One of the most important applications of material processing has been the protection of humans and their facilities during times of war. With the creation of firearms, there arose a need for the enhancement of this protection, now known as ballistic protection. Materials for ballistic protection and their processing are the focus of research around the world. One of the biggest challenges is to develop materials light enough for personal protection. A promising material for this kind of application is silicon carbide, that absorbs approximately 55% of the energy by breaking upon projectile impact. However, one of the challenges in processing this material lies in the temperature required for sintering. Temperatures above 2000°C and small volume of economically accessible furnaces hinder parameter control and limit the size of the pieces. The additive manufacturing process, that up to now has been successfully applied to produce polymer and metal pieces, is now being studied as a possible processing method for ceramic materials. In this review, we discuss the evolution of additive manufacturing with a focus on the processing of ceramic materials and, primarily, silicon carbide, with the purpose of presenting existing technologies in the market and the stages of the process, as well as a brief comparison between the characteristics of materials submitted to conventional processing and additive manufacturing.