From: Adam <""4thwormcastfromthemolehill\"{at}the field.near
the bridge">

Hummm....

& if they'd been a metre under water at the time they'd have been damp
but unharmed....

I have a minor problem with this which is that as ever (e.g. ye olde
horseborne soldiers) the more armour the heavier & the less mobile the
man.

At which point you either have to start investing in exo-skeltons for the
soldiers or they become in effect semi-mobile pill boxes & then someone
with something like a .50 or an explosive device has an easy target.

Adam


Rich Gauszka wrote:
> "80 percent of the marines who have been killed in Iraq from
wounds to their
> upper body could have survived if they had extra body armor"
>
>
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/06/politics/06cnd-armor.html?ei=5088&en=b13c10
bd70ee9190&ex=1294203600&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=print
>
> Extra Armor Could Have Saved Many Lives, Study Shows
> By MICHAEL MOSS
> A secret Pentagon study has found that at least 80 percent of the marines
> who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to their upper body could have
> survived if they had extra body armor. That armor has been available since
> 2003 but until recently the Pentagon has largely declined to supply it to
> troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to
> military officials.
>
> The ceramic plates in vests currently worn by the majority of military
> personnel in Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of
> the 93 fatal wounds that were analyzed in the Pentagon study of marines from
> March 2003 through June 2005, bullets and shrapnel struck the marines'
> shoulders, sides or areas of the torso where the plates do not reach.
>
> Thirty-one of the deadly wounds struck the chest or back so close to the
> plates that simply enlarging the existing shields "would have had the
> potential to alter the fatal outcome," according to the study, which was
> obtained by The New York Times.
>
> For the first time, the study by the military's medical examiner shows the
> cost in lost lives from inadequate armor, even as the Pentagon continues to
> publicly defend its protection of the troops. Officials have said they are
> shipping the best armor to Iraq as quickly as possible. At the same time,
> they have maintained that it is impossible to shield forces from the
> increasingly powerful improvised explosive devices used by insurgents. Yet
> the Pentagon's own study reveals the equally lethal threat of bullets.
>
> The vulnerability of the military's body armor has been known since the
> start of the war, and is part of a series of problems that have surrounded
> the protection of American troops. Still, the Marine Corps did not begin
> buying additional plates to cover the sides of their troops until this
> September, when it ordered 28,800 sets, Marine Corps officials acknowledge.
>
> The Army, which has the largest force in Iraq, is still deciding what to
> purchase, according to Army procurement officials. They said the Army is
> deciding between various sizes of plates to give its 130,000 soldiers; the
> officials said they hope to issue contracts this month.
>
> Additional forensic studies by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's unit that
> were obtained by The Times indicate that about 340 American troops have died
> solely from torso wounds.
>
> Military officials said they had originally decided against using the extra
> plates because they were concerned they added too much weight to the vests
> or constricted the movement of soldiers. Marine Corps officials said the
> findings of the Pentagon study caused field commanders to override those
> concerns in the interest of greater protection.
>
> "As the information became more prevalent and aware to everybody that in
> fact these were casualty sites that they needed to be worried about, then
> people were much more willing to accept that weight on their body," said
> Major Wendell Leimbach, a body armor specialist with Marine Corps Systems
> Command, the marine procurement unit.
>
> The Pentagon has been collecting the data on wounds since the beginning of
> the war in part to determine the effectiveness of body armor. The military's
> medical examiner, Craig T. Mallak, told a military panel in 2003 that the
> information "screams to be published." But it would take
nearly two years.
>
> The Marine Corps said it asked for the data in August 2004; but it needed to
> pay the medical examiner $107,000 to have the data analyzed. Marine
> officials said funding and other delays resulted in the work not starting
> until December 2004. It finally began receiving the information by June
> 2005. The shortfalls in bulletproof vests are just one of the armor problems
> the Pentagon continues to struggle with as the war in Iraq approaches the
> three-year mark, The Times has found in an ongoing examination of the
> military procurement system.
>
> The production of a new armored truck called the Cougar, which military
> officials said has thus far withstood every insurgent attack, has fallen
> three months behind schedule. The small company making the truck has been
> beset by a host of production and legal problems.
>
> Meanwhile, the Pentagon is still relying on another small factory in Ohio to
> armor all of the military's principal transport truck, the Humvee, and it
> remains backlogged with orders. The facility, owned by Armor Holdings,
> increased production in December after reports in The Times about delays
> drew criticism from Congress. But the Marine Corps said it is still waiting
> for about 2,000 of these vehicles to replace other Humvees in Iraq that are
> more lightly armored, and does not expect final delivery until June.
>
> An initiative begun by the Pentagon nearly two years ago to speed up
