At Milipol Paris 2025, we had the pleasure of speaking with representatives from Craig International Ballistics (CIB), an Australian body armor manufacturer. James Craig, Executive Director, and Ed Clark, CTO, made a long journey to Paris from their home turf of Australia.
CIB is by no means a new name in the field. In business for upwards of 26 years, they’ve been supplying the Australian Defence Force with ballistic protection for over two decades. While they specialize in soldier and law enforcement systems, they also provide composite armour systems for land, air, and sea applications, including military vehicles. While they didn’t have their own stand at Milipol, they were still able to showcase their new ballistic plates with Delta Three Oscar. The premium plates utilise D3O materials to absorb impact and reduce trauma, and represent important collaborations between industry leaders.
Seeking Expansion into European Market
When asked about their attendance at Milipol, Craig answered, “We’re looking for more partners. We’ve got processing technology that far exceeds industry standards—we know some of our products are far more advanced than our competitors and we are looking for collaborations and white labeling opportunities. For us, it’s essentially just getting out there, getting our name known. Besides our new range of ultra-lightweight hard armour plates for personal protection, we are now also pressing under high pressure UHMWPE panels up to 1.6 x 2.5 metres, which is not very common in the industry.”
Despite being in business for 26 years, Australia and Europe’s geographical
distance has created some hurdles in terms of CIB becoming wider known on the continent. Their goal for Milipol was to build up brand awareness, promote their new products, and find appropriate partners. “Our product range effectively is more towards the premium end, so we’re surrounded with good potential partners,” Craig explained.
CIB’s History of Innovation
CIB was an early adopter of the new Dyneema®third-generation material, used now in a number of their protective systems.They were similarly on the forefront in adopting Kevlar® EXO™, their position in the Pacific making them strategic partners of DuPont and Avient. In addition to being highly innovative, they boast new equipment investments, namely larger hydraulic presses and processing technology that exceeds industry standards. Early adopters of new technology, their technical practices align to their product portfolio, which focuses on mid- to high-end products.
Australia doesn’t have any local manufacturing of UHMWPE materials like Avient and Solstice, and ceramic manufacturing is the same. As a result, almost all of the materials that CIB uses are predominantly imported from the US or Europe. “Not necessarily just by choice,” mused Craig. “There’s literally no Australian equivalent manufacturers locally to choose from.” While the majority of their materials are imported, they manufacture, integrate, and design in Australia. The company has pride in the fact that everything is processed onsite in their facility on the Gold Coast. “We do all the manufacturing, do all the panel pressing, all the integration, finishing, labelling and everything is done onsite in Australia. It’s an Australian made product not just labeled here,” says Clark. Vertical integration is key to their success, independently doing essentially every single process other than buying the raw materials from overseas. And it doesn’t stop there—they have an onsite ballistic test range, and do all of their product development in-house as well.
When trying to break into the European market for body armor, trends and developments driven from the conflict in Ukraine must be considered. Shrapnel poses a significant threat to soldier’s lives, and how to protect from it is an ongoing conversation, especially at Milipol. When asked about their own role in this type of innovation, Clark said, “That requirement is something I’ve been hearing, talking to people at the show, that there is more of a shift towards fragmentation protection.” This is due to on the ground reporting from Ukraine, in terms of artillery and drone strikes rather than direct ballistic shots out of a rifle. “A high level of fragmentation is something that we’ll take away as well from the show. And a lot of that demand will be driven by appropriate partners. We’re happy to design and develop solutions that meet these requirements. We have all the facilities and equipment on site to be able to do that.”
Craig International Ballistics provides modern, state-of-the-art solutions to modern problems. Their high regard for quality over mass production ensures the safety and protection of those being supplied with their products. The drive for innovation and cutting edge technology outshines the geographical gap, successfully putting the Gold Coast on our body armor map.
