Are U.S. soldiers wearing the best body armor?

The head-to-head tests were over.  But we wondered just how much more Dragon Skin could take.  Engineers loaded three rounds of a bullet so powerful, the Army doesn’t require its body armor to defend it against it.  In fact, the Army asked NBC News not to say anything more about the bullet beyond the fact that it is “of a composite nature.”

Dragon Skin repelled all three rounds fired.  And did so with minimal trauma.

“Dragon Skin appears to have done much better than what those Army tests would have indicated,” Downing said.

Downing’s conclusion: the Army needs to take another look. “What I saw today on Dragon Skin, you know, it looks pretty good.  And that's what I will tell the Army leadership.  And I think it deserves an independent agency testing it, to see how it stacks up.  I mean we did not see today the types of failures that were described in that very controversial [Army] test report.”

We reviewed our test results with the Army, and the man in charge body armor, Brig. Gen. Mark Brown.

LISA MYERS: Would you support a full, unbiased, side-by-side test of Dragon Skin and the Army's current body armor?

BRIG. GEN. MARK BROWN: Lisa, I...

MYERS: ...by someone outside the Army?

BROWN: We don't do side-by-side tests.  We do tests to a standard.  We tested Dragon Skin to the standard… Dragon Skin failed miserably.

These limited tests commissioned by NBC News did not expose Dragon Skin to extreme temperatures — like those in Iraq and Afghanistan — as the Army did.  The Army says environmental testing is key.

The maker of Dragon Skin, Murray Neal, says other environmental tests indicate his armor holds up.

Web extra video Army defends its body armor May 17: Brig. Gen. Mark Brown explains to NBC's Lisa Myers why the Army says America's fighting men and women are wearing the best possible body armor. NBC News Web Extra

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ), the branch of the Justice Department that evaluates body armor for law enforcement use, has tested a different version of Dragon Skin — a “Level III” vest.  The NIJ certified that vest as safe for use last fall, even though an earlier Marine Corps study obtained by NBC News concluded that the same armor had failed.  The Marines found that the Level III Dragon Skin armor could stop nearly all deadly rounds, but that the expected trauma to the body would be too great.

Neal believes his system is superior to the Army’s. “We can provide more coverage, which will save more lives.  We can stop multiple repeat hits, which will save more lives.  We can stop greater threats, which will save more lives.  And we can stop substantial IED fragmentation threats, which will save more lives than the current system,” Neal says.

We were surprised to learn that one expert who agrees with him is Jim Magee, the man who originally helped design the Army’s Interceptor body armor.

We asked Magee what he thinks is the best body armor available today.

“Dragon Skin is the best out there, hands down. It’s better than the Interceptor,” he said. “It is state of the art. In some cases, it’s two steps ahead of anything I’ve ever seen.”

Why? He says more stopping power and more coverage.

According to Magee, the Army’s Interceptor uses four rigid plates to stop the most lethal bullets, leaving some vital organs unprotected. Dragon Skin — with discs that interconnect like medieval chain mail — can wrap most of a soldier’s torso, providing a greater area of maximum protection.

Magee, who says he has no financial stake whatsoever in Dragon Skin, told us, “If you would ask me today, ‘Jim we’re sending you to Iraq tomorrow. What would you wear?’ I would buy Dragon Skin and I would wear it.”

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