The Army and Marine Corps may soon field a lighter combat helmet with nearly double the bullet and blast protection of the current Advanced Combat Helmet.
Army officials said that recent tests of the so-called "Enhanced Combat Helmet" showed the helmets were so strong that engineers didn't have equipment powerful enough to penetrate them with simulated IED fragments.
"The test lab we sent it to couldn't calculate an [average ballistic rating] because … the test guns they had couldn't shoot fragments fast enough to penetrate the helmet," said the Army's top protective equipment buyer, Col. Bill Cole. "We don't know exactly what the [average strength] is, but it's better than we've ever seen before."
"We're going to have to build stronger test guns to figure out how good it is," he added.
Testers hoped to get about a 40 percent increase in ballistic resistance over the ACH. But Cole said in some tests, the new ECH was 70 percent stronger than the helmets worn by Soldiers and Marines today. Additionally the new helmet weighs about four ounces less than the ACH.
"It's really a huge leap forward in terms of head protection capability," Cole added. "The data that we were getting from prototypes is even better than we'd hoped."
Marine Corps Systems Command in Quantico, Va. runs the ECH program for both services. Officials with the command were unable to comment on this story by post time.
In 2007, the Army and Marine Corps began looking into how to make current helmets -- the Army's ACH and Corps' Lightweight Helmet -- stronger without increasing weight. Both could withstand a direct hit from a 9mm pistol round and some bomb fragments, but senior officials in both services wanted improved protection against rifle shots.
At the time, military helmets were generally made from layers of Kevlar or Twaron material -- both of which get heavy when the layers pile up. In recent years armor makers have developed technology to shape ultra-strong materials akin to plastic sheets that are lighter than Kevlar and have similar ballistic resistance.
After a first round of test failures in 2009, the Army has finally found a design made by Ceradyne, Inc. that works -- so well, officials say, that some types of 7.62 rifle rounds can be fired point-blank at the helmet without going through.
The service plans to purchase 200,000 ECHs beginning in the fall of 2011, with Soldiers in Afghanistan or deploying there getting the rifle-stopping helmet first. Officials say the new helmet costs about $600 each, double the price of the current ACH.
"We're very excited about this and we're going to try to take this revolutionary capability in head protection to the field as quickly as we can," Cole said. "This is like stepping up from an up-armored Humvee to an MRAP in the head protection arena."
‘Punisher’ Gives Enemy No Place to Hide
A new Army weapon designed to target the enemy hiding behind barriers is being affectionately called "The Punisher" by Soldiers fighting in Afghanistan.
And by all accounts, the futuristic XM-25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System has been quite a rude surprise for the bad guys.
"I don't know what we're eventually going to call this product, but it seems to be game changing," said the commander of the Army's Program Executive Office Soldier, Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, during a Feb. 2 briefing with reporters at the Pentagon. "You no longer can shoot at American forces and hide behind something. We're going to reach out and touch you."
After years of XM-25 development, last fall the 101st Airborne submitted an urgent request to field the weapon for troops on patrol in Afghanistan. In response the Army took the five weapons it had been testing at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Md., added 1,000 hand-made explosive rounds and shipped them to the war zone in October of 2010.
On arrival the XM-25 gave infantry squads the capability to precisely target bad guys hiding behind walls, in irrigation ditches, or among rocky escarpments. The Heckler & Koch-made XM-25 pairs a barrel-mounted targeting computer and a 25mm programmable air-bursting round that's fed precise range information just before being fired. A Soldier can simply push a button to range an enemy firing position, dial in one more meter, and the round will explode precisely where the bad guy is sitting.
"I had one lieutenant tell me that normally these engagements take us 15 or 20 minutes to get through, [but it's] several minutes when the XM-25 is involved. It's that quick," said the Army's top weapons buyer, Col. Doug Tamilio. "One major told me every time the XM-25 was involved in engaging enemy positions, firing stopped immediately."
So far the still-experimental XM-25 has stood up to the harsh combat environment of Afghanistan with "no maintenance issues," Tamilio said.
"To me that means we've got the ruggedness part of it right," he said.
Tamilio admitted that they need to make some tweaks to the weapon, including finding a new power source for the targeting computer that currently uses rechargeable batteries.
"We are learning some features that we do have to enhance," he added.
The five hand-made weapons have been field tested by two Army units so far and a third unit will get "The Punisher" next if the Army can find the money to buy more ammo, officials added, declining to be specific about which units will get the weapon.
"The kids are naming it ‘the punisher' because … a person can't hide anymore," PEO Soldier Fuller added. "Now I can go punish them for trying to engage me."
Officials say Soldiers aren't complaining about the nearly 13 pound weight of the XM-25 since it's been so effective. Gunners wielding "The Punisher" often opt for an M4 or a pistol for personal defense, but some carry no other weapon at all.
The Army wants to buy 36 more XM-25s -- which run about $35,000 each -- but the buy isn't fully funded. And the air bursting ammunition costs about $1,000 per round, but Tamilio claims that full rate production will drop the price to $35 per round.
Even in a tight fiscal environment with many high-dollar programs competing for scarce resources, many top Army officials say "The Punisher" is worth the investment.
"We're giving Soldiers a capability down range that's making a difference in terms of lethality," Tamilio said. "There are many times that weapon has disrupted attacks."
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