Coming Soon: Lighter Body Armor for Soldiers
By Vivienne Machi
New fabrics, lighter ceramic plates and flexible thermoplastic sheets are some of the solutions that promise to lower the weight of body armor.
Lighter body armor has been a long-time pursuit, as Army leaders for years have been concerned about the heavy load that soldiers carry in combat. Reducing that burden could pay big dividends in terms of force readiness and well being, defense officials said.
"The soldier is what we consider our primary weapon," said Katrina McFarland, acting assistant secretary for acquisition, technology and logistics. "We need to unburden our soldier … we want to be able to understand how to create speed, and lessen our logistics burden and our maintenance burden."
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