US Army testing Dragon Skin Body Armor

Good news, I have heard nothing but great things from this armor. Ive heard its superior to the interceptor but the trials will tell. What do yall think?

US Army tests Dragon Skin

Apparently the veterans prefer dragon skin to the interceptor, and even purchase it on their own salaries. Ive read where some of the ballistics findings for the dragon skin are actually classified.

I just wonder why the army are being such hard asses about their soldiers taking the initiative and buying the latest in armor technology.

[edit on 25-5-2006 by XphilesPhan]

what about the nano armor the israelies are testing? heard that its super duper strong

Says it failed the tests to meet the U.S. Army's requirements.

www.washingtonpost.com...

The Army's struggle to find a new, more flexible body armor was dealt a setback yesterday when a California company's high-tech Dragon Skin vests failed to pass military testing, a senior Defense Department official said.

After three days of testing this week, the Army determined that the body armor does not meet military specifications, said the official, who declined to specify which tests the armor failed. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the results have not been released.

The Army paid about $170,000 to buy 30 sets of the armor for the testing.

Well I guess we do better next time to find a potential body armor. Even I supported the Dragon Skin. It made me suspicious about the tests because the U.S. Army didn't want to spend thousands more per person for the expensive armor.

well damn, this just came in my email updates from military.com. yesterday. Maybe they were a bit late. Or maybe its going through testing again. If youve seen the video that is in the discussion section of the article you would see what I mean. It took 40 rounds from an AK-47 and another 40 from a 9mm. Kind of amazing if you ask me, but hey, I'm no professional.

A big reason they are mad at soilders privetly buying would be that survivability to a solider would be linked to how much extra non-army income they give themselves. It would favor soilders with more money, not that I think ones who couldn't afford the armor would get mad at the ones who have it, probably mad at the army for not making it standard issue.

Anything that makes the whole defence industry look bad would be muted. Truth is the first casulty of war, heck you know this was orrigonaly a war looking for WMD's.

Follow the money trail, I mean what would happen to the sales of this current body armor manufacurer if the army switched to buying dragon skin. And dragon skins sales would go though the roof (profits for them, and well if they made a superior product they deserve it).

Damn shame, Dragon Skin looked promising. The army should really state what it failed at because it probably passed most of the specifications except for a single mundane detail.

It seems to be promising armor, more so than that "Nano Tech" armor.

Shattered OUT...

Hopefully this isn't a repeat of what the military did to the AR-15 when it was ordered to test it, one would think the military grew out of such habits.

[edit on 25-5-2006 by WestPoint23]

Originally posted by WestPoint23
Hopefully this isn't a repeat of what the military did to the AR-15 when it was ordered to test it, one would think the military grew out of such habits.

[edit on 25-5-2006 by WestPoint23]

The military out growing it's old habits?

Come on Westpoint, even you would know better.

Shattered OUT...

Well, I don't want to rush to judgment without more information regarding the tests, not to mention that I’ve never worn a Dragon Skin vest so I cannot personally defend its capabilities.

I don't like the name of this thing....sounds so chinese....

Originally posted by warset
I don't like the name of this thing....sounds so chinese....

Its an awesome name. Might be calling it Dragon Scales or something, based on dragons' reputation in fantasy world with its hard armor and hard to be killed.

Murray Neal always claimed that Dragonskin was not accepted by the military because he came from outside the establishment and wasn't one of the big existing suppliers. He is adamant that it can beat Interceptor hands down in any fair testing. I suspect he is not going to be too happy about this!

Deltaboy, it might just be called dragon skin because it resembles dragon skin.

Shattered OUT...

The reason the Army doesn't like soldiers "taking the initiative" and buying this new equipment is because it isn't guaranteed to work in all situations. Military gear like that is always a few generations behind what a civilian can get because the military never takes the manufacturer's word that it will work. They test it themselves. When you wear the issued body armor in the Army, you are guaranteed that that armor will work under the specs it claims. If you wear an Army gas-mask that says you can be walking through a deadly chemical weapon in the air, and that the air will be filtered fine, you know that the Army has literally put that mask through that very gas, and tested it to make sure it will work in extreme heat and extreme cold, etc....however, all that testing takes time.

So the stuff that the manufacturers engineer and put on the market doesn't get to the soldiers as fast because the military rigorously tests it first. And sometimes, as in the case above, it fails the test. What this means is there could be soldiers walking around with body armor that in certain cases will not work to protect them.

Take a look at the rucksacks used by the Army. A civilian can buy a backpack lightyears ahead of that technology, yet the current rucksack is way better than the old one the Army used (the old ALICE pack). The ALICE pack is still used in Special Forces Assessment and Selection, though (b/c it is a famous SF symbol and plus it is a real pain to wear!). The reason is because this new rucksack took so long to test it and then issue it that now the manufacturers have put stuff out that is far more advanced.

When you use military gear, you're going by the military's word that it will work, not by the manufacturer's. Which is good. When you take an Abrams battle tank into combat, you know that the Army didn't just take the manufacturer's word that it will work as claimed, the Army itself tested the crap out of that tank design first.