Prison Inmates Produced Thousands Of Defective Helmets

Did you ever stop to think that is a direct result of the DoD's policy to purchase from the low bidder. The concept of having to be the low bidder drives companies to look for any means available to try and make some profit on a system that squeezes the crap out of contractors. I don't agree with the end result that this unfortunate incident rendered, but I do understand how they got there. There was a period of time when soldier safety equipment was purchased using "best value" to determine what contractor was selected to make body armor and helmets... allowing a fair profit along with a well made product; but with the end of the war, sequestration, reduced procurements, and a general downturn in business the government returned to their tried and true method for insuring contractors suffered... giving it a new name "Lowest Price Technically Acceptable" (LPTA)... now that can produce some real crap-olla! Unless of course you want to acquire soldier safety equipment using the ever popular "Reverse Auction" a process by which you lower the price of what you are offering until you are the absolute low bidder and voila... you win. (Remember the old adage "You get what you pay for".) Only by the time you get there the award price might be less then cost of the materials and labor to make the item ... so you begin to look for alternatives and there is UNICOR. Let me also point out that for those of you who have not had the opportunity to be a DoD contractor the word "Profit" is not a 4 letter word. It is actually possible for the DoD to get sound reliable equipment from its contractors as long as they don't try to squeeze their cohunes... to hard and for a company to make a profit without having to resort to the likes of UNICOR but it is a lesson that the government seems to forget. I should also point out that "...numerous defects including “serious ballistic failures,” according to a new Defense Department Office of Inspector General report." The failures referenced here were all on the test range and not in the field. What has been selectively left out is that while a recall for the helmets was conducted there were not cases of a failure or injury reported from the field. The recall was done based on an abundance of safety--as it should have been.

They recalled these in 2010, I was in Iraq on a JTF and we had to report helmet and vest stock numbers and in Kuwait before everyone left on R & R had to turn in VEST with plates and Helmet and they replaced the plates and checked the helmets. This sucks it happen but usually they get on top of when it does. I know of at least three recalls from 2006- 2012. My last deployment 2012 Afghanistan we had to check our plates.