Topic: Body Armor Dispute Flares; SASC Calls For DOD Review

Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
May 24, 2007
Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman and ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), have asked Defense Secretary Robert Gates for a comprehensive review of individual body armor systems.
"We are convinced that the Department of Defense must definitively and officially determine the facts regarding the protective qualities of the body armor we are currently providing our troops and that of any other commercially available comparable and competing system," the SASC leaders told the secretary May 22.
The Army and NBC News are arguing over allegations that the Army overlooked Pinnacle Dragon Skin body armor in favor of six producers of Enhanced Small Arms Protective Inserts.
"It is the policy of the United States that we will get goods and services to support the Department of Defense from the maximum extent possible from the commercial industrial base," said Army Brig. Gen. R. Mark Brown, head of the soldier program executive office.