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Of Armor And Politics
AngelHedgie
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, the Army delays the head-to-head testing of Interceptor and Dragon Skin body armor...again.
The saga of Dragon Skin armor has to be one of the sorriest chapters in Army history. It's basically a tale of how protecting the lives of soldiers out on the field is superseded by the "right" for major arms manufacturers to their government contracts.
So, the first question some of you might ask is "What IS Dragon Skin?" Dragon Skin is a new body armor technology developed by a small firm called Pinnacle. Whereas traditional armor systems, like the Interceptor system used in service today, use Kevlar reinforced with large ceramic plates, Dragon Skin uses a scale-based system. The advantages are that it is lighter than traditional armor, has shown the potential to be more effective against small arms fire, and can be made buoyant. It's become exceptionally popular among the merc - oops, I mean "private contractors" in Iraq, as well as high value targets:
Considering that, many soldiers have purchased their own Dragon Skin vests for use in the field. And there's been a heavy push to re-evaluate if the current body armor contract should go to Pinnacle. So, what has been the response? The Army has continually delayed an honest re-evaluation of the two armors side by side, and commanding officers have stated that if soldiers die in the field while using Dragon Skin armor, their SGLI policies would be forfeit.
So, why would the Army do all this? Well, the manufacturer of the Interceptor body armor system currently used by the military, Point Blank, is a big player politically. Their CEO made headlines a few years back when he threw for his daughter a multi-million dollar bat mitzvah that served as an ego wank. Not surprisingly, this is a very cushy contract for Point Blank - one they can ill afford to lose. While there's nothing definite, there is a sense that Point Blank has been pressuring the military to quash these tests, afraid to lose the body armor contract. Even Congressional inquiry hasn't prevented the military from dragging their feet.
So, in the end, soldiers may be prevented from getting or using superior armor so that one company can get richer. That is a disgrace.
The saga of Dragon Skin armor has to be one of the sorriest chapters in Army history. It's basically a tale of how protecting the lives of soldiers out on the field is superseded by the "right" for major arms manufacturers to their government contracts.
So, the first question some of you might ask is "What IS Dragon Skin?" Dragon Skin is a new body armor technology developed by a small firm called Pinnacle. Whereas traditional armor systems, like the Interceptor system used in service today, use Kevlar reinforced with large ceramic plates, Dragon Skin uses a scale-based system. The advantages are that it is lighter than traditional armor, has shown the potential to be more effective against small arms fire, and can be made buoyant. It's become exceptionally popular among the merc - oops, I mean "private contractors" in Iraq, as well as high value targets:
Considering that, many soldiers have purchased their own Dragon Skin vests for use in the field. And there's been a heavy push to re-evaluate if the current body armor contract should go to Pinnacle. So, what has been the response? The Army has continually delayed an honest re-evaluation of the two armors side by side, and commanding officers have stated that if soldiers die in the field while using Dragon Skin armor, their SGLI policies would be forfeit.
So, why would the Army do all this? Well, the manufacturer of the Interceptor body armor system currently used by the military, Point Blank, is a big player politically. Their CEO made headlines a few years back when he threw for his daughter a multi-million dollar bat mitzvah that served as an ego wank. Not surprisingly, this is a very cushy contract for Point Blank - one they can ill afford to lose. While there's nothing definite, there is a sense that Point Blank has been pressuring the military to quash these tests, afraid to lose the body armor contract. Even Congressional inquiry hasn't prevented the military from dragging their feet.
So, in the end, soldiers may be prevented from getting or using superior armor so that one company can get richer. That is a disgrace.
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But hey, it's not like any of this is new. I'm fairly certain similar scenarios have cropped up all the time during the service history of the M16.
Still disgraceful as hell though.
Contracts always go to the lowest bidder, and since Pinnacle seems to be a relatively small operation, I wouldnt think that they would be able to compete with current contract holer where price is concerned.
Would having Dragon Skin tested by the army make it allowable on the field? If I recall correctly, Army is pretty picky as to what you can use when deployed.
That, or the armed forces policies really do take this long to validate, approve and/or certify new vendors/manufacturers for something that's almost considered a staple for someone in the ground forces.
I might guess that the dragon skin armor might not have been tested or proven to pass any requirements yet that the limitary may need to see before it can give a new contract away?
Which would be understandable...except that every time the tests come up, the military finds a new excuse to delay.
Now, I've never worn a vest with ceramic plates, but I have worn a kevlar vest for 12 hour shifts (days and nights) during a heat wave in August, which I'm sure is a brisk spring morning in Iraq by comparisons sake, and it's fucking hot, uncomfortable and exhausting to do so. As strong an advocate as I am of "the best protection available", the articles referenced in the one linked in the original post have contradictory statements. One claims that the Dragon Skin is only 1 pound heavier, whereas the quote I linked states it's 20 pounds heavier (and I was only carrying maybe 5 pounds in extra gear, as opposed to dozens of pounds of weaponry, extra plating, ammo and survival gear).
According to that article you cite though there might be more to it than just the Army trying to conceal the truth behind the debate on Dragon Skin armour.
