Although the payment was directly made to the State government-listed bullet-proof jacket producing company, the idea, affirmed by Mumbai Police chief D Sivanandhan, has evoked sharp reactions from former IPS officers.

Thirty builders affiliated with Maharashtra Chambers of ousing Industry (MCHI), a body representing top developers in the Mumbai region, had six months ago met Sivanandhan and mooted this idea after the Commissioner asked them to do something for the force.

After a couple of days, a delegation of builders had visited the commissioner’s office and had issued 30 cheques, each one of Rs5 lakh, to the producer in his presence.

Lawyer and former IPS officer YP Singh described it as a gross violation of government rules and police manual. “Police cannot accept any donations from private people or builders without the permission of the State government,” he stated.

Called the ThermaHelm, the incredible piece of equipment comes with an inbuilt device that acts like an instant ice pack after a sudden impact.

By cooling the brain it is thought the carbon fibre helmet can reduce the risk of long-term brain damage and save lives.
The ThermaHelm acts like an instant ice pack after a sudden impact
The British creators will launch the £299 helmet in May this year.

After two years of developing the idea at the Sussex Innovation Centre, in Brighton, it is now set to hit the shelves this year.

The helmet contains two lightweight chemical packs, which are built into the helmet lining.

One pack contains water, the other ammonium nitrate. A sudden impact causes the two to mix and trigger a ‘cooling’ reaction.

This reaction lasts up to 45 minutes, stabilising the temperature of the brain and improving the crash victim’s chances of survival.

A £499 version of the ThermaHelm – which includes video cameras, GPS and bluetooth, is in the pipeline for July this year.

Shieldtech, based at Woolston, Warrington, counts police forces, the Ministry of Defence and UNICEF among its clients. It has expanded its network of agents and distributors abroad and this has contributed to a rise in orders from across Europe in recent months, the company said.

Revenues for the year to the end of June surged 72 per cent, from £6m to £10.3m, and the firm turned pre-tax losses of £10.2m in 2008 into profits of £100,000.

As well as increased demand for its products, Shieldtech’s performance was boosted by production and administrative efficiency improvements.

Shares in Shieldtech, which employs 80 staff, gained nearly seven per cent, or 0.75p, to 11.75p after the update.

According to Marcia Price, President of Vector Strategy, “That $6 billion of body armor will not be procured evenly between 2009 and 2015. There will be surges required for specific theater needs; and the development and procurement of the Next Generation Vest and Plate will cause procurement volume fluctuations between now and 2015. The market will rely substantially on sustainment requirements in certain fiscal years.”

Military priorities and initiatives in the next two to three years include enhancements and improvements to current body armor components, as well as procurement of body armor to fulfill special near term theater needs. Specific programs within this timeframe include the IMTV for the USMC, USMC and US Army Plate Carriers, design enhancements to the current IOTV, the ECH, lighter weight ESAPIs and XSAPIs with current ballistic performance requirements, and lighter weight plates with lower ballistic protection levels.

It is important for body armor producers to understand the Land Warrior (LW) and Ground Soldier Ensemble (GSE) systems. Although body armor is not a primary component of these systems, these systems must be integrated with body armor worn by the Soldier. Integrating LW and GSE with body armor will become increasingly important as these systems undergo prototype and operational testing through 2010, and possibly broader deployment in 2011 or 2012 with spinouts of the Future Combat System network.

Although development has been initiated on scalable and mission tailor able body armor systems, Vector Strategy believes these systems will not be prepared for procurement until 2012 or later. The Next Generation Body Armor System will be developed and procured between 2012 and 2015. This system will exhibit new design and performance characteristics.

Vector Strategy believes that flexible body armor systems will not be ready for large scale procurement and deployment within the US Army or USMC until approximately 2015. This is due to a need for development of specifications and test protocols, a lack of current technical maturity, prohibitive cost, and the need to integrate the technology into a total body armor system redesign.

The USMC and US Army are conducting a joint effort to develop requirements for the Next Generation Combat Helmet (NGCH). Natick has proposed a development project that would initiate design work on a headgear system that would spin off technologies to support the NGCH program. This project is proposed for 2010, but is not yet approved. Natick hopes to transition the project to PEO Soldier or a joint program office in 2013. Vector Strategy has forecasted initial low rate production orders of the NGCH in 2015.

