where on the body injuries occur.

2. Think in layers, not absolutes.A U.S. officer working in a knife-heavy environment may need a ballistic vest plus a stab-rated or chainmail under-layer for certain tasks—just as German SEK stack chainmail with plates on specific calls.

3. Don’t ignore comfort and fit.Ill-fitting armor doesn’t just cause injuries and long-term health problems; it also creates exploitable gaps that offenders have learned to target. We all know that officers will be disincentivized to wear their vests if they are not comfortable.

4. Train tactics to match the gear.Armor is the last line, not the first. Distance, cover, communication, and edged-weapon tactics matter just as much as what you’re wearing.

TSG Defense doesn’t manufacture body armor, and this post is not an endorsement of any specific brand or product. My goal here is the same one we pursue in all of our training work:match your protective tools to the threats you actually face, not the threats you hope you’ll face.

If you’re an agency or team leader re-evaluating your edged-weapon risk profile and want to sanity-check your training and equipment decisions, feel free to reach out—I’m always happy to compare notes offline.