Have a
and a
Posted on 06/06/2007 11:32:55 PM PDT by Sleeping Beauty
WASHINGTON | A manufacturer of body armor is under criminal investigation for possibly making false claims, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.
Lawmakers are pressing for an independent test to determine whether the company’s vests are better than the ones U.S. troops in Iraq are wearing.
Air Force investigators said they had been investigating Pinnacle Armor of Fresno, Calif., for a year, looking into allegations the company lied about having its vests certified as safe. Pinnacle made the claim nine months before it received the federal certification, officials said.
Lawmakers from both parties accused Pinnacle’s president, Murray Neal, of hyping his product, exploiting the fears of soldiers’ families, misleading Congress and impugning the Army’s integrity.
Neal said his company’s Dragon Skin body armor was superior to the Interceptor brand the Pentagon was buying now. The Army and Marine Corps need 178,000 body armor systems for service members in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some soldiers and Marines have been paying upward of $5,000 to equip themselves with Dragon Skin.
Unlike the solid Interceptor vests, Dragon Skin uses overlapping silver dollar-sized discs. The flexible system is popular with police SWAT teams, Secret Service agents, and others.
Neal contended there was “a pattern of anti-Dragon Skin misinformation coming from the armed forces.” He said a side-by-side test of the two systems, conducted by an independent evaluator, should decide which was more effective.
“I think we can do that in short order,” agreed Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, the senior Republican member of the House Armed Services Committee.
Two members of the Senate Armed Services Committee want the Government Accountability Office to oversee body armor tests.
The Pentagon has tested equipment against certain standards, but not side by side.
Your loss.
L
What’s odd is that I can’t find a similar PP presentation on the Interceptor test results. Have you found one?
Hey Lurker, looks like there's going to be some more tests...While Hunter subjected both Neal and Coyle to harsh questioning over their claims, the California lawmaker agreed that another round of tests is the only thing that will put the issue to rest.
Simple test, have the president of Pinnacle Armor stand behind his product or in this case in it.
I can’t think of a better certification.
Interceptor passed years ago but the military, as I understand it, continues to pull samples from lots and test them to make sure the 6 suppliers stay up to specs.
What is Dragon Skin so afraid of? If they’ve fixed the adhesive problem and the disks stay in place after the temperature extremes and oil treatment it should pass, right? Then they should submit another batch of 30 to the Army for testing. Why are they pushing for a head to head test without the environmental conditioning?
Buy the snake oil if you wish.
Exactly! I just love these armchair experts making proclamations based on friggin TV shows!
Interceptor passed years ago...continues to pull samples from lots and test them...
And the test results are...where?
And don't forget that this whole thing started because some of those batches failed their testing.
Buy the snake oil if you wish.
Up to that point I thought there might be a conversation to be had here. Now I see that I was wrong in that assumption.
Have a nice day.
I want that process to be untainted by any favoritism, nepotism, cronyism, or corruption.
And I want all the children of the world to join hands and sing in perfect harmony....
L
shouldn't there be an independent lab doing the testing instead of the Army or their designated lab so as to remove any hint of favoritism one way or the other?
The testimony is on C-Spam now. The independent lab biased the results in a manner inconsistent with body armor wear. And it also appears elements of the NBC enemedia division failed in it's duty to report the truth. Again.
Cheers,
OLA
All I’ve got on C-Span now is Marlee Matlin and Tom Segev on C-Span2
BTW, my comments were regarding the new tests to be conducted, not the old ones.
Head on shots are the easiest to stop. Dragonskin's problem (along with every other 'interlocking disk' style armor) is that not every shot comes in perpendicular to the vest. They don't do a good job stopping oblique shots.
As for the grenade test, the old Army flak jacket would do that, too. Stopping shrapnel is way different - and way easier - than stopping bullets.
I would've liked to have seen that. Too bad it isn't scheduled for later today.
Not quite turned down - not authorized for use. There's a difference.
When it comes to body armor, you can't issue it and assume it's safe to use, *then* test it. You have to ensure that it meets the standards first. So, the Army said, "This stuff is not authorized for use until it's been tested." When the Army did test it, it failed miserably. Pinnacle Armor then went running to the press instead of fixing the problems with their product.
No conspiracy, no coverup, no vast plot to screw the American soldier. Quite simply, it's a substandard product with really good marketing.
DragonSkin’s in deep doody...looks like they’ll be joining Richard Davis in taking over the management of Unicor armor.
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