Posted on 04/18/2009 5:32:36 PM PDT by neverdem
WASHINGTON — The Army has promised to lighten the soldier’s load, and nowhere more urgently than in eastern Afghanistan, where the unforgiving terrain tests the stamina of troops whose weapons, body armor, rucksacks and survival gear can weigh 130 pounds.
But an experiment to shave up to 20 pounds off a soldier’s burden — much of it by reducing the bulletproof plates that protect the chest and back — has stalled, leaving $3 million in new, lightweight equipment sitting in a warehouse in the United States instead of being sent to the war zone where it was to have been tried out by a battalion-size group of 500 soldiers. The delay offers a new window into how Army rules have slowed the deployment of specialized gear that small units are seeking for harsh combat environments.
The new lightweight bulletproof plates, part of what is known as a Modular Body Armor Vest, are already in use by the military’s Special Operations Command, which includes the Army’s elite light-infantry troops, the Rangers.
A team of Army experts went to eastern Afghanistan in early March expecting to begin trial runs of the gear for regular Army soldiers, including a company assigned to the remote Korangal Valley, a harsh and primitive area of eastern Afghanistan where the insurgency has proved especially resilient, and where soldiers regularly set off on multiple-day patrols that require them to hike up and down steep hills and valleys.
But the assessment team was ordered back to the United States late last month when its experiment was put off. The delays in the assessment were reported first by Army Times.
According to Army officials familiar with the effort, senior Army leaders ordered further reviews of the lighter bulletproof plates to guarantee that soldiers would not be put at risk wearing...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Don’t forget to set up in your NPOA! It’s a lot easier on old bones.
Indeed! Will it stop just a 7.62x39 mm? Do grunts have to haul 20 pounds more when they are carrying at least 100 pounds to begin with. It's a very pertinent question.
Ah, the NPOA. I know I’ve got one around here somewhere. The guys instructing are really, good - we’re learning to shoot ‘by the numbers’ and by the and of the day, I didn’t even have to think about them. I still have a lot of good habits - like not dragging wood.
Seriously, the real benefit of this event is that I’ve gotten a wake-up call as to my general fitness level. I’ve let things go, and that’s not good - especially now. So there’s a lot of work to do, and I’ve definitely got the motivation.
Which rifle are you shooting?
Shooting the FAL (Stg58 on a DSA receiver), which has proved to be disappointing. Lots of failures to feed and stovepipes. Had to bag the rest of the AQT training today because of that. Thought about taking the NM Garand, but the price of 30.06 - ouch! There’s that nasty Greek stuff out there, but it seems a shame to run that kind of ammo through such a fine rifle.
So it’s probably two things: weak mag springs and/or a weak op rod spring. No matter what the gas block setting, I may not get a complete ejection and the bolt will fail to strip or partially another round off the top of the magazine. I was ripping along on phase 1 and 2 of the AQT, and then I started having feed problems. Only got off 3 of 10 on phase 3 and 1 of 10 on phase 4. You just can’t score well on timed fire if you’re struggling with jams. Decided to bag it and get it to a FAL doctor.
That said, when it worked the way it was supposed to, many, many of my shots were touching or near touching. I was getting nice little 2 and 3 shot groups like that. I’ll get it figured out and fixed and soon.
Still need lots of physical improvement, though. I had to kneel in the sitting phases - couldn’t really manage the the full forward sitting position. These old bones...
But if it's not...well.
Getting old is a real bitch...
The answer is to overhaul all of my magazines with a spring-follower-floor plate kit. A relatively cheap fix: they’re out there fora few bucks each.
Trip to the FAL doctor - maybe not so cheap, but it’ll be worth it. It’s an iron-sight tack driver in capable hands.
As for getting old - time to get back on the serious fitness trail. Funny thing: now that I’ve got a regular job, I’ve gota whole lot more time.
And if I had the bux, I’d own a Springfield Armory M14. The king of battle rifles.
I got 'once in a lifetime' lucky when I bought mine, that's for sure. I'll not part with her till I'm cold and lifeless.
As Colonel Cooper put it: "The Queen is not for sale."
it gets heavy! Many of us would ligthen the weight in exchange for less "safety". I want to be able to move quicker and longer without having to stop to catch my breath... you lose your agility!
I want those idiots that called them back to come out here and wear it daily for a month. now with the onset of summer, yes, you wear it and suffer with all the aforementioned you fricking FOB POGs! Then you tell me what you think.. You ever wear this stuff on a day to day basis? don't even tell me yes you have when as an officer, you "sit down" in your fricking meetings and are out of the sun and have the weight load off.
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