Fighting gear: army has few options to lessen weight of body armor.

• Author: Erwin, Sandra I.
• Position: Soldier Technology - Cover story

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It takes 31 pounds of body armor to protect a soldier's entire body from enemy fire.

Too bad that much bulk renders soldiers immobile.

As a result, commanders have discretion to allow troops to wear only certain pieces of the armor ensemble. But even in its minimum configuration, a protective vest weighs about 21 pounds.

The Army is considering buying a lighter and comfier vest now used by U.S. Special Operations Command. That would lower the weight to about 16.5 pounds but would reduce the area of coverage from 885 to 231 square inches.

Such is the predicament the Army faces today: It needs to safeguard troops, but the weight of the armor is not coming down without reducing the protection. And soldiers must keep bearing the load.

As troops began to redeploy from Iraq to Afghanistan, many complained that the weight of the armor was not only uncomfortable and dangerous -because of the reduced mobility--but also was causing physical injuries such as stress fractures. Unlike Iraq, where soldiers mostly travel in humvees, troops in Afghanistan spend days on foot in rough terrain. Because there is no lighter alternative to the current hard armor plates called ESAPI, or enhanced small arms protective insert the only option available was to switch to a lighter vest such as the one SOCOM has been buying for years. The Army prefers its current "interceptor" Kevlar vest because it covers a larger area of the torso, but it agreed to test the SOCOM "modular" plate carrier vest and outfitted a battalion of soldiers in Afghanistan.

Up to a million of the $900 vests could be acquired over the next several years to outfit all units, says Brig. Gen. Peter N. Fuller, the Army's program executive officer for soldier equipment.

"We are going to give units the ability to pick which body armor system they need," he says in an interview.

The Army's in-house laboratories for years have been trying to develop new, lighter materials to replace ESAPI plates, but no breakthroughs have occurred so far. Contractors say they have the technical wherewithal to create lighter plates but are waiting for the Army to fund the research.

Fuller acknowledges that the Army has not dedicated any sizable amount of money to the research and development of body armor. "The Army has been capitalizing on contractors' investments," he says. "The Army needs dedicated R&D and procurement budget lines" for body armor.

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