Can someone explain how the overvest ceramic plate carriers work?  Are they to be worn over a standard soft body armor vest say a level IIIA?  Just curious.  

Quoted: Can someone explain how the overvest ceramic plate carriers work?  Are they to be worn over a standard soft body armor vest say a level IIIA?  Just curious.

There's 2 types of hard plates: standalone plates, which do not require soft armor (it's already incorporated inth the plate), and in-conjunction plates, which require soft 3-A armor backing them up.

Yes, you wear the plate carrier over the soft armor (if you have in-conjunction plates). Some plate carriers have MOLLE stripping for attaching pouches, some are plain - you then need a load-bearing vest to attach pouches to.

Then you get into the materials of the plate, but that's another issue entirely.