Additional industry insight is available in Vector Strategy`s most recent report, titled US Military Body Armor Industry: Forecast and Analysis. This 272 page document was published on August 10, 2009 after 10 months of extensive primary and secondary research. More information is available on Vector Strategy`s website at www.vector-strategy.com. Vector Strategy will host webcasts throughout September for parties interested in viewing and discussing the report in further detail prior to purchase.

Jim Henderson, Acting Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Bard said, “A key element of our strategy is to gain market share and diversify our sales mix. Our first half of the year results coupled with this latest award demonstrates that our strategy is working.”

Henderson added, “Currently, there are several solicitations out for bid and others that we anticipate will arise over the coming months. While challenges remain, I believe Point Blank is heading in the right direction and has greatly enhanced its competitive position both domestically and internationally.”

Yury informed his body armor was under the bed, lying there unused — not protecting, not being shot at, doing nothing. “Perhaps the white body armor, with a few flaws here and there, can help someone,” he thought and stuck up an advert for 7,000 rubles.

There is plenty of secondhand body armor out there for sale. One ad from an ex-security guard boasted that it had only been worn seven times. The armor was sold within a day or two.

Yury talked of the layers and layers that are supposed to protect you from attack, muttering a few words on their poor condition but remaining ever-so reassuring as he spoke in a voice so jolly you could say that he has Humor FM on the radio all the time.

Body armor isn’t hard to find if you look around you, too. It is on the security guard who waves his gun round on its strap as if he has forgotten it is there or the bodyguard who is ready to take one for the team.

There are at least 10 factories that make body armor all over Russia, and in a few years when the day comes when every second workingman is a security guard/bodyguard protecting every first workingman, there will probably be more.

Body armor has its own gradation system that shows what it can actually protect you against. There are different systems in different countries, as you are protecting against different weapons. For instance, you don’t really expect to face a Makarov pistol that often if you are in the police force in England, but a month without the sight of a Makarov in Moscow is like a day without a grimace from the metro ticket lady. Rare and somewhat unnerving.

If you do face a Makarov, then a Class 1 body armor is fine. An AK-47 requires Class 3 or above.

Back in 1983, two soldiers in the Urals decided to have a duel using their body armor to protect themselves. They stood about 20 meters apart from each other. One fired and missed. The other fired and hit. The results were not pretty, and the soldier died three days later.

The word most often avoided when talking about body armor is “bulletproof.” Bullet resistant is the better term, as the armor will resist, but it still may yield enough to slam into your body and cause severe damage.

One military historian worked out the force of the bullet according to this formula: E=mV2/2, which he also put in plain language, saying the bullet had the force of a 2 kilogram weight dropped from a 2 meter height.

Add in the armor hitting against your chest or ribs, and the results aren’t good.

Reader AS points to the latest culprit: MTek Weapon Systems, which is pushing Stormtrooper-esque “facial armor” for our troops.

The mask weighs 1.3 pounds, is compatible with ballistic eyewear, and will stop a bullet from a .44 magnum. So far, there seems to be one marine corporal using the thing in Iraq. We’ll see if more emerge.

Their forward operating base (FOB) is barely perceptible in the distance from high up along a ridge, and the soldiers know it will be many hours before they return to a hot meal and the comfort of a cot.

In between will be a day like all others since they arrived: long marches, entering and exiting armored vehicles, firing rifles, scrambling through obstacle-laden villages and treacherous insurgent houses and wolfing down an MRE (meal ready to eat) in stolen moments at midday.

If this sounds like a typical day for a soldier in Southwest Asia, the Training and Exercise Management Office at Yuma Proving Ground has arranged similar conditions for soldiers in Arizona. Recently, the proving ground delivered a realistic environment in support of a critically important exercise aimed at developing the next generation of body armor.

The perfect fit

Since the beginning of American involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan earlier this decade, YPG has played an instrumental role in reducing the incidence of the most horrific events experienced by soldiers in theater.

Fatalities from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) have diminished with the mass fielding of the MRAP (mine-resistant ambush-protected) vehicle, which underwent extensive testing at the proving ground, as well as cutting-edge electronic counter-IED technology developed and tested at YPG.

Yet while the most horrific fatalities have been dramatically reduced, heavy body armor can impede the mobility of soldiers on the battlefield. Consequently, soldiers run the risk of being outmaneuvered by the enemy.

