Posted on 05/18/2007 2:50:24 PM PDT by Sleeping Beauty
They’re claiming they “busted” the myth that wood splinters were the main cause of casualties on wooden fighting ships was a joke.
The one where they claimed that falling bullets won’t kill was stupid since there have been published cases where a falling bullet has killed. I’m surprised they even aired that one.
Yeah that was totally stupid. Bullets shot in the air are not shot at an absolute 180 degree angle to the ground and at any angle they retain horizontal velocity.
See one for yourself.
The reason they don’t want to have any other armor besides what the Army gives out is because the contracts that were written prohibits the Army from using other types of body armor. The authorized body armor companies do not like Soldiers using another company. Bottom line and the Army really has their hands tied. It will make the Army look bad and perhaps they should not sign those all or nothing type contacts.
Five times as expensive, didn’t always perform as well, and is 20 lbs heavier....
Blame the Army, blame Karl Rove, blame Bush...
Blame GLOBAL WARMING!!
Hey Everyone,
I have had multiple experiences wearing the current IBA vest overseas in Iraq. Here are the biggest differences I can see.
1: When carrying your IBA with plates inside, you are scared to drop the vest. This is because you may crack the plates and you will never know. If you drop the vest you dont know if it is weakened now.
2: From what I can see from the Dragon Skin, it offers a extremely larger area of protection you get right now with the IBA. Look at the IBA vests, wherever the plate is, you have protection, other than that the rest of the vest will not stop anything.
You can see why I am sided with the Dragonskin and all the demonstrations on video. I dont care of someone is trying to use this as a political card. I am republican, but it does not mean I will not listen to this issue because democrats are speaking about it.
Being to Iraq a few times myself with the current IBA has brought me very close to buying Dragon Skin, I am waiting to see how far this goes with Congress.
If anyone knows where I can throw my experiences to where they will be heard HIGHER UP please let me know. Unless you want to just talk about my experiences with the current IBA Email me:
Here is an interesting take on the testing
http://www.professionalsoldiers.com/files/dragon_skin_release_000121may07.pdf
Enjoy
The testing protocols were/are available to all manufacturers who wish to sell body armor to the military.
I have no dog in the fight but found the X-rays after the heat cycling to be very interesting. They also show the “scales” overlap that causes part (I guess) of the weight increase.
While an interesting concept I think I’ll hold onto my $5,000 for right now. Solve the adhesives problem and then? - We’ll see. Still a lot of weight.
- I suspect that you are right. In the program that I saw about this armor, it emphasized that the cost per vest was prohibitively expensive and production was very slow. It would cost the military billions more to order this system but in the meantime, politicians like Hitlery can trumpet that Bush is “not doing enough” to protect the troops.
I can imagine:
“Here’s your gear, GI.”
“I am supposed to strap these three rockets to my back? This is NOT what I expected when I signed to be an Air Cav Recon Scout!”
“Welcome to the 103rd WB - Wile E. Coyotes.”
Well, if the Gunny thinks it’s good armor...
Except, at 20 feet, why was there no concern about a bullet recochetting back at them?
To give them some credit, they did a later episode to explain just that fact.
For the same coverage area, dragon skin is lighter than Interceptor. Since Dragon Skin is flexible and offers far more torso and wraparound side and back coverage it is heavier. You can reduce the coverage area to achieve less weight than Interceptor for the same coverage.
This is another example of the Army’s dishonesty in the matter. See the Pinnacle Armor site for the specific weights and coverage area in the May Army test.
Myth Busters placed a grenade under the armor and there was no penetration.
By the way, I have negotiated numerous Government contracts and I want to tell you that this sort of adversity never comes out well for the contractor. Never.
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