posted on May, 30 2005 @ 06:23 PM
Wow, looks like a nice kit, and at last they have designed a kit with a roof on it! The last 2 different types of kit still used the original canvas
roof that I found absolutely ridiculous, what was the point in armouring the sides and rear opening and fitting ballistic glass when it still had the
original canvas roofs????? The first generation kits that were fitted were awful, low cut armoured doors with no glass fitted, these were actually
better for the soldiers to hang out and shoot from though as it gave them a wide angle of range compared to the second generation HaRd Kit which had
full doors fitted with sliding ballistic glass but left a very small opening for the rifles to be poked out. The first generation kit also had full
belly plates which offered better protection from mines for the ocupants, which the HaRd Kit never had(to keep down weight I presume). The HaRd Kit
also included an air conditioning system, the first generation had none.
Overall, (imo) the HaRd Kit is the better option as it comes in two layers, a thin sheet of solid steel underarmour with a thick alloy overarmour. I
have never seen them tested on the field so only a soldier would be able to give you a more acurate response as to how they perform in action.
Hopefully we will be supplied with the new Rhino kit to fit to some vehicles so that I can compare the difference to the last two kind of kits I have
fitted to HMMWV's. It looks quite tough though so hopefully it will be an improvement.