New Armour For Troops

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31151, 30 August 1966, Page 22

New Armour For Troops

(N.Z.r.A.-Reuttr)

NEW YORK.

An increasing number of United States soldiers in Vietnam are being supplied with armour which can stop a bullet travelling at a speed of 1250 feet a second.

It is not a bullet-proof waistcoat, a term which the United States military authorities carefully avoid, but a chest armour capable of breaking a bullet into small pieces. It is made of fibreglass and ceramics. An official at the United States Army laboratories at Natick, Massachusetts, a research and development centre for army equipment and supplies, quoted a recent example of how effective the new waistcoat can be.

A United States officer, a pilot in a helicopter attacking three Viet Cong auto-matic-weapons positions, received a direct hit from a .50 calibre machine-gun bullet. The bullet came through the nose bubble and hit him in the lower right side at the belt line. The new chest armour being worn by the officer broke the bullet into small pieces. The extent of the officer's, injuries were a severe bruise from the impact and minor wounds from small fragments in his arm and leg. Dr. S. Kennedy, director of the clothing and organic

materials division at Natick, says that the material used in the waistcoat has a lower weight but a higher efficiency than steel in stopping bullets.

Made of ceramic fibreglass composites, the material weighs about 91b a square foot, as against a weight of 121 b a square foot of dualhardness steel.

The bullet-stopping armour costs about £l7O a set to make, and nearly 7000 sets have already been delivered to Vietnam. Although the pieces weigh about 261 b and are heavy to carry, officials hope eventually to reduce the weight to about 151 b. The armour has become

part of the standard equipment of all helicopter pilots flying combat missions in Vietnam.

Most ground soldiers in Vietnam are supplied with waistceats to protect them against fragments of shrapnel. These are made either of a heavy type of nylon felt or basket weave layers of nylon. The object now is to give more infantrymen a type of armour similar to the new fibre waistcoat worn by the helicopter pilots. This would give protection, not only against fragments, but also against bullets of up to .50 calibre from small arms fire.