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thedrifter
02-02-06, 07:02 AM
Troops getting better body armor, generals testify
By Steven Komarow, USA TODAY
55 minutes ago

Top Army and Marine Corps officers said Wednesday that they are buying and sending the latest body armor to troops in Iraq as fast as possible, including ceramic plates to protect against bullets or shrapnel from the side.

"We are looking at everything today that is possible or available," said Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Sorenson, the Army's deputy chief for acquisition. Published reports last month that said troops weren't getting the armor were "at best inaccurate," Sorenson said.

Several members of Congress, including Sens. John Warner, R-Va., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., pushed the Pentagon to speed the body armor to troops after newspaper accounts said the military had delayed buying the armor despite evidence it would save lives.

In testimony Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee, senior officers from the Army and Marines denied there had been any intentional delays. When studies of military casualties last year showed there would be a considerable benefit to supplementing front and back protection with ceramic plates on the sides of armor vests, the equipment was designed and tested, they said.

Some troops already have the side armor, and full-scale protection begins this month.

The Army is making "relentless efforts" to support troops, said Maj. Gen. Stephen Speakes, director of force development. But adding more heavy armor is hitting its limits, he said, at least until technology allows further reduction in the weight of components, such as the ceramic inserts that stop high-velocity rounds.

Today's Interceptor Body Armor, the Army standard, weighs 31 pounds in a medium size and up to 38 pounds in the largest size. The Marines use a similar design.

The armor's weight is a serious issue for troops in Iraq, who often fight in temperatures above 100 degrees and in urban settings in which they have to jump through windows or climb over walls.

Speakes said the military must constantly consider the trade-offs between armor and weight.

"Piling on too much armor presents as much risk to the soldier as providing too little," he said. Though studying casualties provides information, he said, it "does not reveal how many soldiers or Marines have been saved because they were able to quickly raise and fire their rifles first," before the enemy can shoot.

During the invasion of Iraq, a vest with plates to protect against high-powered rifle rounds was standard battle issue for Marines and Army troops. However, troops behind the front lines lacked the latest protection, just as their vehicles often were not armored.

Military truck drivers had also complained that they lacked armor that provided side protection.

The military says it has caught up on both fronts: that all troops in Iraq have state-of-the-art vests and helmets, and all vehicles driven off bases are fully armored.

Last month, the Pentagon said some of the Army's delays in getting the latest armor out to troops were caused by shortages of some of the materials needed to make ceramic armor plating and the absence of one big company to make large amounts of the body armor.

The basic vest has been supplemented twice. First, in 2004, a panel was added to protect the shoulder and armpit area. And now, the side panels with ceramic plates.

Sorenson said the Army is on its third generation of inserts for its body armor and is always looking for new options.

"We will test any legitimate product, and we will see if it meets our standards," he said.

Brig. Gen. Karl Horst, assistant commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, who returned from Iraq last month, testified with two other soldiers who were protected by the current body armor. They thanked Congress for paying for the improvements in body armor but said they recognized the limits.

"There are no silver bullets that will protect us from all the dangers that are out there," Horst said.

Ellie