Playing Politics Over Body Armor

Here is the latest attempt by the media and politicians to play politics with the military:

Independent ballistics tests commissioned by NBC News raise new questions about whether America’s fighting men and women really do have the best body armor available.

The Army insists the body armor troops are now wearing — called Interceptor — is the very best in the world.  And, without question, those vests have saved lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But an NBC investigation suggests there may be something even better out there called Dragon Skin, a flexible body armor of interconnected ceramic discs.  

What follows in the report is a very selective reporting of the facts that NBC News wants you to know about.  NBC News is alleging that the US military is giving its soldiers inferior armor to save money and for political reasons.  Of course this report is followed by well timed outrage from Democratic law makers:

"In light of recent media reports suggesting that a particular body armor system may offer better protection than the system currently being used by our servicemembers, Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) and Jim Webb (D-VA) – both members of the Senate Armed Services Committee – today called on Comptroller General of the United States David M. Walker to initiate a Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigation to reassess the body armor systems currently being issued by all the military services and the Special Operations Command for effectiveness and reliability against the threats facing U.S. troops in combat," states a press release issued by the Clinton campaign.

This has caused the Army to come out and defend themselves from the false allegations:

The Pentagon news conference with Brig. Gen. Mark Brown, the Army’s top officer in charge of charge of body armor, detailed a series of tests that he says the current Interceptor system, currently issued to soldiers and Marines, has passed.

The unusual briefing aimed to refute what it calls inaccurate reporting by NBC after the network broadcast a series of reports in which correspondent Lisa Myers raised questions about the Interceptor body armor, which the military maintains is "the best, bar none."

[…]

"We have conducted the same test standard for all of our current body armor producers. Every one of them has passed with zero failures," Brown said. "This (Dragonskin) has passed with 13 failures. If they make a product improvement, we are willing to test again to that standard and see if they can make it."

Brown said DragonSkin suffered "catastrophic failures" by not being able to withstand temperature ranges from 60 degrees below zero to 120 above, a range that he says can be expected when vests are used in the arctic or put to use in Iraq. Interceptor has withstood these tests, Brown said.

What is especially troubling about this whole thing is that the US military had to release footage of all the tests so terrorists can analyze how to defeat US body armor.  What was probably the most damning information left out of the NBC report was that the Dragon Skin body armor weighs 47.5 pounds compared to the Interceptor armor that weighs 28 pounds.  How could NBC News leave such critical information as this out of their report?  It just shows that they are deliberately presenting only the facts that supports the narrative they want everyone to believe.  It is truly sad how bad the level of journalism in America has reached.  The media at one time played a critical role as a check and balance on the government, now it is nothing more than a propaganda organ and a political weapon for members of the government. I know members of the media read this blog and I would interested to read an opinion from someone in the media on the NBC reporting.

Anyway, at the rate this body armor debate is going, the Democrats will be advocating that we wear medieval armor like King Arthur pretty soon.  With the amount of weight on us that the Democrats want, it will slow soldiers down that much more and make it easier for the snipers to target soldiers and the Democrats will get all the body armor testing results they could possibly imagine. 

What is funny about this whole thing is that Marines won’t even wear heavier armor:

Extra body armor — the lack of which caused a political storm in the United States — has flooded in to Iraq, but many Marines here promptly stuck it in lockers or under bunks. Too heavy and cumbersome, many say.

Marines already carry loads as heavy as 70 pounds when they patrol the dangerous streets in towns and villages in restive Anbar province. The new armor plates, while only about five pounds per set, are not worth carrying for the additional safety they are said to provide, some say.

"We have to climb over walls and go through windows," said Sgt. Justin Shank of Greencastle, Pa. "I understand the more armor, the safer you are. But it makes you slower. People don’t understand that this is combat and people are going to die."

Staff Sgt. Thomas Bain of Buffalo, N.Y., shared concerns about the extra pounds.

"Before you know it, they’re going to get us injured because we’re hauling too much weight and don’t have enough mobility to maneuver in a fight from house to house," said Bain, who is assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 6th Marine Regiment. "I think we’re starting to go overboard on the armor."

For the best reporting on this, I highly recommend everyone go over to OP-FOR where a body armor expert provides some really great analysis of the NBC News report.  Here is a taste of the level of detail he gets into:

NBC News claims to have commissioned an independent, side-by-side test of Dragon Skin and the Army’s Interceptor vest. According to them, Dragon Skin outperformed the Army’s body armor in stopping the most lethal threats.

There are only two labs that are National Institute of Justice (NIJ) certified to run NIJ body armor tests. They are the HP White Laboratory in Street, MD and US Test Labs in Wichita, KS. A third lab, Chesapeake Testing in Chase, MD, is under NIJ review for certification. Additional military facilities certify body armor performance for DoD. NBC does not own one of them, nor does NBC appear to be pursuing a scientific approach at a licensed facility. A proper test would require over two dozen SOV 3000 Level IV Dragon Skin vests to be placed on a human torso model and shot by specific threat rounds at a standard range and impact velocity, from specific angles and impact points, and under a variety of contamination and environmental conditions that soldiers might face in combat. Fresh off the manufacturing line ESAPI would be shot for comparison, if further certification or validation (already awarded to the ESAPI) was needed.

Was the “Interceptor” ESAPI armor NBC tested government issued or procured independently? The markings on the armor seen in the video are unfamiliar and they appear to be independently procured non-issue plates from non-standard or non-qualified vendors. Wouldn’t a fair test use the fresh issue ESAPI plates, like the Pinnacle armor provided? Are the alleged ESAPIs NBC tested fresh and certified current production? Did they come from Pinnacle or a surplus store dumpster? There are six qualified vendors that have passed ESAPI first article protocol. The vendors deny providing plates to NBC. And none of them are Canadian.

There is a whole lot more so make sure you read the whole report. 

OP-FOR has a follow up report here as well that further debunks the NBC News claims.  However, just like everything else with this war none of these politicians, their media allies, and the loony left actually care what armor is better and what the troops want and need.  This is just another issue for the Democrats and the loony left to score political points with, manufactured by their media allies. 

To settle this, I think everyone in Congress who advocates that we in the military should wear Dragon Skin body armor should spend a year walking around Washington D.C. wearing 47.5 pounds of body armor.  The discomfort they experience won’t even compare to the heat of Iraq and Afghanistan with all the extra gear we carry in the military.  If Democrats like Senators Webb and Clinton want us to wear their armor so much, they should lead by example and wear the armor with us. 

However, this has nothing to do with armor, but politics.  The Democrats and the loony left have scored their political points and now the whole thing will proceed to blow over with the American public left with the perception that the US military is using substandard armor by an uncaring Pentagon leadership only interested is giving Haliburton like contracts to Bush political supporters.  It all nonsense, but the perception has been created and the politicizing of the military continues.