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Testers at Aberdeen found that at least one variation of the armor could not stop a 14.5-mm round, the Army officials said. The armor's supplier, German military contractor IBD, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

The german company that made armor for the Leopard I (and I don't know if it is the same company or not-this was 30 years ago) made two versions, one for the mobility test, one for the armor test. When the mobility vehicle broke down, they hauled it out, and use it for the survivability test, and rounds whistled in one side and out the other. The former survivability vehicle failed the mobility tests miserably, having far more armor and weight than proposed.

I guess the point is that GD is not the only problem. Thales (french company) has the reputation of bidding foreign stuff, and then delivering their own crap. The best companies deserve the very large amounts of money they get for their amazing products.

The latest story this afternoon was that 39 additional types of ceramincs had been produced but only six were approved. All 39 got installed.

General Dynamics put out a story last year that they were reformulating the armor to stop the penetration of both the 7.62mm and the 14.5mm rounds up to 200 yards. That apparently didn't work because then they began buying the ceramics that don't work.

Can you imagine how much weight the ceramics add to the air transportable by C-130 Strykers? The only C-130s that fly these will have C-17 painted on the side of them. General Dynamics is in complete default of this contract. They should be forced to walk away empty handed and BROKE!