You all might remember we reported a new kind of flexible body armor being developed by pre-Dragon Skin designer Allan Bain back in October.
At the time, Bain had tested his armor against some pretty mean armor-piercing rounds (a Swiss-made armor piercing round that is more powerful than the one specified by the Army) shattering the tiles but slowing down the round enough to keep it from penetrating the Dyneema backing.
Bain told me the other day he had just subjected a redesigned version of the discs to shots from a “surrogate” M993 AP round with 160 grains each at 3,014 and 3,061 feet per second and the discs held up. That’s about 20 percent more kinetic energy than the threat the Army is building the X-SAPI to defeat, Bain told me.
He’s been invited to test the new “Skaalar Exoskin Gen 4+” at H.P. White labs by the Army’s top body armor guru in July, in which “the Army will see the first flexible system that has no weight penalty as compared to the XSAPI plate that is in production now.”
As you might remember, the Army has walked back its urgent request for for plates that are stronger than the current E-SAPI and has said it would stockpile a limited run of plates in Kuwait in case the more deadly threat emerges in greater numbers.
But clearly, if you’ve worn body armor at all, a flexible system is the way to go, and Army officials have admitted it to me on several occasions. It’s just that weight and durability have been a constant problem.
We’ll keep you updated on how the tests go, but DT wishes Bain luck on his upcoming tests.
– Christian
my great oncles sons his friends best cousins girlfriends shool mate told that tomorow the US army will get a sybersuit wich can fly into the space and stop the explosion of the moon..
..got my point?
If it can handle an overpressured sabot 7.62mm, I imagine that it could deal with a standard .338 Lapua that has travelled more 500 meters or more.
…no
So are you going to start taking a fresh look at Dragonskin too and admit that maybe, just maybe, there might somethign to it?
By now the Army should accept that the Interceptor’s arent super-perfect, and that it’s time to move to a more advanced design. The current IBA has undoubtedly saved lives over the preceding design; but stubbornly insisting it’s the best is not the way to go. Let’s throw the candidate designs to the wolves and see which one survives.
After the Dragon Skin fiasco they will have to act like they care.
But it comes down money. And they do not want to spend it.
They want to spend it on a new Tank or mobile artillery piece by a company that can insure a comfy job in the future.
Granted they have “relived” a lot of the generals who have run our Iraq and Afghanistan operations into the ground (and you thought it took Lincoln a long it me to find good Generals), but the people running the acquisition programs are from the old cloth.
Generals like the ones who let us go into WW2 with torpedoes that did not work.
Because it would have made him look bad to admit his program (and technology) was Sh#t.
Better to let a lot of people die….
my great oncles sons his friends best cousins girlfriends shool mate told that tomorow the US army will get a sybersuit wich can fly into the space and stop the explosion of the moon..
..got my point?
Posted by: flying fart peoudly joyned at June 4, 2009 01:49 PM
Maybe we need a spell check on the word “UNCLE” not ONCLE
…got my point??
the army is opening their eyes and dragon skin as great as it sounded was a lot heavier and it did NOT have a quick release on it so if you were to fall in a giants puddle like an ocean or a river, youd have an issue, also they wanted too much for it. but at least there looking into other options finally…
Flying fart,
Do you prefer chicken or pork with your fried rice, comrade?
Hey Drewb,
I doubt he is chinese. They know how to spell correctly. I would bet flying is american.
And as far as body armor goes, the real problems with them are as follows:
Cost per unit
Protection/weight ratio
Protection greater than the current interceptor provides.
Ability to quickly extricate from the vest in an emergency.
With all they speak of it stopping specific pressures and bullet velocities, perhaps they need to test rounds that were specifically designed to penetrate body currently out there, stuff like the 5.7mm mag rounds the P90 uses or test it also on blunt force trauma as well.
In all reality though, intelligence, tactics, and training come before you should get hit anyway. The body armor is just there because a bullet can be random and you can’t defend against everything.
As was said in Sun Tzu, if you defend everywhere, you defend nowhere. We can’t defend against everything so lets just give the soldiers the best we can that allows them to do their job effectively.
Ed,
If go back and look at the syntax errors FF has done, you could almost come up with a 40’s Charlie Chan accent. Some Americans are ignorant but not THAT ignorant, so many times, over and over… not when you can spell check words you aren’t sure of. He also seems to know a bit more about being “red” than the average joe, as well.
As for the body armor… let them all have a shot at it. The 5.7 x 28mm will punch a hole in SOFT body armor but plates stop it cold but i do see your point. Test everything and take the best.
Spelling? Really? We are going to bitch about Spelling on here now? Albert E. (U might remember him as the E=mc2 guy) couldn’t spell to save his life. I can’t spell worth a darn, luck for me my father was smarter than guys like Drewb and realized that Spelling is not a great indication of intelligence or potental, so I went to private school (Where idiots that can’t get over the fact of a few spelling mistakes as long as they could understand the information where not allowed) and I did great, have a great job, make great money, and don’t have to deal with guys like Drewb (Although I did fire a guy for marking the spelling mistakes on one of my Engs reports before sending it up the line)
the army is opening their eyes and dragon skin as great as it sounded was a lot heavier and it did NOT have a quick release on it so if you were to fall in a giants puddle like an ocean or a river, youd have an issue, also they wanted too much for it. but at least there looking into other options finally…–
thx and but look, we got another colourful scuttlebutt based on “maybe i saw it with my own eyes..” and everyone blogger is jumping on it like we got another “the best of the best for our best…” Eahh army, marines and navy, lets change all trainings, tactics, maintenance and planing becuz we got the chance to get the new super duper gear!
but what is it in reality? nothing more than pure rumor done by the producer of this gear.. i will start to belive him first, when we will get it cheaper, better and tested by army itself. before that; nice to know he is working on it but just let the blow(!) flying proudly away..
–Do you prefer chicken or pork with your fried rice, comrade?–
Cubanian cuisine is not my taste.
@The Cenobyte
thx dude..
@Drewb
hmmmm..
you was reading all my post for red-not-average-joe spelling? what should i say?
…sooo, do you like fish sticks? (fishsticks in average-joeish)
http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/9/584639_37600_front.jpg
The Aussies have taken a giant step backward with their new armour system.
The recently sacked Defence Minister had a Chinese girlfriend who was tight with the PLA and it’s procurement and supply branch in Beijing.
She was also a major stakeholder in an Aussie listed firm that suppplies all the new contract body armour to Aussie military forces.
Problem is, the armour is Chinese and Vietnamese manufactured and is at best, last generation stuff.
Yes, they are made of Dyneema, not kevlar and are reported to be quite thin and fragile
Even the trauma plates are only rated for a single hit – by 7.62 x 39!!!
To add insult to injury, the vests are not compatible with Aussie issue webbing and LBV so soldiers are having to buy their own stuff to try and make what they have, work.
So, Aussies are stuck with old school vests supplied by a possible future enemy who will know how to defeat the armour – all in the name of cost cutting.
@Sideshow
China to help Indonesia develop defense technology
http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2009/04/01/china-help-indonesia-develop-defense-technology.html
from Germans that bought from the Chinese–
wait, WHAT?!
which is the best bullet proof vest on the market then
I hope these manufacturers keep up the great research and can get this stuff fielded at a reasonable price. I’ve worn the standard armor for a while and its good, but but upgrades like this improve the morale of our warfighters.
The Military Channel had a segment about Dragon Skin Vest some time ago, they shot different serveral different size and type of bullets at it and none penatrated the vest; but when I watched a dummy with a dragon skin vest layed down on a hand granade the the grenade detonated and the vest was not penatrated.