"Neal argued in a release after last year's tests that Masters and another Army ballistics expert were dumbfounded by the 'flexible armor system' and weren't sure where to place the shots for the test."
Dumbfounded? We're not handing calculators to Medieval peasants here.
Plus, arguing that you have to shoot at it from a particular angle to achieve success seems ludicrous.
P.S. Was this polemic about venting some anti-corporate frustration?
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But at the same time, weight alone isn't the whole story. I can hump more weight in my formal hiking backpack than I can in one of my rucksacks. Why? Because the hiking backpack has a special frame that distributes the weight across my body, whereas the rucksack puts it firmly on my shoulders. While yes, Dragon Skin is heavier, it's also designed in such a way that its weight is carried by your body, while other traditional armors have their weight centered in where the protective plates are.
On that military tech show (on either the history or the discovery channel, I forget) they put a dummy in a vest of dragon skin, put the dummy on top of a grenade, and a rock on the dummies back and detonated the grenade. The grenade's shrapnel failed to make it through the armor.
Of course, through sheer concusion alone that person is fucked, but that's pretty damned impressive.
No chance of a Youtube link, is there?
Well, here's R. Lee Ermey putting Dragon Skin through its paces.
Edit: The results on YouTube for "dragon skin".
And this is a link to the grenade thing from the Future Weapons show, it starts roughly 6 minutes and 50 seconds in. Before that they are spending some time testing several types of ammunition against it, including AP rounds.
Sorry, this is bullshit. Forar made a very important point.
The difference between 'weight alone' and where it is carried is pretty much a nice civilian difference based on hiking at slow paces in one upright position and such. It is slightly different when you have to constantly support your carried weight on one knee, lift yourself over obstacles, spend half the time moving in a crouching position, etc etc. Fire & maneuver requires you to run a few meters before hitting the ground, then getting up a few seconds later as fast as possible, before running again, rinse and repeat. For up to 1000m. For hours on end. If you want a vague appreciation of how physically taxing this actually is, take your backpack with 70 pounds (webbing + daysack + armour) and a 5kg dumbbell in your hands. Go out to your backyard or a field, then try sprinting as fast as you can for 2 meters, hitting the ground and crawling for 2 meters, rinse and repeat ad infinitum. See how far you get. I bet you are dead after 100m.
(As he mentioned, then try doing it under fire, in 50C heat, etc etc)
In that situation, 20 extra pounds makes a massive fucking difference, no matter how well it is spread over your body.
I know very well how fucked up military procurement practices tend to be, but if I was back out there, any piece of kit which weighed an extra 20 pounds would have been in the bin. Half the time I wanted to bin my sodding helmet, I don't see DragonSkin having a special place near my heart.
I'm waiting for the exo-skeletons myself.
Something man sized that can bench a ton, run like the wind and takes anti-tank weaponry to drop.
And then I realized I should probably just go back to reading Iron Man and Battletech novels instead.
Yes. This.
But this also makes me question the claim that it is 20lbs heavier, as that is a massive weight in its own right. And I cant imagine individual soldiers being so interested in it, if it puit so much extra weight on them.
True. I'd always assumed it was due to somewhat different US / UK practices out in the field, and that DragonSkin was mostly used by US mech infantry or non-inf arms, ie those in Iraq who don't do so much of the running with heavy things. I don't know any UK soldiers who use it in Afghan, where running with heavy things is their bread & butter at the moment.
I could see outfitting breach teams or turret gunners with it. People that are absolutely going to get shot at and don't have a lot of maneuvering to do. But Army wide would be fallacy. Which is what these head to head tests are for iirc...winning the contract for Army wide basic issue ballistic armor. Making them all walking tanks will just make them bigger bullet magnets, and thats why it didn't win.
Except, as other commentators have pointed out, either the Army didn't or won't release the film of their test. And there's TONS of footage showing Dragon Skin performing admirably. Not to mention that the general who was in charge during said tests is currently under investigation for how fast he transitioned after retiring from the military into an executive for one of the companies that makes the IBA.
So, you'll have to excuse us if we're a tad skeptical about the Army's claims of the tests being accurate.
If they excel primarily at stopping shrapnel, as from grenades or IEDs, I definitely understand them being issued to mechanized and guard units. But I would be one to question the use of such things if all they are good for is dealing with low velocity projectiles - not much good in a firefight where mobility as well as fire power (which takes ammo, which itself weighs not an insignificant amount) are the primary considerations.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_armor#Performance_standards
Interceptor and Dragonskin are both Type III Certified meaing they'll stop most rifle rounds.
Does it protect against fatal blunt-force trauma?
Incorrect. That's sensationalist and meaningless.
Not directed at you so much as the show, but even at point blank, grenade shrapnel is nothing compared to a rifle round.
WRT penetration, that is. Of course the total energy is higher.
Neither do axe attacks.
I'm not sure if something new has come up, but Dragonskin is not NIJ certified though there is an argument and a pending suit over why its NIJ certification was rejected.
I think they had it and took it away
So do you propose we send troops out in hockey gear?
And that would frankly be a big giant pain in the ass to design and use.
And you could still just get your ass tackled.