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Well, I think it is quite hard to say that they provide much protection physically, but at least so far, we know they do provide protection against gases. It also won't strain physics credibility to say they block energy. They can even block laser light by taking advantage of polarization (it is unlikely the laser's light, which is polarized in a fixed direction, will be of the correct polarization to get through a polarizing barrier).
The BJ did seem to protect Nanoha against Vita's fire magic. Of course, there was probably enough obscuration there to have an active defence, but in the absence of necessity it'll be additional, unjustified complexity.
(However, if in Season 4, a hot pancake starts to melt a Barrier Jacket, we might have to give this a rethink...)
Perhaps this is the real reason why the Belkans weren't annihilated, instead of idiot engineering. By the time they made barrier jackets, everyone has gone "beyond" projectile pea-shooters and are using laser or particle weapons. Note that we see what seems to be particle beams in their Reminiscence of the Past scene, rather than projectile guns like ours. This energy-shielding invention sharply reduced the effectiveness of such weapons.
At the same time, in Velkan society, swords and other melee weapons had been relegated to ceremonial status, a prestige symbol. Then, one day, someone realized that their ceremonial swords can easily slice apart people wearing barrier jackets. Boom, melee society goes up.
Really a little like KOTOR's Energy / Mass sort method, but then, this model is at least justifiable from an engineering viewpoint.
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