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SWJED
10-21-2006, 11:20 PM
21 October Stars and Stripes - Marines Downrange to Get New Body Armor in ’07 (http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=40930) by Jeff Schogol.


Marines downrange will get new body armor next year, while soldiers will have to wait a while.

The Marine Corps has ordered 60,000 new Modular Tactical Vests (MTV) that should start arriving downrange in February, according to a spokesman for Marine Corps Systems Command.

The new vests, which the Corps was expected to discuss Monday, are designed to provide added protection to the side of the torso, the lower back and the kidney area, Capt. Jeff Landis said in a Thursday e-mail to Stars and Stripes.

The move comes after a May 2005 study by the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology showed that several Marines received fatal wounds to exposed areas of their torso, such as their shoulders.

While the new MTVs weigh about a pound more than the Outer Tactical Vests (OTV) that Marines wear now, the vests are designed to distribute weight better and fit more comfortably, Landis said...

In addition to improved protection, the MTVs also have a Velcro attachment that allow rifle butts to fit better against a Marine’s shoulder to ensure accuracy, Landis said.


http://www.smallwarsjournal.com/images/mtv1.jpg http://www.smallwarsjournal.com/images/mtv2.jpg

Soldiers will likely not get their new body armor until fiscal 2010 or 2012.

But the Army is looking at whether it can send the body armor component of the Future Force Warrior system downrange early, said Dutch DeGay, an equipment specialist at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center in Massachusetts.

“Our body armor, that we call the chassis, the U.S. Army Infantry School is drafting a capability production document on that body armor, on that design to see if it would be possible to build that early before 2010 or ’12 to get that in the field,” DeGay said...

The body armor is a component of a much larger package of equipment for U.S. soldiers known as the Future Force Warrior system.

The other parts of the system include a new helmet, electronic equipment and uniform.

The body armor component would have up to six ceramic ballistic plates, compared with the two plates that are part of current body armor, DeGay said.

The plates themselves are 12 percent larger than current Small Arms Protective Inserts (SAPI) and are shaped to provide more protection along the spine and cut down on gaps between the front, back and side protection, Natick officials said.

The body armor is also expected to be lighter and do more than current body armor, so soldiers would wear between 65 and 70 pounds of armor and gear, compared with the average load that soldiers carry now of between 92 and 120 pounds...

SWJED
11-02-2006, 01:17 PM
Stars and Stripes Letter to the Editor:


Your articles headlined “Marines downrange to get new body armor” (Okinawa and Japan editions; “Marines to get new body armor,” Korea edition) and “Marines in Iraq to get new armor by 2007” (Okinawa and Japan editions; “Marines in Iraq to get new armor by December 2007”) — which ran in the Pacific editions of your paper on Oct. 23 and 25, respectively (“Soldiers will wait years to get side body armor” and “Outfitting Marines in Iraq with better body armor should be complete by 2008” in the European edition) — implied the Marine Corps’ new Modular Tactical Vest is superior to the Army’s Outer Tactical Vest. This is a misleading message that does a disservice to soldiers wearing the OTV as part of their Interceptor Body Armor. Allow me to clarify this issue with the facts.

The Marine Corps’ MTV and Army’s OTV provide the same amount of coverage and level of ballistic and fragmentation protection to their wearers. In fact, the MTV reuses the same soft, Kevlar ballistic inserts and two Enhanced Small Arms Protective Inserts as the OTV. Both can also integrate two side carriers and plates.

The MTV, in size medium, weighs approximately a pound and a half more than a size medium OTV. The MTV has a nondetachable back protector that provides 50 square inches of ballistic protection, while the OTV has an optional, detachable back protector that provides 80 square inches of additional ballistic protection and adds one pound of weight.

The Army is exploring new ideas for the Army’s next generation of body armor to develop a capability that enhances force protection yet reduces the load soldiers must carry. Prototypes of this capability have been developed by the U.S. Army Soldier System Center (Natick Labs) with support from the U.S. Army Infantry Center and School.

Maj. Gen. Jeffrey A. Sorenson, Deputy for acquisition and systems management, The Pentagon

GS
11-29-2006, 02:42 PM
What I can't believe is the Marine Corps expects Marines to wear full sized ESAPI plates as side protection...WOW! That is a lot of weight.

JP0302
11-29-2006, 03:19 PM
little by little our armor is lookimg more like the armor worn by spartans, romans and all those guys