Greetings folks. Just an FYI — I’ve been at a military armor protection conference today getting the latest insight on body and vehicle armor, active protection systems, advanced materials and other protective equipment.
First bit of news comes from an official with the Army’s combat developments directorate at Fort Benning who described some upcoming “soldier protection demonstrations” that will take a look at various new technology solutions to common problems on the battlefield. This is the same way the Army came up with its vastly-improved body armor, or IOTV.
The first initiative is a combat vehicle crewman armor suite that recognizes the tight confines of a vehicle and its various entry ports and takes advantage of the vehicles inherent armor protection. But the official, John Yancey, recognized that Humvee gunners and other vehicle gunners might need more armor for blast mitigation in an IED scenario.
It all needs to fit into a new philosophy the Army wants vendors to adhere to in armor design that calls for modularization in armor components. In other words, Yancey wants to give commanders the leeway to add or subtract armor components based on mission and threat. A door kicker only needs a plate carrier, a vehicle gunner needs arm, shoulder, face and neck protection, he said.
Another SPD going on right now at Benning is looking into hearing protection and enhancement. Kinda like “hunters ear” already on the market.
Yancey also talked about an upcoming SPD on lower extremity protection, including six vendors who’ve submitted products such as ballistic shorts, pants and chaps. Yancey admitted no Soldier was going to have to wear Kevlar pants on patrol, but a vehicle gunner might really appreciate them. He also mentioned that the Army was taking another look at whether the current padding system in the advanced combat helmet is making the grade.
Stay tuned for more from the Military Armor Protection conference taking place in Alexandria, Va., today and tomorrow.
– Christian
Time for a HALO suit, nothing like a punch of Master Chiefs kicking butt and taking names.
Damn, that guy on the pic is armored like hell. Any idea bout weight of all that stuff?
BTW what kind of protection all those parts offer? NIJ III?
Yes, it looks heavy. But this guy is wearing the full suit. I think the point of the new suit is that you only have to wear parts of it. Which is pretty cool.
Christian,
At the conference, could you let us know or make some comments/inquiries on how the Army sees the exoskeleton (that Sarcos/Raytheon is working on) fitting into this new need for protection of more body area coverage?
If you don’t know what I’m referring to, pls see this: http://www.popsci.com/scitech/article/2008–04/building-real-iron-man
could you post some pics of some things you saw at the conference? PLEASE??
I’d have loved to have gone, but those conferences are WAY too pricey?!!
GREAT i cant wait to wear this in the 120 degree of iraq and then fallout from a heat injury. if you think commanders will use good judgment and make mission specific choices. you are dead wrong. most will say “just put it all on” everytime from the fear of someone getting hurt by making of choice of not putting on all the armor. and then getting pounded on by the chain of command for not wearing full battle rattle that could have avoided the injury in the first place. a friend of mine got yelled at by a sargent major for wearing his tee shirt and his body armor over it in a tank. in iraq sitting inside the drivers hole in a tank for 9 plus hours it gets plenty hot. why did he get a article 15? he was out of uniform by not wearing his acu top. common sense not something found in the army.
That full suit should ONLY be worn for MOUT operations in urban environments.After all,you can only move from room to room as fast as a closed & locked door will let you.Hell yes,this is impractical for wide open areas like the Afghanistan mountainsides,but it would have been nice for clearing buildings(& mosques) in Fallujah.I’m sure,with an appropriate close quarter weapon,nobody would mind the extra weight,in closed quarters(like maybe “tunnel rats”),if it was the only thing protecting them.
slntax,
It’s nice to know that there are still dumb ass senior NCOs who only seem to care more about how your sleeping bag is “canoe rolled” than common sense protection of the troops.Unless the “senior NCO” felt that the “flame retardant” capabilities of the ACU top(they are flame retardant,aren’t they?) would protect the soldier in case a fire broke out in the tank(versus,if the T-Shirt is made of polyester,the T-Shirt melting into his skin & making any burn worse),then it does seem damn stupid to worry about “military appearance” in a war zone.
I still say though that that full body armor suit should only be worn in a urban situation of clearing rooms or poking into tunnels to find the enemy.THAT’S common sense.
I’m worried about mobility. I bet those arms and legs don’t bend as easily.
Any idea who produces this suit, how much is full weight and how much for one suit? Or any information sources?
atacms,
First, the exoskeleton was not discussed at the conference. I think that’s too far off in the future to be practical and may be overcome by events such as carbon nano-tube empregnated polymer fiber armors and other innovations. Also, not much to take pictures of unfortunately. There weren’t many vendors at all.
Of course, it’s obvius to us bloggers that you should only make a man wear part of the suit. That’s the point of the suit.
But war isn’t always so cut-and-dry. I’m reminded of how in “Black Hawk Down”, the men didn’t bring night vision because they were sure the mission would be done before dark.
NCO’s want to make sure every man gets home safe as opposed to whether every man is comfortable. And yes, I do realize its easy to defend NCO’s when I’m not around them
Has anything been done in relation to face protective masks? Running in an open battle field makes these full armor suits totally impractical,but would the suits work in,say,a SWAT type situation of entering houses & clearing rooms? That seems the only real practical use for them.
d