To counter this threat, in December 2008 the Defense Department issued a request for information to find a more lightweight armor system for American soldiers.

“Our goal is to field a lighter, more mobile body armor system to allow soldiers operating in high elevations increased mobility without lessening the amount of protection the armor provides,” said Jeremy Reed, a project officer from Fort Benning’s Maneuver Battle Lab who served two tours in Iraq.

Since the new armor system would be especially beneficial to soldiers deployed in the mountainous terrain of Afghanistan, evaluators needed a site that accurately simulated the topography encountered in Southeast Asia. Yuma Proving Ground’s extensive range space was a logical choice.

“We wanted a location that mimics the environment there and YPG meets all the requirements,” said Lt. Col. Robert Myles, product manager for soldier survivability at Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier of Fort Belvoir, Va.

PEO Soldier is an Army organization responsible for developing, acquiring and fielding virtually everything soldiers wear or carry. A key part of its mission is to constantly improve soldiers’ equipment to enhance their lethality, survivability and comfort.

Using volunteers from Fort Bragg’s 82nd Airborne Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade based in Vicenza, Italy, the Maneuver Battle Lab staged a two-week long exercise at YPG in May to evaluate personal armor systems. All troops that participated had previously been deployed to Iraq and/or Afghanistan.

Since the systems under test will likely be tested at YPG’s Tropic Regions Test Center (TRTC) at a future date, TRTC personnel provided support for the evaluation. Of the eight YPG data collectors who recorded test data, five are typically based at TRTC’s facility in Panama.

“We’re testing the compatibility, mobility and effectiveness of the equipment,” explained Maj. Michael Williams, branch chief of the Maneuver Battle Lab. “Our job is to test in conditions as close to combat as possible.”
Average day

Each day began with a conference at the FOB in which each soldier donned the armor that would be evaluated that day. The soldiers were organized into teams, each of which was assigned a different armor system each day.

For comparison purposes, one of those systems was the Improved Outer Tactical Vest currently in use in Iraq and Afghanistan. The soldiers carried the exact same rucksack every day, which data collectors weighed to confirm that the previous day’s specifications would be duplicated.

The soldiers then undertook a foot march into a nearby mountain range. The soldiers and several data collectors climbed uneven rocks up the slope, wound their way across the top of a ridge, then descended back to the valley below.

“The terrain is exactly like Afghanistan,” remarked Staff Sgt. Joshua Vaughn, who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq, as he marched up the mountain. “It even smells like Afghanistan.”

After data was collected, the soldiers proceeded by bus to a rigorous obstacle course outside the K9 Village, one of YPG’s simulated insurgent villages.

Each soldier tested the maneuverability of the body armor by climbing walls, negotiating a tire course, crawling through narrow tunnels and covered ditches and climbing up and down deceptively steep A-frame roofs and staircases.

They pulled themselves up through high windows, and navigated through the narrow, dark warren of a simulated insurgent house. Each soldier went through the course multiple times while carrying their rifles and occasionally throwing an inert grenade at a distant insurgent mannequin.

Even for these highly conditioned veterans of overseas combat, the course was physically challenging, but representative of the conditions encountered by ground forces in theater.

There was little time to rest, however, as the troops proceeded to a firing range, where they practiced combat maneuvers while still wearing the armor. Under the blazing hot sun, groups of soldiers took turns following a series of directions from a uniformed leader who barked instructions through a megaphone.

“On my command, you will run to the 10-meter line and engage your target,” he boomed through the megaphone. “Ready? Run!”

The participants charged the 10 meters and fired as the retractable targets moved upright, sending them falling to the ground amidst crackling reports and the acrid smell of gunpowder.

At the conclusion of this stage of the day’s activities, the soldiers returned to the FOB and ate a quick lunch of MREs, then spent the remainder of the afternoon rotating through a series of test stations.

The stations measured how quickly soldiers could enter and exit a series of common combat vehicles that were on site, the range of motion each soldier was capable of while wearing the armor, how easily the armor could be donned and doffed in a variety of positions while wearing a helmet. They also examined how quickly a simulated wounded soldier could be evacuated while wearing the armor.

When the day’s objectives were completed, the soldiers ate a hot meal in the FOB’s mess area and retired to their tents to rest up for another day of the same exercises.

