President’s Note: Over the holidays I thought that Defense Watch should provide some additional information on Pinnacle Armor’s Dragon Skin body armor and the recent certification by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) that the Level III version of Dragon Skin had passed their test. Given complicated schedules on both ends, I decided the best approach was to submit four written questions to Murray Neal, the President of Pinnacle Armor, and give him the chance to respond via email. What fallows is both background information and technical data that will allow you, the reader, to better place into context what has prevented Dragon Skin from gaining such certification sooner, the major technical issues, and what the immediate future should bring.

Let me take this chance to ask each and every reader to remember those stout-hearted troops who have placed their lives and their futures in harms way in defense of our great nation. They deserve the best-available body armor, and, God willing, are now closer to getting it.

Rog Charles

Can you explain why it’s taken so long to finally get National Institute of Justice certification for your Level III Dragon Skin?

Pinnacle Armor and the National Institute of Justice (Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center) initially started dialogue and a process to develop a test protocol and procedure for flexible rifle defeating body armor five years ago. Shortly thereafter, the “ZYLON” body armor issue came to the forefront and a directive by the Attorney General for them to run a full fledged investigation was issued. The NIJ had a requirement to meet that directive and once completed refocused their efforts in completing the new flexible armor test protocol and procedures. The first evaluation for the new draft protocol and procedures were conducted in August of this year and testing for the finalized test protocol and procedure for NIJ compliance and certification was conducted in September. Understandably, this is establishing new territory in ballistic performance capabilities and the NIJ has taken the necessary time to ensure that all the T’s are crossed and I’s dotted, in a time when unsubstantiated claims are being made by the Army regarding performance of the Dragon Skin® that is contrary to numerous testing and real life data, that has validated the extreme performance of the Dragon Skin®. This is a huge milestone in armor advancement and protection for the men and women in law enforcement and the military.

How is this September testing different from other NIJ testing?

The primary difference is that to get the same level 3 certification from the NIJ, the new Flexible armor test protocol and procedures requires 18 more rounds to be defeated than all other level 3 certified plate systems. This is solely due to the difficulties in “tasking the system” to its potential capabilities. The other aspect is that unlike the military tests where they allow a percentage to fail and go through a retest criteria, the NIJ allows no penetrations what-so-ever. It is a true pass or fail test that sticks to the book and does not allow for any test director to deviate from the written test protocol and procedures.

I’m sure you have a plan to test your Level IV system. Can you describe it?

Yes. The next milestone will be set early in 2007, when the level 4 Dragon Skin® will be tested. This will truly establish a benchmark for armor. The new Level IV NIJ protocol, as in the Level III procedure, will require 18 more rounds than the tests for the plate technologies, and will then surpass it in a truly multiple hit performance capability, which current body armor systems have not been able to meet. The current NIJ and military testing is a one shot requirement, whether for a single removable plate, or vest system. The flexible system is a 6 shot requirement for each 10-inch x 12-inch plate or vest system.

Obviously, you see this NIJ certification refuting some of the allegations that the Army has made. Which ones, and how?

It refutes charges that the Dragon Skin system does not meet a multiple repeat hit capability with a military round in the specified muzzle velocity range, and that it does so with substantially mitigated trauma to the body. It also refutes the assertion that the armor fails when shot at an obliquity. This new protocol and procedure requires three obliquity angles to be shot with a total of 20 rounds in the specific regions that the Army has stated numerous times that it fails. It also shows that the Army cannot determine a test protocol and procedure due to their failure to understand how the Dragon Skin system works. The best element in all of this is that a Federal Agency has gone past all of that, and did their homework and established [a test protocol], and put it into place. This truly eliminates the wasted time typically found in other bureaucratic establishments [whose purpose, supposedly is] for the betterment and accelerated protection for military and law enforcement personnel.

This [certification] just aids in the credibility of the recent independent testing conducted by Dr. Gary Roberts, and by testing of 6 regional SWAT Teams on 7 December 2006 in New Orleans, with U.S. Coast Guard and Navy representatives present with each shooting 17 to 20 rounds into one SOV-2000 Level III Dragon Skin® 10”x12” panel. You can read about these tests on our website at www.pinnaclearmor.com.

In Second-Rate Body Armor

By Roger Charles

As you read this Update, please keep in mind SFTT’s Final Objective: the “best-available” body armor for all of America’s Frontline Troops.

DefenseWatch readers are all too painfully aware that the Pentagon currently issues demonstrably inferior body armor when superior body armor is available, and that based on extensive research, SFTT believes “Dragon Skin” (manufactured by Pinnacle Armor of Fresno, California) is the “best-available.”

It is important to emphasize that SFTT wants all feasible body armor alternatives fully & fairly tested. (If there is a “better” body armor than Dragon Skin out there, we want to hear about it, and hear about it quicky because lives of America’s Grunts are at stake.)

DefenseWatch has confirmed that the oft-rumored GAO investigation into the scandalous body armor situation is indeed underway. While the overall GAO inquiry is looking at the broad area of “force protection,” specific interest is on issues relevant to both the body armor which has been actually issued to our frontline troops, and that which could have/should have been issued.

The GAO study’s focus items include these aspects of the body armor dispute:

— What are requirements for body armor (both capabilities and quantities)?

— How are requirements established?

— How do the Army and the Marine Corps coordinate their respective body armor programs?

— What are the related testing and oversight issues?

It is this last item that most concerns the Army and Marine Corps acquisition bosses, as well it should.

