Well, I spent 15 months in Vietnam (including two Tets) and wore that “Flak Vest” every day. I’ve finished working for the Army on a two Billion dollar program for the last 17 years, including in “The Box” at Fort Irwin and the range at Fort Bliss. If the Acquisition Corp can’t get it right on a uniform how in the hell are they going to get it right on a complex weapon system? And I absolutely guarantee you there were advocates just as certain as you for the need for change the last time the Army changed uniforms and the time before that.
And they were wrong and I told them so at the time. I actually had some idiot at Natick Labs insist that their new uniform had no black in its pattern "because black doesn't exist in nature"!
You have to know that most government labs are run by civilians who have never been in the armed forces. That's why we still have the 5.56mm even after all of the many tries by the leaders in the field to get a better/more effective caliber.