AP: “Just six months after the Pentagon agreed to reimburse soldiers who bought their own protective gear, the Army has banned the use of any body armor that is not issued by the military.”
In a new directive, effective immediately, the Army said it cannot guarantee the quality of commercially bought armor, and any soldier wearing it will have to turn it in and have it replaced with authorized gear.
Army officials told The Associated Press on Thursday the order was prompted by concerns that soldiers or their families were buying inadequate or untested commercial armor from private companies — including the popular Dragon Skin gear made by California-based Pinnacle Armor.
The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, which is usually mega-critical of the Pentagon’s higher-ups, agrees with the Army this time. “The Army has to ensure some level of quality… They don’t want soldiers relying on equipment that is weak or substandard,” executive director Paul Rieckhoff tells the AP.
But Soldiers for the Truth contends that, “Despite all the evidence to the contrary, including [Army Program Executive Office] Soldier’s own ballistic tests conducted at two Army research laboratories that irrefutably proved Dragon Skin was a superior product, the officers charged with providing America’s warriors with the best protection possible continue to maintain that the Army’s home-grown Interceptor OTV body armor is superior.” The site also has the internal Army e-mail telling commanders to diss the Dragon Skin.
A. There may be Soldiers deployed in OIF/OEF who are wearing a commercial body armor called “Dragon Skin,” made by Pinnacle Armor, in lieu of their issued Interceptor Body Armor (IBA). Media releases and related advertising imply that Dragon Skin is superior in performance to IBA. The Army has been unable to determine the veracity of these claims.
B. The Army has been involved in the development of Dragon Skin and the different technology it employs. In its current state of development, Dragon Skin’s capabilities do not meet Army requirements. In fact, Dragon Skin has not been certified by the Army for protection against several small arms threats being encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan today.
A loud, messy lawsuit over someone getting killed that was wearing non-issue armor is probably something that the army’d like to avoid now that there are sufficient stocks of equipment to hand.
Now if someone would get up on their hind legs and demonstrate some of the moral courage that such a high store is set by and actually say so instead of the constant passive-aggressive back stage maneuvering that seems to be the way things are done…
Let me see…1 — We’re out of armor. 2 — You or family buys it for you and we reimburse you (maybe). 3 — Now, you can only wear armor that we provide, but we may revert to step 1.
Hellova way to fight a war!
If I was king for a day, I’d say keep the armor you or your family already paid for, until Uncle Sam issues you something that is approved. Once approved armor is issued, wear it and use personal armor to sit on, or for some additional protection not otherwise provided for. Soldier wears approved armor, additional personal armor does not go to waste and soldier derives any added protection afforded by extra armor.
Been a security contractor in Iraq since 2003 working security details
wore dragon skin on present contract becaus it was issued the problems i have with Dragons skin are as follows,if you have to go up stairs or run any distance it restricts your breathing making you short of breath, the scales also start to settle so u have to turn it upside down to reset the armor and last of all, too heavy.In my opinion the best armor on the market and best quality is Paraclete which I have been wearing for the past 2 years in Iraq.
Dear Sirs,
We have not only made our Skalaar Exo-Skin modular, but we are now using B4C tiles made to a specification that far exceeds the current Cercom or Ceradyne B4C performance (13% higher V-50 results against the APM2. They have also been designed to address the flaws in Dragon Skin. The Paraclete version is one of our choice carriers, but we are also working with special forces to design a new Molle carrier in conjunction with several tenders and units we are involved with.
The tiles are now being manufactured, and we are producing. Interested parties can email us at info@evolutionarmor.com. for purchase arrangements. delivery is 8 — 10 weeks, and only qualified military, special forces, and law enforcement entities can but this armor.
Regards,
Allan D. Bain