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Plate carriers unveiled, set for tests

Army equipment officials on Wednesday unveiled the top body armor contenders that will compete in the service’s race to adopt a new lightweight armor plate carrier for overloaded ground troops.

Four body armor companies — Eagle Industries, KDH Defense Systems Inc., MSA Paraclete and Tactical Assault Gear — will have their plate carriers evaluated in a “soldier protection demonstration” at Yuma Proving Ground, Ariz., later this month, said Lt. Col. Robert Myles, product manager for Soldier Survivability, at an event displaying combat equipment at Fort Belvoir, Va.

Equipment officials chose the four companies from a request for information the service put out to industry in January, Myles said.

“We started off with 16 vendors providing us a solution, ... then we selected four out of that 16,” Myles said.

Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division and the 173rd Airborne Brigade will wear each of the company’s plate carrier designs while road marching, running through obstacle courses and shooting on live-fire ranges.

The soldiers also will wear and evaluate two versions of another plate carrier made by Eagle, one that the Marine Corps uses and one that Special Operations Command uses. The current issue interceptor body armor vest, without the add-on neck, shoulder and groin protection, will serve as a baseline for the evaluation.

Once the evaluation is complete, soldiers will tell equipment officials what they liked and disliked about the designs, Myles said.

“These soldiers are actually going to be involved in selecting the next plate carrier that all our soldiers will be wearing in theater,” Myles said.

Reducing heavy loads

The effort comes as the Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group and other Army commands prepare to conduct a battlefield assessment late this summer to find ways to reduce the heavy loads soldiers now shoulder in the mountains of Afghanistan

That assessment involves issuing specially selected, ultra-light combat gear — which includes the Eagle plate carrier the Marines and SOCom now use — to a battalion from 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, before it deploys to Afghanistan. With the help of Johns Hopkins University, the assessment team will try to show the effects of reducing soldiers’ equipment weight by 20 pounds.

The plate carriers on display at Belvoir on Wednesday were part of an equipment open house that Program Executive Office Soldier held to show reporters and Army senior leaders how it’s working to lighten soldiers’ loads. PEO Soldier is responsible for developing and fielding equipment, uniforms and weapons that soldiers take into battle.

“We are trying to let you see what we are doing to support the most important element of the United States Army, the soldier,” Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, commander of PEO Soldier, told reporters.

“Everybody thinks the only thing we are doing to lighten the soldier’s load is working with the Rapid Equipping Force and the Asymmetric Warfare Group which is doing an assessment. ... We are doing all sorts of things to lighten soldier load; we just don’t take credit for it.”

In addition to the new plate carrier designs, the event featured a prototype of the Enhanced Combat Helmet, a joint Army and Marine Corps effort to increase the ballistic protection of the current helmets by 35 percent.

The Army Combat Pant was also on display. The rugged, fire-resistant pants are designed with built-in hard knee pads, a re-enforced seat and material that stretches in certain areas for better mobility while climbing in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Army equipment officials also stressed that they are working harder to coordinate equipment efforts with the Marine Corps and SOCom.

“We are having a discussion next week,” Fuller said, describing an event where the three will brief industry on its needs. “We are trying to ensure that we stay linked and synchronized. ... As we develop things, as they develop things, we are trying not to reinvent the wheel and to work together.”

For complete details on the plate carriers, pick up Monday’s edition of Army Times.