Army Secretary Pete Geren has ordered the recall of more than 16,000 sets of body armor following an audit that concluded the bullet-blocking plates in the vests failed testing and may not provide Soldiers with adequate protection.
The audit by the office of the Defense Department inspector general, not yet made public but obtained by The Associated Press, faults the Army for flawed testing procedures before awarding a contract for the armor.
In a letter dated Jan. 27 to Acting Inspector General Gordon Heddell, Geren said he did not agree that the plates failed the testing or that Soldiers were issued deficient gear. He said his opinion was backed by the Pentagon’s top testing director.
Despite his insistence that the armor was not deficient, Geren said he was recalling the sets as a precaution.
Geren also said he’s asked for a senior Pentagon official to resolve the disagreement between the Army and the inspector general’s office.
“To ensure there can be no question regarding the effectiveness of every Soldier’s body armor, I have today ordered that the plates at issue be identified and collected until such a time as the matter has been adjudicated by the deputy secretary of defense,” he wrote.
Hundreds of thousands of body armor sets have been manufactured by nearly a dozen different companies over the past seven years. The vests are now standard gear for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The audit by the inspector general’s office was the second requested by Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y. She first asked the watchdog agency to look into the acquisition of the ballistic vests in 2006 after she read newspaper reports saying inadequate body armor was causing U.S. casualties.
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[Editor’s Note: The story goes on to say that three of eight plate designs in the latest Army buy failed FAT testing. The AP sleuthed around and found that the contract # for the plate order in question correlates to a purchase from Armor Works. I seem to remember that the Corps had some problems with substandard Armor Works plates back in ’04-’05 timeframe, but I’m going to have to check back at my records to confirm that.]
– Christian
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
*Waits for Dragon Skin fans*
Too all those who wanted better protection I built it and now here is real Body Armor LS Armor from CombatBodyArmor Co….anybody can comment to me…
http://s566.photobucket.com/albums/ss106/ctaggart3/?action=view¤t=LevelIIIX-SAPITestCombatBodyArmo-7.flv
yeah, can we please get dragon skin, i think not dying would be worth the extra tax bucks
I used this vest in afghanistan in ’07 when it was first introduced. It is crap, limited mounting surface, didn’t like the over-the-head donning method and the quick release kept coming undone and myself and a few other joe’s almost had it completely come apart while out on missions and it’s a pain to put back together!
The only good thing about this vest is the belly band that helps take the weight off the shoulders and distribute the load more efficiently.
For those of you that think the recall is taking away the new carriers, you might want to take another look. This recall is only for the SAPI plates. I wish it was for everything so the Army would finally take advantage of the better quality vests that are available.
I agree with David. I used the IOTV in Afghanistan in ’08. At first I liked it, but after a few missions, I hated it. Like David said, the only good thing about it was the belly band that took the wieght off the shoulders.
I wonder if this means the Army will pull the SAPI plates in question as IG approved plates are distributed, so that they
We think current OTVs and Body Armor is highly satisfactory and hope to someday develop new forms of materials to achieve advancement in the Human Armor industry.
I like the reports on the new Dragon Skin, but would like to see some of our troopers in Afghanistan check the Dragon Skin out and I would rely on their final judgement, but fat chance for that to happen. I also like the new H&K 416 Assault Rifle, since when I observed this rifle covered in a bucket of sand and also let it submerged in water without, after which the rifle fired without any malfunction, I was sold, since I don’t know of any other rifle, that wouldn’t blow apart. If they made the H&K 416 with the Barrett 6.8 cal. shell, that would be a one shot-one kill Kick-Axx rifle. Check it out, wish I had this one, back in Nam.