NYT/AP: Army Secretary Endorses New Body Armor

[DeepModem Mom]

Army Secretary Endorses New Body Armor
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: January 18, 2006


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Soldiers should be required to wear new ceramic body armor plates even though they add weight and may limit mobility, Army Secretary Francis Harvey said Wednesday.

Drawn into an issue being debated on the battlefield and Capitol Hill, Harvey did not hand down an order or impose new requirements for the front lines.

The pronouncement follows the disclosure of an unreleased Pentagon study that found side armor could have saved dozens of U.S. lives in Iraq. It also reflects the military's struggle to answer criticism that soldiers are going out without the armor they need.

Soldiers at war have said the additional armor -- two side plates that each weigh 2 1/2 pounds -- will weigh them down and limit their fighting flexibility. These soldiers often carry as much as 70 pounds of equipment, including armor, weapons and water.

"That's going to add weight, of course," Harvey told Pentagon reporters at a news conference. "You've read where certain soldiers aren't happy about that. But we think it's in their best interest to do this."...


http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Body-Armor.html?oref=login

[Posteritatis]

1. Sounds like one of those worthwhile tradeoffs

If the weight's distributed properly (big if that that is), five pounds would probably be workable.

(Random Historical Trivia Factoid: the 70-pound figure for the weight of a soldier's kit has been more or less constant for over two thousand years. Modern kit, 19th-century gear, well-made medieval harness and a Spartan hoplite's field kit all came out to around the same weight.)

[Lisa]

8. the Journal of Roman Military Equipment had an interesting study ...

... regarding how heavy and cumbersome the gear from various periods was. (They had modern re-enactors participate in tests such as long-distance route marches.) A chain-mail shirt (a common type of armour from Roman times into the Middle Ages) came out to be about 15-20 lbs. Roman plate armour, e.g. the "lorica segmentata", was a bit more than that. (I own a riveted mailshirt, and one reason they were popular so long might be because they do provide better ventilation than solid plates.) Aside from worries about overheating, though, if plate armour is well-fitted, the weight is well-balanced and you can still move around normally.

In fact, the relative lack of body armour in colonial through modern times (Revolutionary War, Civil War, the World Wars) is somewhat unusual -- even common soldiers in earlier times were often wearing some form of protection (like the troops who were wearing leather or cloth coats reinforced with steel plates, at the Battle of Wisby).

[benburch]

2. And there is superior armor that does not limit mobility as much...

and they are forbidding soldiers from buying it for themselves.

[Goldfish]

4. PBS Newshour had a report called

"Protecting the Troops" on Wed. Jan. 11. It compared the
ceramic armor with the Dragon Skin armor, which is lighter and offers better protection. Very interesting presentation. I'm sure politics is involved in the Army's choice. PBS has a video of this broadcast. If someone can show this link, would
appreciate it! I'm kind of computer illiterate! nt

[democracyindanger]

5. Exactly - Dragon Skin

I bet the armor being referenced in the article is the same crappy Interceptor stuff. Troops will still be unable to use the preferred Dragon Skin. And he's lying through his teeth when he says that what armor is worn is up to commanders in the field. The ban on Dragon Skin is coming from the Pentagon.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

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[WannaJumpMyScooter]

3. And naturally, since they will "require" it

if they get wounded when not wearing it, the expense of their hospitalization will be charged to them after they are article 15ed for violating direct orders.

[0007]

6. Screw that!

[shanti]

9. there was a post about this a couple of days ago on du

but the advanced search is down, and i cannot locate it. do you (or anyone) have a link to this?

[Auntie Bush]

10. Motorcyclists didn't want to wear helmets either...very hot and can't hear

But look at all the lives and brain injuries they save. No one wanted to wear seat belts either. Ask the first guy who's life is saved by this armor if he is glad he was wearing it. Nuff said!

Except to say...Ask the Mothers who lost family that could have been saved if it's worth the extra weight.