About Us
About Gilliam Arms
Gilliam Arms is a U.S. body armor manufacturer owned by Gilliam Technical Services LLC (GTS), founded in 2004 and headquartered in Emerald Isle, North Carolina. Formerly sold under the names GTS Armor and Gilliam Technical Services, Gilliam Arms designs and builds RF1, RF2 and RF3 ceramic composite armor plates and publishes the laboratory test reports for every model it sells. Ballistic testing is performed by NIJ-accredited laboratories.
Performance saves lives. No compromises.
We bring dependable and predictable body armor to the public. We evaluate every design at NIJ labs. We drop test every armor design at NIJ labs, or disclose when we do not. We will not compromise sound design or adequate materials to the detriment of our customers. We will establish and maintain the most well-informed community in the body armor industry.
Nearly Four Centuries of American Heritage
Gilliam Arms traces its lineage to the earliest colonial settlers of Virginia, where the Gilliam name has been documented since 1635. Our family's American story begins with John and Thomas Gilliam, who arrived in Virginia aboard the ship George from Gravesend, England, as part of the great wave of English colonization that established the foundations of what would become the United States.
Modern American Service
The founder of Gilliam Arms, W. Gilliam, has served as a police officer in Norfolk, Virginia, and as an analyst with the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. He holds Airline Transport Pilot certification and FAA Flight Instructor credentials, and has authored research publications on aviation safety. He founded Chesapeake Bay Helicopters with his family, where he helped pioneer the world's first aerial platform operating simultaneous LiDAR, infrared, corona, day-TV, and ortho (nadir) imaging.
Why We Are Different
When you really understand something, you seek to improve it. That is why Gilliam Arms is the only armor company that produces its own proprietary ballistic adhesive, ARMORFILM™.
Ballistic adhesive is what holds a hard armor plate's strike face, ceramic, and backer together under impact — and it is the single most overlooked component in the industry. Most armor companies buy adhesive off the shelf and design around its limitations. We engineered ours to perform.
ARMORFILM™ was developed to bond ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene and other ballistic substrates to ceramic. It activates at dwell times and temperatures well below the melting point of polyethylene, protecting the ballistic core during processing while delivering exceptional adhesive strength. The result is a plate built with redundancy and consistency that off-the-shelf solutions cannot match.
Sourcing & Country of Origin
We follow performance, model by model.
Our ARMORFILM™ adhesive system and foams are American. Our plates are built in North Carolina, USA. Like the vast majority of major armor producers, some other ballistic materials are sourced from NATO member states. For these reasons, we describe our plates as Made in the USA with domestic and global materials — a qualified country-of-origin claim (rare in the armor industry) that complies with the Federal Trade Commission's Made in USA Labeling Rule (16 CFR Part 323). In order to protect our proprietary interests, we do not name every supplier.
Most models incorporate custom polyethylene backing laminated and pressed in a NATO-member state. For each model, we select our fiber strength and resin matrix. This allows us to keep our armor strong, light, predictable and affordable. A significant number of heavy presses are in motion to eliminate supply chain disruptions.
Every armor plate can be traced to sources via materials codes, labels, build sheets and manufacturing logs.
For general information about our overall, quality process - read our blog post.
Gilliam Arms is owned and operated by Gilliam Technical Services LLC. Family Heritage Est. 1635. Gilliam Technical Services founded 2004.