Military briefs lawmakers on body armor

WASHINGTON - Military officials Wednesday told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee during a closed-door hearing that improvements to the body armor worn by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan are under way and manufacture of the beefed-up personal protection will begin soon.

Body armor in use in Iraq and Afghanistan has been through seven improvements, said Maj. Gen. Jeffery Sorenson, during a news conference after the hearing.  "We've been continuing to improve [the body armor] over time, taking advantage of technology and lightweight composites," he said. However, each improvement in protection must be weighed against the increased hindrance to the soldier’s effectiveness, he said.

The Pentagon is under increased scrutiny regarding the efficacy of body armor issued after the results of an unreleased study were made public showing that as many as 80 percent of Marines killed in Iraq from wounds to the upper body could have survived had they been wearing an expanded version of the current standard issue Interceptor body armor.

The report studies a small number of Marine fatalities in Iraq, showing that out of the 93 cases studied, 74 were struck by bullets and shrapnel in areas of the torso unprotected by the bullet-resistant ceramic vests, primarily in the sides and shoulders.

The unreleased report was first published by Defense Watch, a news service carried by the Web site “Soldiers for Truth.”  The New York Times confirmed the Web site’s report in a story carried Saturday. 

The Pentagon declined comment to both the Times and Defense Watch, saying any discussion of the study would aid the enemy.

Democrats fired a series of broadsides at the White House over the report, leading Sen. John Warner, D-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, to call the closed-door session Wednesday.

"The number of lives lost to inadequate armor could reach the hundreds if Army deaths attributable to inadequate armor not included in this survey are counted as well," said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., a member of the Armed Services Committee, in a letter to Warner.  "Lives may have been needlessly lost because of inadequate equipment."  Clinton said that the extra protection for the body armor would cost just $260 per soldier.

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