RE: Body Armor and equipment weight

> ----------
> From: 	Jonathan Jarrard[SMTP:jjarrard@ford.com]
> Subject:	Re: Body Armor and equipment weight
> 
	>>
	>> I'm as guilty of it as the next and almost never wore body 
	>> armor(except noone preplanned door kicker that we went on).
Even >when > we were busting up riots and mobs where there was four of
us >and 500 
	>> of them. Stupid when you thing back on it, but somethimes
projecting
	>> the absolute certainty that you will kill anyone who blinks
at you > the >wrong way works as well as a ton of body armor in stopping
> > trouble.
	>>
	>I don't know about actual troops, but I have a friend in
Michigan who
	>has been a cop for five years, now, and he has worn his body
armor
	>(about 15-20 lbs worth, I think) every day of his career.

The Australian Army BA is similar the the US Marine/Regular Army style.
Quite heavy, fairly inflexible torso sheath and shoulder pads (not very
stylish this season). Not popular with a lot of troopies, unless they
are in high risk situations where they are likely to be engaged at close
range eg MOUT. I think Los already mentioned the police versions are
more an under garment style, over here a lot of the police will don the
BA only in response at an incident site as it does slow them down and
has an unfavourable psychological image/effect on the public.

As the Australian Army adopts a more vehicle mobile role we expect to
see the use of BA to increase exactly because the troops will not have
to carry the burden on foot all the time on operations. Australia's
climate has a lot to play given the high temperatures and risk of heat
illness.

As we advance in technology we should expect that the materials used
will reduce in weight as they improve ballistic protection. Look at the
guchi clam shell armour in ALIENS; whilst rigid it did not appear to
significantly reduce agility due to its weight (okay so it was only
fibreglass or plastic for the movie!).

Funnily enough, the weight of an infantry personal weapon doesn't seem
to have decreased significantly in 80 or so years! The .303 of WWI
weighed approx 10 1/2 lbs; the F88 Austeyr is only a touch under that,
at around 9 lb and the M16 around 8 lb (3.7 kg?). We still see the
infantry soldier loaded to his capacity with extra weight regardless of
the lightness of kit!

Give a soldier a bigger ruck and he'll just put more in it!

Owen G