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Pentagon report says body armor plates may not meet standards
This story has been perking the last week or so. Now it's in the FayOb.
http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2011/08/17/1116273?sac=Home
"WASHINGTON - The Army improperly tested new bullet-blocking plates for body armor and cannot be certain that 5 million pieces of the critical battlefield equipment meet the standards to protect U.S. troops, the Defense Department's inspector general found.............."
Yeah - I heard that on NPR yesterday afternoon when out running errands and thought, "WTF now?"
Pentagon: Army Improperly Tested Body Armor Plates
The Army improperly tested new bullet-blocking plates for body armor and cannot be certain that 5 million pieces of the critical battlefield equipment meet the standards to protect U.S. troops, the Defense Department's inspector general found.
The Pentagon report focused on seven Army contracts for the plates, known as ballistic inserts, awarded between 2004 and 2006 and totaling $2.5 billion. The inspector general's audit, carried out over a two-year period ending in March, found the tests were incomplete, conducted with the wrong size plates or relied on ballistic test rounds that were inconsistent. Due to the demands of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, tests under certain temperatures and altitudes were scrapped altogether.
(cont'd)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=139694304
Richard :munchin
Point Blank If I remember right lost their contract for BA over a Plant outside of Houston not producing to Spec BA back in 2006 or 2008. It made the news and all. Point Blank fixed it within a Month, fired a dozen or so people over it.
For me this happens ever so many years. At least someone is catching it. Just hope it's not during combat!!
Units are X-raying Plates after each trip and for us before our trips.
I think SOF units have the best system. We have so many guys in and out of the boxes that you can take it down to your GIP to get a "new" set that was jsut X-Rayed. Bragg has it best due to all of the USASOC units on post and 82nd is rolled up in the program too.
The Reaper
08-18-2011, 17:22
Pentagon report says body armor plates may not meet standards
This story has been perking the last week or so. Now it's in the FayOb.
http://www.fayobserver.com/articles/2011/08/17/1116273?sac=Home
"WASHINGTON - The Army improperly tested new bullet-blocking plates for body armor and cannot be certain that 5 million pieces of the critical battlefield equipment meet the standards to protect U.S. troops, the Defense Department's inspector general found.............."
I understand that testing may not have taken place as frequently and under the conditions required. That is wrong, and anyone found responsible should pay the price.
At the same time, the premise that large numbers of troops are dying because of failed body armor is bogus.
There are a tremendous number of people alive today due to the protection of their torsos by currently issued body armor. Many surviving amputees would also have died from thoracic trauma as well had it not been protected by the armor.
The lack of coverage and resultant thoracic trauma is due, in a large part, to the fact that the partial coverage of the chest and back center of mass against Level 4 threats takes two plates weighing over 20 pounds. There are side plates available, which cover maybe 6"x6" at a cost of several more pounds. Shoulder, groin, and neck protection are available against lower level threats, but not rifle rounds. If the upper arm is not protected, rounds can go through the arm and into the torso, frequently into the axillary arteries. 100% coverage Level 4 torso protection would weigh 50 pounds or more and would limit your ability to move and fire a weapon, much less fight. And your head is not protected to Level 4, nor your face at all.
Our soldiers today have, IMHO, the best individual armor protection, armored vehicles, and medical care available.
Of course, the safest thing is to not enlist, stay home, and criticize the warriors.
If staying alive at all costs is your objective, best not to tempt the Gods of War in the first place.
Just my .02, YMMV.
TR
SpikedBuck
08-18-2011, 18:43
Very well said! We are constantly making improvements, and body armor has recently been improved and re-fielded in Theater...we continually make improvements to EFP protection for vehicles as well. Our equipment is the best in the world and does save lives.
I understand that testing may not have taken place as frequently and under the conditions required. That is wrong, and anyone found responsible should pay the price.
At the same time, the premise that large numbers of troops are dying because of failed body armor is bogus.
There are a tremendous number of people alive today due to the protection of their torsos by currently issued body armor. Many amputees would also have died from thoracic trauma as well had it not been protected by the armor.
The lack of coverage and resultant thoracic trauma is due, in a large part, to the fact that the partial coverage of the chest and back center of mass against Level 4 threats takes two plates weighing over 20 pounds. There are side plates available, which cover maybe 6"x6" at a cost of several more pounds. Shoulder, groin, and neck protection are available against lower level threats, but not rifle rounds. If the upper arm is not protected, rounds can go through the arm and into the torso, frequently into the axillary arteries. 100% coverage Level 4 torso protection would weigh 50 pounds or more and would limit your ability to move and fire a weapon, much less fight. And your head is not protected to Level 4, nor your face at all.
Our soldiers today have, IMHO, the best individual protection, armored vehicles, and medical care available.
Of course, the safest thing is to not enlist, stay home, and criticize the warriors.
If staying alive at all costs is your objective, best not to tempt the Gods of War in the first place.
Just my .02, YMMV.
TR
mark46th
08-22-2011, 17:39
Ceramic Plates!? We don' need no stinkin' ceramic plates! We got- Spider silk and goat's milk?
Utah researcher helps artist make bulletproof skin
By LYNN DeBRUIN, Associated Press – 1 day ago
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A bio-art project to create bulletproof skin has given a Utah State researcher even more hope his genetically engineered spider silk can be used to help surgeons heal large wounds and create artificial tendons and ligaments.
Researcher Randy Lewis and his collaborators gained worldwide attention recently when they found a commercially viable way to manufacture silk fibers using goats and silkworms that had spider genes inserted into their makeup.
Spider silk is one of the strongest fibers known and five times stronger than steel. Lewis' fibers are not that strong but much stronger than silk spun by ordinary worms.
With Lewis' help, Dutch artist Jalila Essaidi conducted an experiment weaving a lattice of human skin cells and silk that was capable of stopping bullets fired at reduced speeds.
"Randy and I were moved by the same drive I think, curiosity about the outcome of the project," Essaidi said in an email interview. "Both the artist and scientist are inherently curious beings."
Lewis thought the project was a bit off the wall at first, Essaidi acknowledged.
"But in the end, what curious person can say no to a project like this?" she said.
Essaidi, who used a European genetics-in-art grant to fund her project at the Designers & Artists 4 Genomics Awards, initially wanted to use Lewis' spider silk from goats to capitalize on the "grotesque factor" of the mammal-spider combination.
But Lewis didn't yet have enough of the spider goat silk to send hundreds of yards to Essaidi. So he sent her spools of silk from silkworms he had genetically engineered in a fashion similar to the goats.
Essaidi initially intended to fire .22 caliber bullets at the "skin" stretched in a frame. But she decided to place the "skin" on a special gelatin block used at the Netherlands Forensic Institute.
Using a high-speed camera, she showed a bullet fired at a reduced speed piercing the skin woven with an ordinary worm's silk But when tested with Lewis' genetically engineered worm's silk grafted between the epidermis and dermis, the skin didn't break. Neither was able to repel a bullet fired at normal speed from a .22 caliber rifle.
"We were more than a little surprised that the final skin kept the bullet from going in there," Lewis said of the tests at reduced speed. "It still ended up 2 inches into the torso, so it would not have saved your life. But without a doubt the most exciting part for us is the fact that they were able to recreate the skin on top of our fibers. It's something we haven't done. Nobody has worked in that area."
Essaidi was intrigued by the concept of spider silk as armor, and wanted to show that safety in its broadest sense is a relative concept, hence bulletproof.
"If human skin would be able to produce this thread, would we be protected from bullets?" she wondered on her blog. "I want to explore the social, political, ethical and cultural issues surrounding safety in a world with access to new biotechnologies."