Military briefs lawmakers on body armor

Pentagon sources told NBC News that Army officials would explain to the Senate panel that enhancements for the vests are already under way, including improved and slightly heavier ceramic plates for front and back. Preparations are also under way for production of smaller pouches and plates to allow for better individual coverage for the sides.

The Army is making changes to body armor, said Col. Thomas Spoehr, who is in charge of supplying body armor to the field, but those changes have to be weighed against any particular mission.

"You could outfit a soldier from head to toe in armor, and he would be completely useless," Spoehr said. "We have to be sensitive to the weight burden we put on soldiers in that arduous environment over there.” 

The average infantryman carries 85 pounds of gear into battle, according to officials at the Infantry School at Fort Benning, Ga. This includes weapons, ammunition, water, protective gear and so on. The standard-issue body armor now weighs in at 16 pounds.

Planned improvements to the current body armor will add 11 pounds, the Army said. By comparison, the “flak jacket” worn during the Vietnam War weighed in at around 25 pounds.

Next-generation protection
The Army also is deep into the next generation of personal battlefield protection, developing so-called liquid body armor. This armor is light and flexible and is “soaked” into the traditional Kevlar vest; the liquid is known as “shear thickening fluid,” or STF.

During normal handling STF flows like a liquid; however, “once a bullet or a frag hits the vest, it transitions to a rigid material, which prevents the projectile from penetrating the soldier’s body,” according to researcher Eric Wetzel, a mechanical engineer who heads the research project for the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate of the Army Research Laboratory.  “We would first like to put this material in a soldier’s sleeves and pants, areas that aren’t protected by ballistic vests but need to remain flexible,” said Wetzel, in an interview with the Army News Service. 

Armored vests have continued to evolve in the real world testing of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.  First, there was added groin protection, then the collars on the vests were raised and now side protection has started to appear on some vests.

And yet as the armor has developed, so have the tactics and skills of the enemy leading to an increased number of Marines and soldiers being shot in the head, according to military officials and reports from the field.

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