> production by having additional firms armor new Humvees remains incomplete,
> Army officials said.
>
> Body armor has gone through a succession of problems in Iraq. First, there
> were prolonged shortages of the plates that make the vests bulletproof. This
> year, the Pentagon began replacing the plates with a stronger model that is
> more resistant to certain insurgent attacks.
>
> Almost from the beginning, some soldiers asked for additional protection to
> stop bullets from slicing through their sides. In the fall of 2003, when
> troops began hanging their crotch protectors under their arms, the Army's
> Rapid Equipping Force shipped several hundred plates to protect their sides
> and shoulders. Individual soldiers and units continued to buy their own
> sets.
>
> The Army's former acting secretary, Les Brownlee, said in a recent interview
> that he was shown numerous designs for expanded body armor back in 2003, and
> instructed his staff to weigh their benefits against the perceived threat
> without losing sight of the main task: eliminating the shortages of plates
> for the chest and back.
>
> Army procurement officials said that their efforts to purchase side ceramic
> plates have been encumbered by their much larger force, and that they wanted
> to provide manufacturers with detailed specifications. Also, they said their
> plates will be made to resist the stronger insurgent attacks.
>
> The Marines said they opted to take the older version of ceramic to speed
> delivery. As of early last month, officials said marines in Iraq had
> received 2,200 of the more than 28,000 sets of plates that are being bought
> at a cost of about $260 each.
>
> Marine officials said they have supplied troops with soft shoulder
> protection that can repel some shrapnel, but remain concerned that ceramic
> shoulder plates would be too restrictive. Similarly, they said they believe
> the chest and back plates are as large as they can be without unduly
> limiting the movement of troops.
>
> The Times obtained the 3-page Pentagon report after a military advocacy
> group, Soldiers for the Truth, learned of its existence. The group posted an
> article about the report on its website earlier this week. The Times delayed
> publication of this article for more than a week until the Pentagon
> confirmed the veracity of its report. Pentagon officials declined to discuss
> details of the wound data, saying it would aid the enemy.
>
> "Our preliminary research suggests that as many as 42 percent of the Marine
> casualties who died from isolated torso injuries could have been prevented
> with improved protection in the areas surrounding the plated areas of the
> vest," the study concludes. Another 23 percent might have been saved with
> side plates that extend below the arms, while 15 percent more could have
> benefited from shoulder plates, the report says. In all, 526 marines have
> been killed in combat in Iraq. A total of 1,706 American troops have died in
> combat.
>
> The findings and other research by military pathologists suggests that an
> analysis of all combat deaths in Iraq, including those of Army personnel,
> would show that 300 or more lives might have been saved with improved body
> armor.
>
> Military officials and defense contractors said the Pentagon's procurement
> troubles have stemmed in part from miscalculations that underestimated the
> strength of the insurgency, and from years of cost-cutting that left some
> armoring firms on the brink of collapse as they waited for new orders.
>
> To help defeat roadside ambushes, the military in May 2005 contracted to buy
> 122 Cougars whose special V-shaped hull helps deflect roadside bombs,
> military officials said. But the Pentagon gave the job to a small firm in
> South Carolina, Force Protection, that had never mass-produced vehicles.
> Company officials said a string of blunders has pushed the completion date
> to June.
>
> A dozen prototypes shipped to Iraq have been recalled from the field to
> replace a failing transmission. Steel was cut to the wrong size before the
> truck's design drawings were perfected. Several managers have left the firm.
>
> Company officials said they also lost time in an inter-service skirmish. The
> Army, which is buying the bulk of the vehicles, asked for its trucks to be
> delivered before the Marine vehicles, and company officials said that move
> upended their production process until the Army agreed to get back in line
> behind the marines. "It is what it is, and we're running as fast as we can
> to change it," Gordon McGilton, the company's chief executive, said in an
> interview at its plant in Ladson, S.C.
>
> On July 5, two former employees brought a federal false claims case that
> accuses Force Protection of falsifying records to cover up defective
> workmanship. They allege that the actions "compromise the
immediate and long
> term integrity of the vehicles and result in a deficient
product," according
> to legal documents filed under seal in the United States District Court in
> Charleston and obtained by The Times.
>
> The legal claim also accuses the company of falsifying records to deceive
> the military into believing the firm could meet the production deadlines.
> The United States Attorney's office in South Carolina declined to comment on
> the case. The Marine Corps says the Justice Department did not notify it
> about the case until December.
>
> Force Protection officials said they had not been made aware of the legal
> case. They acknowledged making mistakes in rushing to fill the order, but
> said there were multiple systems in place to monitor the quality of the
> trucks, and that they were not aware of any deficiencies that would
> jeopardize the troops.
>
>

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