What I want for Xmas (Body Armour Related)

[Britney Spears]

http://www.military.com/soldiertech/0,14632,Soldiertech_PArmor,00.html

 

[aesop081]

Me too please !!

 

[KevinB]

Keep in mind David Crane is an Idiot and His "Defence Review" is laughable...

 

[Britney Spears]

I'll take your word for it. The pictures and stats are fairly convincing though.

 

[KevinB]

I really don't know anything about the armour - there was mention of it on the Ligthfighter website - but the armour was unveiled a year ago and no big hip hip hourahs so...

My biggest problems from David anf his website have been entirly made up article that he quotes or other "questionable" info he puts out.

Who knows maybe this time he actually is onto something but I for one am not holding my breath.

I noticed a few misleading comments from Pinnacle website - I will go through in more detail and comment in detail on my thoughts (for what they are worth...)

 

[Thaern]

OK i guess here's the best place to post this since i was looking at picking up a suit of dragonskin if someone has a more recent or appropriate place to shift over to please let me know since I've been browsing an searching for better part of an hour. 

I'm a reservist medic so my odds of going overseas as a medic were slim to none.  However recently I found out about a new program to give reservist medics their PCP qualifications in exchange for a deployment within 2 years. Now I'm jumping at the bit to be loaded on this course but as excited as i am about a chance to go overseas my fiancee is quite concerned about it.  To ease her fears we have talked about purchasing a suit of dragonskin or some other type of armour.  Before either of us start researching different types of armour I would like to know if using your own personal armour is even allowed overseas?  Also there was a story about an American soldier getting a suit of dragonskin from his mother and then was told he couldn't wear it without forfeiting his death benefits.  Does anyone know if the CF has a similar policy?

 

[AlphaCharlie]

OK i guess here's the best place to post this since i was looking at picking up a suit of dragonskin if someone has a more recent or appropriate place to shift over to please let me know since I've been browsing an searching for better part of an hour. 

I'm a reservist medic so my odds of going overseas as a medic were slim to none.  However recently I found out about a new program to give reservist medics their PCP qualifications in exchange for a deployment within 2 years. Now I'm jumping at the bit to be loaded on this course but as excited as i am about a chance to go overseas my fiancee is quite concerned about it.  To ease her fears we have talked about purchasing a suit of dragonskin or some other type of armour.  Before either of us start researching different types of armour I would like to know if using your own personal armour is even allowed overseas?  Also there was a story about an American soldier getting a suit of dragonskin from his mother and then was told he couldn't wear it without forfeiting his death benefits.  Does anyone know if the CF has a similar policy?

Under NO circumstances would you be allowed your own body armour overseas. It puts the CF at an enormous risk if you were to get injured wearing non CF issued PPE (personal protective equipment). We're not allowed to wear non-issue ballistic eye wear over here for that same reason; if we were to get our eyes injured wearing non issue glasses the army wouldn't cover anything.

It's hard enough to let the army let you use non issue kit in general, but when it comes to kit that involves your protection, there's not a chance in hell you're going to wear anything but issued. Plus, the current generation frag vest with plates is really quite good.

 

[Thaern]

See this is something useful to figure out before going out and buying a super expensive piece of personal kit. Thanks, you probably just saved me about 5k USD.   Its kind of sad tho, I was really getting into the idea behind owning my own piece of dragonskin.

 

[Donut]

If your profile info is correct, I wouldn't worry about getting overseas in the immediate future.

And, since all armour has a life expectency measured in years, not decades, I'd think about getting your BMQ, SQ, QL3, QL4, PCP, and skill consolidation done first.  So that, maybe, puts you in the box for 3-09 (the next time the tasking is coming back to the West), you've got lots of time to think about gucci aftermarket stuff. 

Put it this way, the HSS coy deploying in Feb '08 is assembling this month, so that's 10 months before that deployment.  Which means for 3-09, the HSS coy will probably assemble in Jan of '09, so you've got summer 07, and summer '08 to get 20-33 weeks ( 4wk BMQ, 4 wk SQ, 6 wk QL3, 6 wk QL4, 13 wk PCP) of training in, plus a skills consolidation, which is supposed to be (according to the last direction I saw) a year working on car.  One of our SNCO has waited almost a year for his (approved) PCP spot.

And, since you can't wear it anyway, I REALLY wouldn't worry about it now.

Best of luck,

DF

 

[PhilB]

Wouldn't it also depend on what role as a medic you are being employed in? The HSS and other on base medics definitely do not need 5k worth of aftermarket armour. I am not sure how exactly the Med Services work, but I would assume that there is no guarantee of going as a medic attached to one of the line units.

