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| | #1 (permalink) | |
| Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: celebrating Ramadan 24/7/365
Posts: 6,178
| FOXNews.com - Marines Call New Body Armor Heavy, Impractical - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News Quote:
Also, the "rip cord" purpose isn't so much if you fall into water, as much as if you get wounded, and they need to get it off you in a hurry to treat you.
__________________ I just took a crap and named it muhammed -- METSSC Warrior by day, lover by night, drunkard by choice...Marine by God. Semper Fidelis. -- anonymous Marine | |
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| | #2 (permalink) | |
| Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Morris County, New Jersey
Posts: 2,004
| LOL - blaming it on the media? Come on Mule, Military procurement has ALWAYS been a joke, popular sensitivity aside.
__________________ Giants linebacker Antonio Pierce Quote:
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| | #3 (permalink) |
| Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: celebrating Ramadan 24/7/365
Posts: 6,178
| Are you kidding me? You must have forgotten the body armor and humvee mess from '04-'05? The whole body armor saga has been media/PR driven from the get-go. I'm well aware of the giant pork barrel that is the procurement process, but this wouldn't even be news if the press hadn't short stroked themselves all over it 3+ years ago as an example of how we "weren't taking care of the troops."
__________________ I just took a crap and named it muhammed -- METSSC Warrior by day, lover by night, drunkard by choice...Marine by God. Semper Fidelis. -- anonymous Marine |
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| | #4 (permalink) | |
| Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: New Jersey
Posts: 578
| Quote:
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| | #5 (permalink) |
| Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: celebrating Ramadan 24/7/365
Posts: 6,178
| Well, yes, but who's pushing the design for side trauma plates, fuller "coverage", etc.? You have to think, is this stuff being "pulled" by the end users (whether they are grunts or whomever) or "pushed" from the pogue/PR side because of pressure from Congressmen and the media coverage? There was a big push for side trauma plates about a year or so after the switch from maneuver warfare to insurgency warfare, when sniper casualties started to rise. When insurgent snipers started finding out that front & back trauma plates could take a 7.62x54mm Russian round (most common insurgent sniping caliber) they started targeting the biceps area from the side, because a round through your bicep from a proper angle will go right through the soft armor into the boiler room. The thought was side trauma plates in the armpit area would prevent that. What you got was armor with a stiff plate shoving it's way up your armpit that was too uncomfortable to wear and couldn't maneuver in as well, so guys started taking out their side trauma plates and leaving them back in the barn. Then someone thought that instead of standing around getting shot at, maybe we should change our countersniper tactics instead, and sniping casualtes dropped drastically. (Note: the above is a drastic oversimplification of this aspect sniping/countersniping for brevity, or I'd be writing a book here.) This crap is a balancing act. You can't weigh a guy down so heavy he can't fight. The basic rule of thumb is that hauling anything more than a 1/3 of your bodyweight long term will eventually be debilitating, i.e. you'll start suffering load bearing injuries just from carrying your kit. My favorite set-up was always a soft armor "plate carrier" with trauma plates front and back, but little side protection (level IIIa, handgun strength only basically, will stop low power rounds, some shrapnel/fragments, etc.) and no neck or groin protection. My fave set up weighed less than 30 lbs before gear and I felt like I could still maneuver and fight effectively in it. I don't think we need to scrap the idea of better armor, but we need to examine why we're asking for it, who were asking it for, and what is "better". This stuff should be driven by the people using it, in this case the grunts on the ground, and not because of a good intentioned but misplaced wish by people here to make sure our "troops have the best".
__________________ I just took a crap and named it muhammed -- METSSC Warrior by day, lover by night, drunkard by choice...Marine by God. Semper Fidelis. -- anonymous Marine |
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| | #6 (permalink) | |
| Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Back in the Seventies
Posts: 7,852
| Quote:
HOGs in The Shadows ![]()
__________________ "For liberals, the observation that "the peasants are revolting" is a pun. For conservatives, it is cause for uncharacteristic optimism. No matter how far the ideological pendulum swings in the short term, in the end the bedrock common sense of the American people will prevail." --Charles Krauthammer | |
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