PASS

PASS 2025

Personal Armour Systems Symposium

September 22-26 2025

Bruges, Belgium

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Latest Updates (update 24 April 2025)

Registration will open soon, Early-bird submission possible until June 1st
The proceedings of PASS 2020 are now available through the link on the right
The sponsorship flyer is now available
Paper submission is closed!

Proceedings

The Department of Weapon Systems and Ballistics of the Royal Military Academy is proud to announce that it will be hosting the 17th International Personal Armour System Symposium in the city of Bruges, Belgium.

The Department of Weapon Systems and Ballistics is looking forward to giving you a warm welcome at the next International Symposium in Bruges!

About PASS 2025:

The International Personal Armour Committee (IPAC) is pleased to announce that PASS 2025 is hosted in Belgium, at the BMCC in the City of Bruges, the capital of the West-Flemish Province. PASS 2025 will offer an outstanding opportunity for the exchange of views and experiences in the field of personal armour systems in an operational environment.

PASS is the only scientific symposium exclusively dedicated to the personal protection that brings together technical experts and scientists in that field. It provides a unique opportunity:

to interact with key players in this field of activities
to discuss the scientific and technological challenges
to discover the latest technical and commercial innovations

PASS 2025 will be the 17th in a series of symposia, which began at SCRDE in Colchester, UK.

PASS Symposia have been traditionally hosted by European countries every 2 years since 1990. The massive participation from North America has encouraged alternating the venue between the two regions. The last Symposium in 2023 took place in Dresden, Germany. The PASS Conferences attract more than 200 attendees from countries around the world.

Experts will share the results of the latest research and discussions will allow inputs from participants. Attendees will include representatives from defence and academic research organizations, industry, military and police forces. Symposium subjects include personal protection, military and police body armour, helmets, EOD protection and associated medical implications. In conjunction with the symposium, there will be an industry area to allow the discussion, illustration and promotion of ideas and equipment from our sponsors and exhibitors.

The International Personal Armour Committee (IPAC) is responsible for the selection of papers to be presented at PASS 2025. Every submission will be peer-reviewed and papers will be selected on the basis of technical merit, originality, clarity of presentation and general interest.

Marketing presentations will not be accepted. The IPAC encourages industry to present research aspects behind innovations in materials and personal armour end items. The presentation of the paper at the Symposium can either be an oral presentation or a brief oral introduction followed by a poster session. A short curriculum vitae (200 words max) and recent photograph of the presenter should be submitted with the paper (template will be made available online). Abstracts and all papers must be UNCLASSIFIED and cleared for public release. The official language of the symposium will be English. Full papers, when submitted, should include significant results, figures and references.

About the Department of Weapon Systems and Ballistics

The Department of Weapon Systems & Ballistics, which is part of the Royal Military Academy, is one of the academic departments responsible for the education of future officers studying at the RMA. The Department has three main research units and a ballistics laboratory which is ISO 17025 certified.

Survivability and Risk Assessment

POC: Col Dr Ir Col Johan Gallant

Simulation models for the evaluation of survivability of combat systems in different scenarios are used to evaluate techniques and procedures. Innovative multi-resolution computations based upon Monte Carlo simulations are used.

Research interests include system-of-systems analysis, survivability, vulnerability, lethality, hit probability, kill probability, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), Stochastic simulations, ray tracing (line of fire), CAD and 3D-visualisation.

Local Response to Impact

POC: LtCol. IMM Dr Ir Frederik Coghe

Ballistic optimization of personal protection against fragments, bullets and blast. Ballistic terminal effects both experimentally and numerically using finite element codes.

Research interests include personal protection, fragment resistance, bullet resistance, stab resistance, terminal ballistics, ballistic metrology, finite element models / finite elements analysis.

Human Body Response

POC: LtCol. Dr Ir Alexandre Papy

The effect of the impact of a less-lethal projectile on the human body is studied in order to ascertain the risk of permanent injury, after the use of less-lethal ammunition, on the basis of kinetic energy.

Research interests include non-lethal weapons, biomimetic models, musculoskeletal models, behind armour blunt trauma and wound ballistics.

Accredited ballistic applications laboratory

POC: Major Ir Jurgen Grossen

The laboratory hosts a 103.25 m indoor shooting range. Research is conducted in the areas of internal ballistic, gun dynamics, external ballistics, terminal ballistics, vulnerability and lethal/non-lethal ballistics.

The laboratory is uniquely accredited for the measurement of pressures inside the weapon (C.I.P., SAAMI and NATO standards) and for the measurement of velocities outside but also inside the weapon.

The laboratory is further equipped with a high speed thermal camera, a high speed camera, a Volumetric scanner Faro®, a 3D scanner Krypton®, a Projectile Orientation Measurement (POM) device, a Digital Image Correlation System (VIC-3D ®), Hopkinson pressure bar, velocity radars, velocity screens, shadowgraphs/Schlieren, ...

About the Royal Military Academy

The Royal Military Academy, the country's only bilingual and federal university, educates women and men who are committed to today's society and ready to serve. This education combines human, exact and applied sciences, new technologies and military traditions. Our education cannot be detached from the world around us, which is why it is supported by strong academic research, collaboration with other universities, research centres or industries, and by meeting young people coming from other universities or military schools. In this context, participation in the ERASMUS programme enables exchanges that are essential to the high quality of this education.

The RMA is a place for the transfer of knowledge, but also of values. The selected candidates are at the centre of our attention. Constant follow-up with coaching increases their chances of successfully completing the training, of developing a strong sense of leadership and people skills, and of being fully prepared to embark on an officer's career in the service of our society.