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Archive for the ‘Armor’ Category

Carter Awarded Contract for IOTV

Friday, July 1st, 2011

DLA announced earlier this week that Brooklyn, NY-based Carter Enterprises, LLC, was awarded a firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract with a maximum $79,973,119 for improved outer tactical vests (IOTV) and IOTV cable assemblies. Using services are Army and Air Force. The date of performance completion is June 27, 2012. The Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support, Philadelphia, Pa., is the contracting activity (SPM1C1-11-D-1059).

Carter Enterprises gained notoriety in 2009 when they were awarded contracts for the Marine Corps’ IMTV and Plate Carrier.

Vel-Tye Mini Catalog

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

Tactical Equipment manufacturer Vel-Tye has been producing gear for local troops for many years here in the Tidewater. Some of their designs such as the Hugger have developed an almost cult-like following. Here is a mini catalog detailing some of their flagship products but it is by no means all inclusive and customization is the name of their game.

Vel-Tye Catalog

www.veltye.com

Mayflower Adds Ranger Green Back to Lineup

Monday, June 13th, 2011

Mayflower recently sent us this announcement:
Due to demand ranger green has been added back to the webstore as a standard color. Due to lack of demand ACU has been removed as an available color. ACU is available for unit/bulk orders of 25 pieces or more. Contact us via info@mayflower-rc.org or the contact page for more information on bulk orders.

Crye Hits the Big Time

Saturday, June 11th, 2011

Sure, Crye Precision is a household name for kit aficionados, but briefing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York President William C Dudley takes you to an entirely different level.

As you can see, camera shy Caleb Crye is brandishing an AirFrame helmet complete with rifle plate.

JIEDDO Helmet Pad Report

Friday, June 3rd, 2011

Earlier this year Lawrence Livermore National Lab issued a report on the issue helmet pad’s performance in mitigating impact injuries to the head commissioned by the Joint IED Defeat Organization (JIEDDO) and funded partially by the US Army. The main stream media made much of the researcher’s investigation of NFL helmet pads.

According to LLNL, “Five types of pad systems were studied-those currently and previously used by the Army, two used in NFL helmets, and one used in other protective sports equipment. The two Army systems consist of bilayer (hard-soft) foam pads within a water-resistant airtight wrapper or coating. One NFL system consists of a thin foam pad and a hollow air-filled cylinder that buckles under load, and the other is a bilayer foam pad surrounded by a covering with air-relief channels that connect to adjacent pads in the helmet. The fifth pad consists of uniform dense foam.”

Researchers Mike King’s and Willy Moss’s conclusion? None of the other pads out perform the current issue pad. In fact, NFL pads are not as soft as military pads, allowing larger forces to be transferred to the head.

Ultimately, the two scientists found that by increasing the thickness of current pads by just 1/8″ would significantly decrease the risk of Traumatic Brain Injury. While this answer sounds simple enough, it raises a serious issue. That extra 1/8″ of padding would require most everyone to go up one helmet size.

Unfortunately, the research was accomplished in support of ACH standards rather than against the energy levels associated with the new Enhanced Combat Helmet (.30) threat. Until this issue can be dealt with the ECH is ultimately just an expensive ACH. As lead service for the ECH program, the USMC has yet to unveil any plans at all on how to deal with the increased kinetic energy associated with the higher caliber threat.

Read the full report here:

LLNL Helmet Pad Report

Velocity Systems and Mayflower Research & Consulting Combine Forces

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

Remember the old Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercials, “Two Great Tastes That Taste Great Together”? Well, that’s exactly what has happened here. They’ve been working together for some time and finally decided to make it official.

Velocity Systems has acquired a minority share of Mayflower Research & Consulting, LLC. This acquisition will strengthen their ability to bring high-quality tactical gear to their extremely valued customers. Velocity Systems and Mayflower R&C have had a long-term friendship and a strong professional relationship which has led Velocity Systems to manufacture Mayflower products for the past several years and for them to collaboratively develop products together. The Velocity Systems patent pending SwiftClip® system, which is available on all Velocity and Mayflower vests, allows all of their auxiliary equipment to fit on all platforms, armor vests and plate carriers.

The synergy achieved by this acquisition will result in cutting edge highly-compatible products for the Warfighter. The compatibility and scalability of their products is second to none. Many of their valued customers are already utilizing this compatibility and their goal is to bring you much more of this in the near future. If you look at what they have already achieved together, just imagine what lay ahead. In fact, look for several new product releases from both Velocity Systems and Mayflower in the near future.

www.mayflower-rc.org www.velsyst.com

HP White Opens New Environmental Test Facility for Personal and Vehicular Armor

Tuesday, May 24th, 2011

HP White Labs, world renown for ballistic testing excellent announced yesterday the opening of Cooper Main, a new Environmental Test Facility for personal and vehicular armor. The facility is named in honor of the company’s longest standing employee, Lois Cooper, who has been employed by HP White Laboratory for 53 years. Over her tenure, Cooper has held a variety of positions throughout the organization, ranging from ballistics technician to controller. Lois Cooper joined HP White Laboratory in 1958, following graduation from North Harford High School. During 53 years of service with HP White, Cooper has been a QC manager, ballistics technician, statistician, inventory manager, FSO, and most recently, company controller. Cooper will retire from HP White in the summer of 2011.

“Lois Cooper’s strength and longevity are hallmarks that underscore the H.P. White brand,” said Mike Parker, president, H.P. White Laboratory. “Over five decades Cooper demonstrated uncommon loyalty and adaptability to best serve customers’ needs and the lab’s.”

The new laboratory houses four Environmental Conditioning Chambers capable of achieving temperature ranges from minus 75 degrees C to 150 degrees C, and humidity ranges from 10% to 98% for hard and soft armor samples up to 39.4”x35.5”x39.4”. What’s more, the new facility provides a 575-square-foot sample storage room maintained at between 25-degrees C and 20%-50% humidity for compliant storage of samples awaiting testing.

With the addition of Cooper Main, HP White now provides vehicular and personal armor manufacturers with one-stop environmental conditioning and ballistics resistance testing required by multiple standards and regulations, including National Institute of Justice (NIJ), MIL STDs, UL 752, STANAG, military hard and soft body armor standards, and a host of other domestic and foreign protocols that require environmental conditioning. Manufacturers and suppliers can validate armor packages for research and development, certification, and acceptance testing. For hard and soft armor manufacturers whose armor must pass environmental conditioning requirements, Cooper Main represents significant cost and time efficiencies.

For more information visit www.hpwhite.com.

DuPont Announces Kevlar Innovation Awards

Friday, May 20th, 2011

DuPont has announced the launch of the DuPont™ Kevlar® Innovation Awards, designed to foster innovation and collaboration in the development of protection technology. These Awards will recognize and showcase the ideas, methods, technologies, applications, products and services that are using Kevlar® in new ways. DuPont will make a $10,000 donation on behalf of each winner to a charity or science organization from a designated list. These Awards are open to all manufacturers of products containing Kevlar®. Last year DuPont sponsored awards for Nomex® and they were a huge success. SSD was honored to have been asked to participate in the selection process and it was great to be on hand for the award ceremony at AUSA. It was literally amazing to see some of technologies vying for honors last year and we feel these awards are an outstanding way for industry to recognize such innovation. For more information and to enter, please visit www.kevlar.com/innovation.