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By Roger Charles DefenseWatch 10-17-2007 UPDATE to following article: Two congressional sources report that the Director of Operational Test and Evaluation (on the staff of the Secretary of Defense) caught the Army’s attempted exemption of current Interceptor vendors from independent testing, as allowed in the original solicitation. Under pressure from DOT&E, in August the Army issued a modification not listing …

by Roger Charles DefenseWatch October 15, 2007 When NBC News had a German lab conduct side-by-side, comparative tests of Pinnacle Armor’s Dragon Skin and the Army’s Interceptor Body Armor System on May 3 earlier this year, the real surprise was how well the Interceptor ESAPI (Level IV) plates performed. Yes, that’s right. The Army acquisition mafia "got lucky" in Germany, …

by David Crane defrev at gmail.com As if mines/IEDs, EFPs and RPGs aren’t enough, now there’s armor-piercing grenades a.k.a. armor-penetrating grenades. According to a recent CBS News article, this is the latest lethal threat (explosives threat) to U.S. troops in Iraq. The grenades, being employed/deployed by Al Qaeda forces (specifically they’re self-named “Thermal Brigade” force), look like the old stick …

by Roger Charles August 30, 2007 United States Test Laboratory in Wichita, Kansas, last week (August 20) tested nine separate, serialized Dragon Skin SOV-2000 (Level III) ballistic body armor panels that varied in age from 5 years-9 & 1/2 months to 6 years-8 months. The purpose of this test was to validate Pinnacle Armor’s six-year warranty for Dragon Skin products. …

By Roger Charles August 30, 2007 (originally published on August 17, 2007) The Department of Justice (DOJ) has now joined the Army acquisition mafia in attempting to deny America’s Grunts an honest chance for determining just what is the "best-available" body armor. In a flagrant abuse of discretionary authority, the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs has intervened in an unprecedented …

by David Crane defrev at gmail.com August 1, 2007 Soldiers For The Truth (SFTT) is reporting about an independent test conducted on July 11, 2007 by Aberdeen Test Center (ATC) on two Pinnacle Armor Dragon Skin SOV-3000 Level IV body armor panels. As it turns out, the ATC obtained very different results from the U.S. Army’s First Article Test (FAT) …

by David Crane defrev (at) gmail (dot) com July 30, 2007 Back in April, DefenseReview published a short article on our approx. 1000-round range session with Ferdie Sy’s select-fire 5.56x45mm NATO (5.56mm NATO)/.223 Rem. FERFRANS Specialites SOAR CQB Subcarbines/SBRs (Short Barreled Rifles) and 7.62mm NATO/.308 Win. SOPMOD M14/M1A EBR (Enhanced Battle Rifle)-type rifle/carbine. In that article, we promised you photos. …

by David Crane defrev at gmail.com All photographic images contained in this article were taken by DefenseReview.com, and they are the exclusive property of DefenseReview.com. DefenseReview.com owns the copyright on these photos. All photos were shot with a 7.2-megapixel Sony Cyber-shot digital camera (Model #: DSC-P150). While DefenseReview was at AUSA Winter Symposium 2007, we got a chance to view …

by David Crane defrev at gmail.com June 27, 2007 Earlier this month (June 2007), we published an article on an ad hoc anti-EFP (Explosively Formed Projectile a.k.a. Explosively Formed Penetrator) armoring solution utilizing glass laminate armor (a.k.a. bullet-resistant glass a.k.a. transparent armor) to destabilize the EFP and redirect its kinetic energy laterally via "spiderwebbing" (glass shattering laterally and vertically). Since …

by David Crane defrev at gmail.com It’s been reported that IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) account for approx. 70% of all combat casualties in Iraq. Well, there’s a specific type of IED coming out of Iran that’s been wreaking havoc on Coalition troops recently, and against which MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicles like the Cougar, RG33, and Golan armored vehicles …