marines-looking-to-field-new-plate-carriers-and-body-armor

This headline brings to mind an excerpt from the "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner"... "Water, water, everywhere, And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, everywhere, Nor any drop to drink." At this point in time the US military has been designing, adjusting redesigning and purchasing body armor for the past 15 years and yet the quest goes on. The real solution resides in the Pentagon... Where the senior leadership of the services refuses to change the specifications that drive the design of the body armor plate forcing vendors to over-design the hard plate to insure it passes acceptance testing. It is a well intentioned requirement but it is the probably the single most important data point in body armor design. The most recent effort by PM Soldier under the Soldier Protective Systems Imitative (SPS) to lower the weight by a mere 10% yielded a plate that was only 7% lighter when tested against current performance requirements. The 15% goal for weight reduction was so far out of reach that the specifications for weight were adjusted down to meet what industry could deliver. After spending over 15 years in the body armor business I am sure that I will be barraged with war stories and fairytales about what is good and bad about how the DoD goes about buying body armor. It is unfortunate but most such comments are not tuned into the reality of what is needed. There are many issues related to the design and performance of body armor first and foremost on the list is the "Laws of Physics"... and no scientist, engineer or General Officer can change what it takes to defeat a bullet that can impact a plate at 3,200 ft. per sec. manufactured with a tungsten carbide core designed to penetrate up to 2in of rolled homogeneous armor. The effort must continue but making a plate smaller while it does make the plate lighter it also makes exposure of vital organs more likely... better material are needed and a serious look at the speciation's is warranted given the on-going need for improvement. This is not a new issue... despite the flashy headline!