Army allows review of body armor tests

WASHINGTON - Secretary of the Army John McHugh announced Friday that the National Research Council (NRC) will perform an independent assessment of the Army's body armor testing.

The announcement follows last month's recommendation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) for an independent review.

The NRC functions under the auspices of the National Academies, a private, nonprofit institution that provides science, technology, and health policy advice to the federal government and the public on critical national issues.

"We are committed to providing our warfighters with world-class equipment, and are confident that our body armor continues to defeat the threat to our soldiers," McHugh said. "The Army welcomes this independent review, and is grateful for the analysis and expertise of the National Research Council."

In October, the GAO said the Army made critical mistakes in tests of its new body armor design. In a report, the GAO said the Army strayed from established testing standards and concluded several of the designs that passed would have failed had the tests been done properly.

The Army has ordered about 240,000 of the new type of bullet-blocking plate to be used in ballistic vests, but doesn't plan to rush the armor into combat. The plates will be stored until needed to meet future demands, according to service officials.

Under an agreement announced Friday between the National Academies and the director of operational test and evaluation (DOT&E), the Department of Defense's final independent authority on survivability testing of body armor, the NRC will perform an independent assessment of ongoing body armor testing. The purpose of the NRC assessment is to ensure that the Army maintains the highest standards for testing processes and protocols, thus addressing concerns raised by the GAO about current testing procedures.

"The continued partnership with DOT&E, the NRC, and the GAO will ensure the complete, accurate, and careful testing of body armor critical to ensuring soldiers' confidence in their equipment," McHugh said. "The Army is constantly refining and improving its testing processes and procedures, and we welcome additional expertise to help ensure that we continue to field the best body armor available."

The GAO report in October was not the first study to call into question the Army's ability to oversee the production of a key piece of battlefield equipment.

In January, the Pentagon's inspector general faulted the Army for not properly overseeing a series of tests on an earlier model of the protective plates at a private ballistics laboratory.

The inspector general's audit recommended that nearly 33,000 plates be pulled from the Army's inventory of nearly 2 million because the inserts might not provide troops with adequate protection. The Army disputed the findings, but withdrew the plates as a precautionary step.

Stung by the inspector general's conclusions, Army officials dismissed the private laboratories they'd long relied upon for the tests and said they would do the vital job themselves at a military testing facility in Aberdeen, Md.