Why Ballistic Armor Co. Committed to a Fully Domestic Manufacturing Model
For nearly eight years, Ballistic Armor Co. operated in a space many defense-sector companies avoid discussing publicly: we manufactured our helmets in China.
At the time, that decision made sense.
When we started, our goal was simple: make ballistic protection more accessible. The American-made market was largely defined by premium pricing, and overseas manufacturing allowed us to serve law enforcement agencies and government buyers at price points that made ballistic helmets more attainable.
That mattered.
But benefits and values are not the same thing.
As we grew, so did our expectations. Not just for the product, but for the company behind it.
The launch of the Bastion® platform in 2024 marked the beginning of our transition toward domestic manufacturing. With the introduction of Bastion® Patrol™, that transition is now complete.
As of today, every Ballistic Armor Co. ballistic helmet is manufactured in the United States, from design to raw material processing and final assembly.
This is the line we drew.
Early Bastion mid cut prototypes with contour adjustment markups.
The Force Behind the Decision
It wasn’t about branding. It was about direction.
Control matters.
- Control over materials.
- Control over tolerances.
- Control over timelines.
- Control over process.
Distance introduces friction > friction introduces delay > delay limits control. And in our industry, control is not optional.
Bringing production home tightened feedback loops, strengthened quality control, and allowed us to move from reactive problem-solving to proactive design refinement.
We maintained stringent oversight standards in our overseas production, and we stand behind the performance of every helmet we’ve ever sold. But proximity changes the equation. It moves control further upstream—into materials, process, and iteration—and allows us to refine faster, with greater visibility and clarity.
Control, however, is only part of it.
Transparency matters.
If you’re trusting equipment to protect your life, you have a right to know where it’s made, how it’s built, and who is accountable for it.
For years, we asked customers to trust us across distance. Today, we ask you to trust us because of proximity.
The professionals who rely on ballistic protection increasingly expect domestic manufacturing. Not as a political statement, but as a practical one. They want shorter supply chains. They want accountability. They want to know that if something goes wrong, someone will answer the phone.
If the Bastion® platform was going to be the foundation of our future, its manufacturing model needed to reflect the values of the people who depend on it.
Not because geography alone determines quality (it doesn’t) but because proximity strengthens accountability, and accountability strengthens trust.
Capability matters.
Domestic manufacturing is not a slogan. It is infrastructure. It required building new relationships, redesigning shell geometry, restructuring supply chains, absorbing higher costs, and rethinking assumptions we’d operated under for years.
This was not a marketing pivot.
It was a decision about who we intend to be long term.
The first SlideLock™ rail conceptual drawing.
What We Built
Bringing ballistic production home required developing new manufacturing processes to achieve Bastion’s® proprietary shell geometry, rebuilding material sourcing pipelines, implementing tighter QA workflows, and engineering efficiency so that domestic production did not automatically translate into exclusionary pricing.
We refused to let “Made in USA” become synonymous with “premium price.”
Instead, we structured the entire Bastion® family around a common domestic shell foundation:
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Bastion®—Flagship configuration for specialized operational environments
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Patrol™—Streamlined, duty-focused configuration for patrol deployment
- Ghost™—Lightweight, no-frills defensive configuration
Each platform shares the same American-made foundation. The difference is configuration, the common denominator is integrity.
The launch of the Patrol™ ballistic helmet at $750 proves something important:
American ballistic helmet manufacturing does not have to be exclusive to the highest bidder.
It can be disciplined. It can be scalable. And it can be accessible.
What It Took
The transition did not begin on our timeline.
It began with a moment that forced us to reexamine what we controlled—and what we didn’t. A company built on trust cannot import its foundation.
In December 2022, we sat down with paper, a compass, and a protractor, to design what would become the Bastion® shell from scratch. Not a licensed pattern. Not a modified import. A clean-sheet design. Line by line, curve by curve.
What followed was more than a year of material testing, forging manufacturing partnerships, conducting field trials, and design revisions. We ran prototypes "one more time," dozens of times. We absorbed costs we couldn't afford.
There were moments when the faster path was obvious. We chose the harder one.
Because the goal was never just to launch another helmet. It was to build the company we intend to stand behind for the next fifty years.
Domestic manufacturing was not the convenient decision. It was the defining one.
A completed Bastion SlideLock™ helmet sits on the assembly table
The Broader Industry Moment
The protective equipment industry is at an inflection point.
Supply chains are under scrutiny. Procurement standards are tightening. Geopolitical dynamics are changing. Customers are asking harder questions—and they should. Transparency is not optional.
Every company in this space is being forced to decide what it stands for long term, and will have to live or die by the consequences of that decision.
For us, that meant building the infrastructure here at home.
We drew our line accordingly.
What It Means for You
Protective equipment isn’t about trends. It’s about trust.
Trust is earned slowly through performance, transparency, and discipline that is harder in the short term but strengthens in the long term.
We began overseas.
We learned hard lessons.
We rebuilt.
And now we manufacture at home.
When you put on a Bastion® helmet, you’re not just wearing ballistic protection.
- You're holding a line we refused to cross.
- You're wearing hundreds of small choices already made.
- You're choosing the harder road over the faster one.
- You're reinforcing accountability.
That’s the commitment.
That’s who we are.
And that’s why Bastion® is built here, by design.
About the Transition
Ballistic Armor Co. completed its transition to fully domestic ballistic helmet manufacturing in 2025. All Ballistic Armor Co. helmets, including Bastion®, Bastion® Patrol™, and Ghost™, are manufactured in the United States from raw material processing through final assembly. Certain minor components, such as hardware and straps, may be globally sourced in accordance with industry standards.
For questions about sourcing, manufacturing processes, or platform specifications, contact us directly at info@ballisticarmorco.com.
Alex Poythress
CEO & Co-Founder
Ballistic Armor Co.