Greetings, visitors from the Group News Blog and from AlterNet. Thanks for stopping by. At the bottom of this article you will find links to 18 other articles I've written about the Army's search for a better armor design and its stubborn and loyal steadfastness to what is apparently a second best design, Point Blank's Interceptor. The entire series can be found in a topic guide in the left hand margin.
If you like what you read, please feel free to peruse some of our other topics.
The Body Armor debate is back in the news again. Stung by Congressional criticism, the Army has one again agreed to a side-by-side live fire comparison of the “controversial” Dragon Skin armor system and the currently issued Interceptor armor, worn by GIs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Army has opted to delay testing of new body armor designs that can stop powerful armor piercing bullets and vests that contain flexible plating much like the controversial Dragon Skin armor.Citing industry requests, the Army's top gear buyer told Military.com the test firing on so-called "XSAPI" and "FSAPI" armor would be held off until March 2008.
"Some body armor manufacturers told us they needed a little more time to get long-lead materials and to test new designs before they could submit them to us," said Brig. Gen. Mark Brown, head of the Fort Belvoir, Va.-based Program Executive Office Soldier.Brown said the new armor designs would likely be tested at Aberdeen Test Center, Md., beginning in March and finished up by June. Testing on the new designs was previously set to begin last fall.
A cynical fly on the wall would not have been surprised to have heard “some” armor manufacturer say, “Are you insane? We can’t stand up to a side-by-side test! We need to to build a better vest for the testing.”
The Army insists the Interceptor is the best armor available, and has in fact warned GIs that if they wear Dragon Skin and are injured or killed, they families will not be allowed to collect their SGLI benefits.
The Army was pressured into launching a new solicitation for body armor designs after lawmakers held hearings on Capitol Hill to delve into the debate surrounding Dragon Skin, which is made by Fresno, Calif.-based Pinnacle Armor. An NBC News investigative report in May claimed that the flexible Dragon Skin armor was far more protective than the current Interceptor system, which uses two rigid ceramic plates to stop armor-piercing bullets.
Who are you going to believe? NBC News or the Army? Decisions, decisions.
The Army came out swinging before the NBC report aired, claiming Dragon Skin had catastrophically failed several make-or-break tests it had conducted -- the same kinds of tests used to certify all body armor systems submitted to the Army for fielding.
So, the Army prefers the Interceptor, now improved, with side panels.
Apparently the Army has no problem with visiting Senators looking for photo ops wearing Dragon Skin armor.
They also have no problem with Sith Lords who visit Iraq for whatever dark purpose.
If any reader believes Whining Joe Lieberman and Dick “dick” Cheney aren’t wearing the very best armor money can buy, please contact me. I have a controlling interest in a bridge I’m prepared to sell you for a bargain price. After gaining approval from the Mayor of New York, and the Borough Presidents of Manhattan and Brooklyn you will be able to erect toll booths. It’s an income for life!
But that didn't stop some Dragon Skin advocates from claiming the fix was in, prompting a House Armed Services Committee hearing June 6 that pitted Pinnacle chief Murray Neal against the anti-Dragon Skin Army brass.Nevertheless, the committee's ranking member, Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., called for a side-by-side test of Dragon Skin and the Interceptor run by government engineers and overseen by both congressional and Pentagon auditors. That led to the Army's June 20 request to industry for both flexible armor designs like Dragon Skin -- which incorporates a series of interlocking ceramic disks rather than a single rigid plate -- and for a so-called "XSAPI" plate which could stop armor piercing rounds the current ESAPI can't.
Attentive readers will note that the Army agreed to the tests only after Representative Hunter – a republican – demanded them. Requests from soldiers, their families and survivors, press, and Democrats were ignored. I wouldn’t want you to labor under the misapprehension that today’s Army is the Army of all the citizens.
[BG Mark Brown, head of the Fort Belvoir, Va.-based Program Executive Office Soldier] said part of the delay in testing comes from industry's inability to create an XSAPI plate that comes in under the weight limit of about seven pounds for a size "large" plate, about a pound more than the current ESAPI."One thing troops in the field have told us is they don't want any more weight with a new armor system," Brown said, adding that preliminary submissions for XSAPI have been too heavy.
Pinnacle's [DragonSkin] [Murry] Neal says he plans to submit Dragon Skin samples for the upcoming test and is glad the Army is finally taking his technology seriously."The extensions, as we have been told by several Army personnel, are primarily for the current manufacturers to fix the plates that have been run through preliminary testing and that are not passing with enough percentage to guarantee passing the [final] testing," Neal said in a email to Military.com, adding he's only too eager to pit his flexible -- otherwise known as "scalar" -- system up against any comers.
If their vests weren’t ready in the Summer of 2007, and they needed more time to jigger improvements, then the Interceptor certainly wasn’t the best vest available.
I just want to point out that NBC filmed their side-by-side tests of the Interceptor and Dragon Skin vests. The Army either didn’t, or won’t release the films. Suspicions that the Mk II pencil was involved in the testing just might be valid.
NOTE: This story has been updated. See here.
The Body Armor Series
The Rule of the Six P’s
Point Blank Rage: The Body Armor Scandal
Dept of Head No Longer Hurting
Army Fields New Body Armor Design
Passing the Test With the Pencil
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