In what should come to no surprise to readers of SFTT, the Marine Corps has confirmed that government-issued ceramic plates used in body armor are flawed. In an article published in the Marine Corps Times, James K. Sanborn reports that the US Marines are using X-Ray machines to detect “cracks” in the ceramic plates used in body armor.
According to Master Sgt. Mateo Mathis, operations chief at Program Manager Infantry Combat Equipment in Quantico, Va., So far, 40,000 plates about 5 percent of the 40,000 ceramic plates that have been subjected to the X-Ray tests have been found to have cracks.
Comments SFTT Editor Roger Charles
In this article the Marine Corps admits that the ceramic plates issued to only not perfect, but “about 5%” have “life-threatening flaws,” or as it prefers to call them, “cracks.”
Let’s be clear about one thing: if 95% of the plates X-rayed are not defective, that’s a hell of an accomplishment, and our troops and their families should feel good about this life-saving gear.
Why then does the Department of Defense continue its specious claims that the “success rate” on the battlefield is 100%.
That remains the case and this article doesn’t retract any previous claims that the ceramic plates issued to its Marine (and Navy corpsmen) have never failed, not a single time. That bit of honest disclosure is not there.
The key issue of whether these defective plates were in that condition when they left the manufacturers’ facilities or were made defective by use in combat theaters would seem to be a perfect issue for examination by the U.S. Congress. Don’t hold your breath — after nearly 10 years of non-stop combat, this obvious question was not been asked.
The article does quote one Marine trainer, “Plates are more easily damaged than many Marines realize… if the plate is dropped from 2- or 3-feet high, it could crack.”
As SFTT has previously written, the American public is expected to believe by some miracle all the defective plates are somehow discovered by these wonderful X-ray machines before there is a single impact from an enemy bullet. What are the odds?? (And what about the 8 or 9 years before the Corps had the X-ray machines?)
Left unsaid is how accurately the X-ray machines detect all cracks that could result in failure of the plate. For example, what size cracks are below the sensitivity of these X-ray machines, and do those smaller cracks lead to plate failure?
So, what appears on the surface to be an article of unmitigated “good news,” is somewhat less than that when placed into context of the continuing unanswered questions about Quality Control/Quality Assurance as practiced in the case of protective ceramic plates worn by America’s frontline troops.
Roger Charles
JUL
2011
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