 

[Donut]

Wouldn't it also depend on what role as a medic you are being employed in? The HSS and other on base medics definitely do not need 5k worth of aftermarket armour. I am not sure how exactly the Med Services work, but I would assume that there is no guarantee of going as a medic attached to one of the line units.

True.  But, there's so few med techs available that every single med-tech going on 1-08 will complete all necessary tng for an outside the wire gig...even if you're in a KAF position, you will probably find yourself outside at some point, maybe not with a coy, but probably in a FOB, or convoy, or med outreach.

 

[Thaern]

Well our CO made it very clear to the medics on the course right now that because there is a lack of PCP qualified med techs and only PCP med techs are going outside the wire, that there is a good chance of them ending up serving outside the wire.  My dream posting right would be attached to an infantry unit however after talking to a few medics at cougar salvo the odds of that are slim to none since they usually take reg force medics from 1FD ABM because they train them for that sort of role.

 

[Big Red]

Under NO circumstances would you be allowed your own body armour overseas. It puts the CF at an enormous risk if you were to get injured wearing non CF issued PPE (personal protective equipment). We're not allowed to wear non-issue ballistic eye wear over here for that same reason; if we were to get our eyes injured wearing non issue glasses the army wouldn't cover anything.

It's hard enough to let the army let you use non issue kit in general, but when it comes to kit that involves your protection, there's not a chance in hell you're going to wear anything but issued. Plus, the current generation frag vest with plates is really quite good.

The issued PPE sucks.  You would be hard pressed to buy after market gear that does not surpass the capabilities of the issued goggles, "frag" vest, plates, etc.  I don't see how the CF could deny an injury claim or pension if you had data to support the items you wore eg. Oakely's/Bolles actually provided better protection than the issued kit. 

Getting your CoC to let you wear it is a whole different issue...

 

[AlphaCharlie]

The issued PPE sucks.  You would be hard pressed to buy after market gear that does not surpass the capabilities of the issued goggles, "frag" vest, plates, etc.  I don't see how the CF could deny an injury claim or pension if you had data to support the items you wore eg. Oakely's/Bolles actually provided better protection than the issued kit. 

Getting your CoC to let you wear it is a whole different issue...

Considering that so far in my tour, the plates have already saved a life, I wouldn't say they are junk. As for goggles, we have been issued aftermarket stuff, purchased by our coy and it works great. If you *really* need something, the army will give it to you, and if your CoC has any common sense they will buy the right gear.

 

[Big Red]

Considering that so far in my tour, the plates have already saved a life, I wouldn't say they are junk. 

My plates weigh half the amount yours do and provide greater protection. How's that for a comparison?  A piece of hardened steel will save your life too, it doesn't mean its the best plate to be hauling around.

If you *really* need something, the army will give it to you, and if your CoC has any common sense they will buy the right gear.

AHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAH.

 

[AlphaCharlie]

My plates weigh half the amount yours do and provide greater protection. How's that for a comparison?  A piece of hardened steel will save your life too, it doesn't mean its the best plate to be hauling around.

AHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAH.

And how much did you pay for yours again? Mine was free.

As for the laughter, I don't know about your chain of command but our company has already bought us several pairs of goggles and gloves as well as leg pouches for M203 rounds, headlamps and LED flashlights.

 

[NL_engineer]

If you *really* need something, the army will give it to you, and if your CoC has any common sense they will buy the right gear.

:

 

[KevinB]

Lets just say BigRed does not have to worry about the financial implications of aftermarket gear.


BTW -- I picked up a set of DragonSkin -- someone I know who was involved in the testing of them for USSOC that won me over to them.


Second point -- Cobra6, Mortar Guy and a few others in Afghan last year at this time got to handle my rig with my plates etc -- with 3 pistol mags, 8 C8 mags and other stuff -- it was the same wieght at the CF Gen 5 Armour...

If the CF issues the best kit around everyone would have ANVIS-9G NV -- not be running around with the PVS-14 Monocle -- or worse the 504/PVS-7 cyclops vision.

Please spare us the CF knows best fiasco --

 

[Cote]

Dragonskin looks like the best stuff on the market at the moment. I've always felt that the army should have a approved list of aftermarket kit a soldier could buy and wear w/o any hassle. This should be on such a list if it existed.

 

[KevinB]

I have a set of DragonSkin -- pro's -- its felxible and gives awesome coverage. con's its realtively heavy
  Maybe I am being a wimp on the weight issue -- especially since I had Poly plates in before.