Much more Evidence That Army’s Reliance on, and Testing of, Physique Armor Ceramic Plates is Fatally Flawed
As we review Friday’s launch of the Govt Accountability Business office (GAO) report on body armor (requested for by Senators Jim Webb and Hillary Rodham Clinton in Could of 2007 and by other congressional offices), it’s well worth reviewing some important, related news.
1st, here is some textual content copied from the net website for the Ceramics and Composites Materials Centre at Rutgers University. (CCMC is a multi-college research middle, but hosted at Rutgers.)
“Structural Ceramics/Ceramic Armor
Dedication of the Root Trigger of the Poor Ballistic Functionality of Boron Carbide — Manish Chhowalla and Dale Niesz
Non-Destructive Evaluation of Ceramic Armor — Richard Haber and Dale Niesz
Residence Measurements as Estimators of Ballistic Overall performance — Roger Cannon
Influence of Gas Period Composition in Pores Throughout Densification — M. John Matthewson and Dale Niesz
Defining Microstructural Tolerance Boundaries of Defects for SiC [Silicon Carbide] Armor — Richard Haber”
Notice the matter of the very first-detailed study project. The matter centered on “Root Cause of the Inadequate Ballistic Functionality of Boron Carbide.”
Boron carbide is a single of the two most generally utilized supplies in the manufacture of the ceramic ballistic-protecting plates employed these days by America’s frontline troops. Here is proof that amid the genuine authorities, university professors whose existence is investigating ceramic and (composite components), there is open up acknowledgment that Boron Carbide ballistic efficiency is “poor.”
Their investigation is not into how well the Boron Carbide performs. They already have the answer to that question, and under most grading programs ended up they to situation a grade for Boron Carbide’s ballistic functionality, “very poor” would typically advantage a “D,” at best.
The other most generally used materials for use in modern Army and Maritime Corps ceramic ballistic-protective plates is, silicon carbide, or as it is abbreviated in the fifth merchandise in the previously mentioned list, “SiC.”
Three Rutgers University professors who take part in the premier multi-university cooperative investigation center in the country dealing with ceramics, record two principal analysis topics obtaining to do with the functionality of the two most frequently employed ceramic ballistic protective supplies, and both subjects raise significant, basic inquiries about: (1) of how nicely the ceramic material performs in the situation of Boron Carbide, and (2) the essential structural integrity, i.e., overall performance, of the next ceramic material, Silicon Carbide.
(The two authors cited for the Boron Carbide examine did not react to a telephone call and e-mail inquiring for an prospect to talk about their project. The author of the Silicon Carbide review did react in a series of back-and-forth e-mail, stating, “I am not certain I am at liberty to share my outcomes.”)
DOD’s Look at: there is certainly never ever been a failure of a single ceramic plate, at any time…
Yet Protection Division reps from three-star generals to community affairs civilian flacks keep on to declare that there has by no means been a single failure of a DOD-issued ceramic plate. Not a solitary a single. Never, ever.
Which leads us to the up coming “paradox” in the entire body armor debate.
Why is the Army installing multi-million dollar x-ray products in fight theaters to do non-damaging screening on ceramic ballistic protecting plates?
Does this set up contradict the Army and Maritime Corps claims of zero failures?
Or, does it enhance the views of the above cited ceramic materials professors who are doing investigation on the inadequate efficiency of Boron Carbide plates, and others investigating defect “restrictions” in the microstructure of Silicon Carbide?
Army officers add chapter in “Developments in Ceramic Armor IV”
The following is an abstract posted in an on-line advertisement for the earlier mentioned cited book. Several civilians in key roles of the Army corrupt entire body armor software, like Karl Masters and James Zhang, boast of their achievements in fielding the Non-Harmful Evaluation Automatic Inspection Method (NDE-AIS).
Summary To appropriately shield staff, the ceramic plate element in entire body armor must be totally free of cracks. Studies by the U.S. Military and Britain(2) have demonstrated that while cracked plates can even now defeat a threat, their ballistic performance is degraded. Ceramic tube -Harmful Automated Inspection Method (NDE-AIS) is a deployable, high pace, automated electronic radiographic inspection technique that evaluates ceramic plate serviceability in the submitted… final results demonstrated that the NDE-AIS is 99.8% powerful in trying to keep faulty physique armor plates from being reissued to Soldiers. Ceramic plates are inspected at an common rated of about 240 plates for every hour in a procedure that immediately identifies and withdraws defective plates from provider…
Let us stop appropriate below to consider a closer appear at this remarkable admission from the Army’s possess entire body armor professionals. They declare a ninety nine.eighty five success rate in maintaining faulty body armor plates from currently being reissued.
Notice that the Army authors of this chapter are admitting that there are faulty plates that have been worn by our frontline, fight troops since if there had been no defective plates, there would be no require for NDE-AIS.
The Military reaction will be that each and every single plate at any time issued to any Soldier was best, hence the ideal historical report of no failures, at any time. (Yep, even though the Army will admit that faulty plates have been worn, they will adamantly declare no faulty plate has been shot in battle, ever!! More about this incredulous claim below.)
Thus, in accordance to the Military, the “faulty” plates discovered and turned down as unfit for reissue have turn out to be so following possessing been subjected to the setting of tactical functions.
Let’s take a look at that declare, keeping in brain that the Military suggests that no plate has ever unsuccessful to cease a one round at the threat level for which that plate was qualified.
The Army is therefore proclaiming that in eight several years of combat in Afghanistan and in 6 and one particular-half years of combat in Iraq, all the ceramic plates that turned defective thanks to the bumps and grinds and other environmental elements of tactical functions became defective only in that period of time following the plates morphing from pristine-excellent to faulty. And, during this period no Soldier was ever shot whilst sporting a morphed, defective plate!!
That’s proper. For the Army’s blatantly specious declare to be legitimate, we should settle for that some kind of battlefield miracles have routinely occurred whereby every single frontline trooper that was shot, with the spherical impacting in their ceramic plate, was donning a plate that experienced not however morphed from pristine-ideal (as issued) into a defective plate.
BTW — to take the Army’s declare of no ceramic plates failures each, you should first settle for the Army’s implied assert that each and every one plate made in the past eight several years has been perfect. Given DOD IG investigations and stories in excess of the earlier two a long time documenting significant flaws in the Very first Post Tests by the Military that qualifies suppliers for producing ceramic plates, only the most diehard “Kool-aide drinker” in PEO-Soldier would settle for this sort of a preposterous contention.