In a fortuitous bit of timing, Discovery Channel’s program, “Future Weapons,” highlighted Dragon Skin in the first 15 minutes of the recent episode titled, “The Protectors.” It’s hard to imagine a worse 15 minutes for the corrupt officials of the Army and Marine Corps body armor projects.

First, the vest tested was a size large, Dragon Skin SOV2000 (Level III) vest, with standard front and rear panels with extended side coverage. See www.pinnaclearmor.com

The initial test clip showed this Dragon Skin vest shot in the frontal area with:

— two 5.56mm M885 rounds (with a 1.0 inch spacing),

— two 7.62mmx39mm AK-47 Mild Steel Core (Armor Piercing) rounds (with a 1.5 inch spacing), and

— two 9mm rounds (with a .5 inch spacing)

There were no penetrations of the vest’s inner liner!!

Please note that the 7.62 rounds listed above are Level IV rounds. That’s right. The Discovery Channel test involved Level IV 7.62 Armor Piercing rounds being fired at Dragon Skin’s Level III vest, and Dragon Skin (Level III) defeated these Level IV rounds!!

It might have made even these cold-hearted bureaucrats suffer a twinge of guilt from their awareness that the inferior body armor they currently are issuing America’s Grunts could never pass such a test.

Nah. These bottom feeders have already proven themselves totally “conscience free.”

But, then the Discovery Channel video clip got even more interesting.

These next shots fired went into the back side of the very same Dragon Skin vest:

— seven (7) shots with 5.56mm M885 rounds

— seven (7) shots with 7.62x39mm AK-47 Mild Steel Core (Armor Piercing) rounds

— one-hundred fifty (150) shots with 9mm

When the Discovery Channel reporter opened the Dragon Skin vest and examined the inner liner, with the camera rolling, the same result was apparent — no penetrations of the vest’s inner liner!!

It bears repeating and reemphasis — the Level III Dragon Skin vest defeated multiple Level IV rounds, after defeating multiple Level III rounds (the 5.56 rounds).

The Interceptor Body Armor’s Level III plates, the “SAPI” plates, could not defeat even a single Level IV round of this type.

Now here’s the kicker: There is no public test data which shows that the Level III SAPI plates have ever defeated this many rounds of Level III rounds in any test. (If any reader is aware of such data please contact the author at sfttpres@aol.com.)

An industry expert summed up the shooting scenes of the Discovery Channel episode by declaring that even an ESAPI plate [Level IV] would “never have passed the multiple-shot test.”

And, according to input from the troops in the field, there are only a limited number of the ESAPI (Level IV) plates being issued. Too many troops are still being issued the less capable SAPI plates (Level III).

Next, an M-67 anti-personnel fragmentation hand grenade was detonated under the same Dragon Skin vest. This demonstration was more a “gee-whiz” scene for the general audience than to demonstrate any serious ballistic armor protection, according to this very experienced industry source, who is actually a Dragon Skin competitor.

This expert went on to say that the Enhanced Small Arms Protective Insert (ESAPI) plate would have also passed the grenade “test.”

He then made this statement: “I frankly think [Pinnacle Armor] has the best [ballistic protection] out there,” but that Pinnacle Armor “must get testing out of DOD’s hands” if it is to ever gain acceptance for the US military.

The source elaborated, saying that the National Science Foundation could and should conduct tests on Dragon Skin, and that when it passed these tests, the Congress could then force the Army and Marine Corps to procure the best-available body armor. But, lacking this level of independent testing, he saw little likelihood that American’s Grunts would be wearing anything other than the inferior Interceptor Body Armor of the Army and the equally inferior Modular Tactical Vest of the Marine Corps.

And that brings up another “urban myth,” because for all the Marine Corps hype, the Modular Tactical Vest continues to rely upon SAPI and ESAPI plates for ballistic protection. That’s right. The “new” MTV is a classic Pentagon case of repackaging and some marginal improvements, but the essential fact is that MTV relies on decades old technology — the solid (brittle) ceramic composite plate — for it’s crucial, life-saving function of protecting America’s Marines from the high-powered bullets and high-velocity shrapnel on today’s killing fields.

When asked about the recent NIJ certification of Dragon Skin for Level III protection, this source replied that Natick, PEO-Soldier, and the rest of the Army acquisition “system” would use the lack of full (as in DOD First Article Test) environmental testing of Dragon Skin as their specious basis for continuing to block its procurement.

Aside from the GAO study, which has increased the sweat factor exponentially among the lying bastards that have kept Dragon Skin from getting a full and fair test for the past 10-plus years, there is little sign inside any branch of the US Government that anyone cares or is prepared to take serious action.

If — and this is a big “if” — the GAO study is allowed to pursue the truth, independent of political interference, there could be some stunning revelations in about three months when the GAO issues their report.

But, for the foreseeable future, our great nation’s most precious treasure, the young men and women standing guard on the ramparts of freedom, will fight and bleed and die wearing inferior body armor.

This sad, pathetic reality is more than a disgrace. It is a crime, and those corrupt and/or incompetent officials responsible should be identified and prosecuted for their dereliction, if not their malfeasance.

SFTT President Roger Charles is an Annapolis graduate, a retired USMC Lt. Col. who commanded an infantry platoon in I Corps during the Vietnam War, is the winner of the prestigious Peabody Award for news coverage, and was a protégée’s of the late Col. David H. Hackworth. Rog can be contacted at sfttpres@aol.com. Please send comments to DWFeedback@yahoo.com

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