Congress Wants More Body Armor Tests

Are U.S. soldiers wearing second-rate body armor? For years, makers of alternative protective vests have been arguing that the Army have unfairly pushed their armor away. Today, House Democrats and Republicans both "called on the Army [to]
perform new independent tests to verify that soldiers in Iraq and
Afghanistan are wearing the best body armor available," Congressional Quarterly's Josh Rogin notes, in a report not yet available online.

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The House Armed Services Committee held its first open hearing on the subject after a series of reports that widely used Interceptor body armor is inferior to the commercially available Dragon Skin armor, manufactured by Pinnacle Armor. The reports contrast Army testing conducted in on Dragon Skin armor in May 2006 with a series of comparative tests sponsored by NBC news last month.

Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton,
R-Mo., urged the Army to conduct new tests of both the current armor and the Dragon Skin armor, side by side, with 3rd party independent oversight... Skelton also emphasized that any manufacturer should be able to bring a product to the Defense Department for fair consideration, responding to criticisms leveled by NBC and the Pinnacle's chief executive officer, Murray Neal.

Ranking Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter,
Calif., also called for a new round of tests, but stressed... that body armor must be able to perform in 125
degree heat, the temperature troops often face in Iraq. In a closed briefing May 24, Army officials told the committee that Dragon Skin armor failed to withstand extreme temperatures during the 2006 tests...

The Army contends that the tests performed by NBC, under the supervision of Dr. Philip Coyle, the Pentagon's Director of Operational
Test and Evaluation under the Clinton administration, were limited and did not subject the Dragon Skin armor to realistic battlefield conditions...

The Dragon Skin armor stopped armor- piercing incendiary ammunition better than the Interceptor armor in repeated tests, Coyle testified.
He acknowledged that extreme temperatures were excluded from those tests.

Coyle criticized the Army's testing methodology. "The refusal of the
Army to conduct side-by-side testing is puzzling," he said, adding that
"this committee needs to be open-minded about looking at the questions which the NBC body armor tests have raised."

[Christian, for one, wasn't exactly swayed.] ...The Army asserted that it gave no favoritism to Interceptor body armor over Dragon Skin.
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A statement by Lt. Gen. N. Ross Thompson III, military deputy to the assistant secretary of the army for acquisitions, logistics, and technology, said, "Dragon skin has been rejected by the Army because it has repeatedly failed to meet our performance standards."

Pinnacle did not participate in three separate open solicitations the Army has conducted for body armor, Thompson pointed out.