Culmination

Over two weeks, testers collected quantitative data on the performance of each armor system, as well as more than 10,000 pages of feedback from the soldiers who participated in the exercise. The tested armor systems will next undergo ballistics testing at another facility.

The evaluations conducted at YPG could benefit deployed soldiers as early as this summer.

“YPG is a great place,” said Williams. “We couldn’t have asked for a better place or better people to work with.”

Reacting to injuries caused by over weighted body armor and security improvements in some combat zones, the Marine Corps is adjusting the way it equips Leathernecks in the field with personal protective equipment.

The service is shifting the decision making down the chain of command and instituting a graduated armor scale in the coming weeks for the promise of a lighter load to reduce injuries and hopefully quicken the feet of Marines in the field.

The first move, effective immediately, will push control to lieutenant colonels in deciding what amount of personal protective equipment Marines will wear for a given mission.

“Recognizing that body armor is modular and scalable, [we'll] try and leverage that by empowering our commanders … to make the appropriate decision with regards to what composition of body armor their Marines will wear,” said Maj. Tom Wood, infantry advocate for the plans, policies and operations branch of Marine Corps headquarters in Washington.

Previously, the decision for the body armor composition Marines wore into the field rested in the hands of colonels. The Corps hopes devolved decision making to the equivalent of battalion commanders will translate to a more flexible policy.

“Our battalion and squadron commanders are really the right individuals to make the decision with regards to balancing weight versus protection in a given operating environment,” Wood told Military.com in an exclusive interview.

Wood trumpeted “increased tactical mobility” as a key justification for the new move.

“What you are going to see, undoubtedly, is the ability of the average Marine to move quicker and enhance his tactical mobility and thereby the unit can move from point to point quicker,” Wood said.

Combatant commanders will still have the authority to issue theater- or region-wide guidance on the level of personal protective equipment, but Wood hopes that “the reduced level of violence of this new authority may help stir some discussion between Marine force commanders in Iraq and their joint force commander supervisors.”

In January of last year, Corps commanders in Iraq were pushing to shed the body armor load of their grunts by making neck guards, groin protectors, side plates and even helmets optional in some areas of Iraq. But they were shut down by higher-level Army commanders who were unconvinced the threat had diminished enough to justify the new armor edict.

As more Leathernecks deployed to Afghanistan, with its high altitude battlefields and rural geography, the Corps quietly began letting grunts wear light-weight plate carriers instead of the bulky Modular Tactical Vest, exchanging protection for pounds as the strategic environment dictated.

Potentially an even more drastic change is a forthcoming move by the Corps to create a graduated system of personal protective equipment that will allow Marines in the field to quickly move between different body armor configurations.

Wood explained the so-called “armor protection levels” are being modeled after the MOPP — mission orientated protective posture — gear levels that Marines are familiar with in relation to nuclear, biological and chemical attack protective gear. Currently, the Corps is drafting a proposal to create four APLs.

We want to “standardize that across the Marine Corps … so that a commander can rapidly disseminate what his chosen body armor protection level or posture is for his forces,” Wood said.

It’s not new gear, just a new mindset. The four levels will incorporate the small-arms protective insert plate carrier and the modular tactical vest already in use.

Wood acknowledged that complaints from Marines in the field, bolstered by a growing litany of injuries related to gear, played a significant role in prompting these changes.

“We needed to get away from the one size fits all mentality of ‘you are going to go out with all your kit,’ ” Wood said. “Marines have become very, very comfortable operating with all their gear, but there are some body injuries that have occurred that we are just now starting to get our arms around in terms of long-term damage to the human body.”

He said neck, shoulder and back injuries are the most common, but did not provide figures as to the seriousness or frequency of the injuries.

Wood said heat considerations — unavoidable in places like Iraq and Afghanistan where temperatures routinely climb above 100 degrees in the summer months — also factored into the decision.

And besides, walking around like some bulked-up Storm Trooper in head-to-toe armor makes it tough to win hearts and minds in a war that hinges on separating the population from the insurgents.

“There are times and places where a Marine who is less kitted up poses less of a civil, informational or psychological threat to the people that he is attempting to engage with,” Wood said.

As a result of their own success, Marines are spending a lot more time in places like that. The tough part is figuring how to dress for it.

– Bryan Mitchell