Dragon Skin
Chalmers Johnson the author of “Nemesis”, writes that our Defense Department budget receives only superficial scrutiny because members of Congress, seeking lucrative defense contracts for their districts, have mutually beneficial relationships with defense contractors and the Pentagon.
An investigation raises questions about the Army’s claim that our troops have the best body armor in the world. Independent ballistics testing commissioned by NBC News place the Army’s body armor side by side with a body armor called Dragon Skin.
Some soldiers and their families have tried to buy Dragon Skin, believing it offers better protection, but the Army banned Dragon Skin last year, almost two months before they actually tested it. After the ban, however, select soldiers assigned to protect generals and VIPs in Iraq and Afghanistan wore Dragon Skin.
Jim McGee, a retired Marine colonel designed the Army’s current body armor called Interceptor a decade ago. Colonel McGee, who has no financial stake in Dragon Skin insists: “Dragon Skin is the best out there, hands down. It’s better than the Interceptor. It is state of the art. In some cases, it’s two steps ahead of anything that I have ever have seen, because it has more stopping power and more coverage.” Dragon Skin’s disks that interconnect like medieval chain mail, can wrap most of a soldier’s torso, providing a greater area of maximum protection.
At a renowned ballistics lab in Germany, engineers carefully calibrated their equipment for a side-by-side test, the Army’s body armor, Interceptor, against Dragon Skin, a flexible system of interconnected ceramic discs. Phil Coyle, a former chief weapons tester for the Pentagon, helped make sure the testing met Army ballistic standards.
Testers were very impressive that Dragon Skin repelled a total of six armor-piercing rounds with no catastrophic failure. Retired Four-Star Army General Wayne Downing observed the test and reported that Dragon Skin significantly outperformed the Army’s body armor by stopping more of the world’s most lethal bullets than Interceptor.
The former chief weapons testing official, Phil Coyle said Dragon Skin met and exceeded Army ballistic standards. Retired General Wayne Downing insisted: “Oh, it was totally fair. The Interceptor body army did quite well, it’s just that Dragon Skin did better. What I take away from this test is it deserves a full, unbiased test by a neutral party because I thought it was pretty doggone good.”
Three Democratic Senators have called for a full-scale, independent, side-by-side test to see which body armor is really the best.
An investigation raises questions about the Army’s claim that our troops have the best body armor in the world. Independent ballistics testing commissioned by NBC News place the Army’s body armor side by side with a body armor called Dragon Skin.
Some soldiers and their families have tried to buy Dragon Skin, believing it offers better protection, but the Army banned Dragon Skin last year, almost two months before they actually tested it. After the ban, however, select soldiers assigned to protect generals and VIPs in Iraq and Afghanistan wore Dragon Skin.
Jim McGee, a retired Marine colonel designed the Army’s current body armor called Interceptor a decade ago. Colonel McGee, who has no financial stake in Dragon Skin insists: “Dragon Skin is the best out there, hands down. It’s better than the Interceptor. It is state of the art. In some cases, it’s two steps ahead of anything that I have ever have seen, because it has more stopping power and more coverage.” Dragon Skin’s disks that interconnect like medieval chain mail, can wrap most of a soldier’s torso, providing a greater area of maximum protection.
At a renowned ballistics lab in Germany, engineers carefully calibrated their equipment for a side-by-side test, the Army’s body armor, Interceptor, against Dragon Skin, a flexible system of interconnected ceramic discs. Phil Coyle, a former chief weapons tester for the Pentagon, helped make sure the testing met Army ballistic standards.
Testers were very impressive that Dragon Skin repelled a total of six armor-piercing rounds with no catastrophic failure. Retired Four-Star Army General Wayne Downing observed the test and reported that Dragon Skin significantly outperformed the Army’s body armor by stopping more of the world’s most lethal bullets than Interceptor.
The former chief weapons testing official, Phil Coyle said Dragon Skin met and exceeded Army ballistic standards. Retired General Wayne Downing insisted: “Oh, it was totally fair. The Interceptor body army did quite well, it’s just that Dragon Skin did better. What I take away from this test is it deserves a full, unbiased test by a neutral party because I thought it was pretty doggone good.”
Three Democratic Senators have called for a full-scale, independent, side-by-side test to see which body armor is really the best.
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