Inside the Ring: Bill Gertz We’ve obtained a letter from acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee to 60 Minutes. It details how the Army reacted to shortages of body and truck armor.
“As major combat operations concluded in Iraq in May 2003, the security environment was changing,” Mr. Brownlee writes. “Commanders on the ground determined that the [...]

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AFISWASHINGTON, Oct. 29, 2004 ‘ The assembly lines are moving 24/7 to keep up with the demand for up-armored vehicles in Iraq and for conversion kits to add extra protection to vehicles already there. Gary Motsek, director of support operations for the U.S. Army Materiel Command, said the effort to provide increased vehicle protection against [...]

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Washington Post The Army’s rush to overcome shortages of body armor and armored Humvees in Iraq is sparking a mini-boom for manufacturers of the equipment.
Body-armor manufacturers are increasing output to 25,000 vests a month from 3,300. An Ohio-based subsidiary of Armor Holdings Inc. — the military’s only maker of armored Humvees — is ramping up [...]

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Saving Lives With Ceramic Armor ‘The Interceptor Body Armor system was the first new armor that the Marine Corps and Army have had since Vietnam in the 1960s. Because it’s B4C (and, in some cases, SiC) instead of aluminum oxide, it’s much lighter. That’s the justification for the high price, and the government is more [...]

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