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[Magnus <stinkfart AT gmail.com>]

On 1/24/06, Lynda <lurine AT softcom.net> wrote:
>
> Well, there is body armor and their is body armor and needless to say, the
> government is buying the cheap, old-type and heavy stuff.  The stuff we
> were
> ordering 10 years ago was "relatively" light weight, being half the weight
> of the old stuff.



The stuff they are ordering now is anything but cheap or old, and is heavy
by necessity.

Necessity because everyone back home is demanding our troops have heavy
armor (which many of our lads over there are opting to not wear because it
slows them down, weighs them down, and heats them up).  Necessity, because
of the kind of weapons our enemy is using over there.

The light flack jackets that you might be thinking of are not even
bulletproof.  The body armor that cops wear is lighter, but won't stop a
bullet from a rifle.

The rifle of choice over there for our enemy is the Kalashnikov, which fires
a 7.62x39mm cartridge that is much more powerful than the 5.56mm NATO
cartridge that our troops use (but in terms of rifle cartridges overall,
it's still a lightweight).  But a lot of these guys are carrying old school
Soviet Mosin-Nagants that fire a 7.62x54mm rimmed cartridge.  The
7.62x54Ris no joke.  This cartridge is good for hunting moose, elk,
bears, you name
it.  Steel core ammo is cheap and plentiful for it.  Sure, it's usually
fired from an old bolt action rifle (not many of the insurgents are carrying
PSL semi-automatic rifles yet) but it has an effective range of well over
800 meters (whereas the M4 favored by our troops, and the Kalashnakov, both
lose effectiveness rapidly at distances in excess of 300 meters).

Those big heavy plate inserts are necessary for stopping the harder hitting
arms that our enemy favors.

Cops might appear to have lighter armor, but they are protecting themselves
against handguns which are a far easier threat to protect against.

There are a LOT of myths out there about guns, what they are capable of, and
what our boys in the sandbox are using (and what is being used against
them).  Most of the stuff you're getting from CNN is bunk.  Not purely
scientific, but very tangible results, check out
http://www.theboxotruth.com/ which demonstrates what these guns will do to
walls, water, sheet metal, light body armor, etc.  Pay special attention to
the differences between the pistol cartridges (which most cops are protected
against) and the .30 caliber rifles (which our soldiers are more concerned
with, and most cops are not protected against).