I just wanted to give everyone a head’s up that I’ll have a story running tomorrow AM about a new kind of body armor the Marine Corps is fielding to some of its troops in Afghanistan, the Western Pacific and to some vehicle crewmen.
The so-called “scalable plate carrier” was purchased after a March 2007 urgent needs statement from the field requested armor with less weight and coverage for troops in hot, high altitude or jungle environments.
I’m sure this will spark some debate about the pros and cons of ballistic protection vs. mobility. The SPC looks pretty cool (it’s not exactly the one pictured above — I’ll reveal the actual one tomorrow) but I’m not sure I would wear it where IEDs are in play.
And, no, Systems Command still hasn’t come up with a new design for an MTV replacement after the CMC requested they do so back in February.
Stay tuned to tomorrow morning’s headlines on Military.com.
– Christian
Christian,
I was able to try on the new scalable plate carrier when I participated in a SysCom survey on the MTV. Overall, I think it’s significantly better than the MTV. I would like to see them incorporate a capability to add larger soft armor panels to the plate carrier to provide additional coverage, instead of issuing two completely separate systems (MTV and SPC).
Dear Christian,
I am wondering why SysCom did not select IOTV as US Army did to unify the same equipment.
Thanks,
Robert