Sci/Tech US military is issuing helmets capable of stopping AK-47 rounds

tom_mai78101

tom_mai78101

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The Army has issued some 1.2 million of its Advanced Combat Helmets to troops fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq. One of them stopped an AK-47 round and likely saved the life of an Iowa National Guard member. “It was able to stop and not allow the bullet to go ahead and penetrate his head at all,” said Command Sergeant Major Emmett Maunakea, who helps outfit troops from Fort Belvoir, Va., as the senior enlisted official at Program Executive Officer Soldier.

Tom Albers, of Alton, Iowa, was on patrol in Afghanistan 19 months ago when something hit his helmet and knocked him to the ground. “I asked him what had happened because he was coherent,” fellow guardsman Adam Riediger told the Le Mars Daily Sentinel. “He said ‘I think I got shot.’”

The Army, after analyzing how the helmet performed, returned it to Albers earlier this month. “The last time I remember seeing the helmet,” Albers told the newspaper, “I was sitting in a helicopter looking at the inside and seeing the pads (inside the helmet) all tore up.”

“I told him,” Riediger said, with just a bit of understatement, “he was one lucky soldier.”

Read more here.
 
FireCat

FireCat

Oh Shi.. Don't wake the tiger!
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Very lucky indeed!
But Just because you're wearing such helmet. It doesn't mean you're safe, Anyway!
 
FireCat

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camelCase said:
And.. Thank you for making my point.
Is today argue-with-yourself day?
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Ah maybe. lol
But still you can't be sure "the helmet would stop the bullet" Well I mean "You can't feel safe anyway" Can you?
 
YourFace

YourFace

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I know this is unrelated, but is FireCat intentionally trolling us or is he just that ....
 
Slapshot136

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actually I agree with FC on this on - the helmet was all torn up and barely able to protect the soldier - I wouldn't say that the U.S. military is issuing helmets capable of stopping AK-47 rounds until they do further testing and prove that it wasn't just a fluke

In Albers' case, the helmet performed better than expected, Maunakea said.
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I would re-phrase it as "that one individual helmet did manage to stop one round from being fatal to it's wearer, rather than make sweeping statements about all the helmets being able to do such feats, or exaggerate by implying that it can stop multiple rounds (or even meant to stop rifle rounds at all)
 
tom_mai78101

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Why don't they put all the helmets in a line, and fire at the helmets with an AK-47 in a sweeping motion, just to test and see if the helmets can stop the multiple rounds of bullets? Doesn't have to have a person wearing it, and then get shot though.
 
Accname

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tom_mai78101 said:
Why don't they put all the helmets in a line, and fire at the helmets with an AK-47 in a sweeping motion, just to test and see if the helmets can stop the multiple rounds of bullets? Doesn't have to have a person wearing it, and then get shot though.
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Would be funny if they force soldiers to wear those helmets in the test and then shoot their own men until they find a helmet which is durable enough.
 
DM Cross

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Accname said:
Would be funny if they force soldiers to wear those helmets in the test and then shoot their own men until they find a helmet which is durable enough.
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I see nothing humorous about this.

It's good that they reacted like this, though I do agree with some people in this thread: One bullet in one instance is not a tested helmet. It's a possible fluke. Better to test it more before you put funding into getting more of these helmets and then they wind up not working as well as previously assumed.
 
DM Cross

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Eh, something about people who are already signed up to lay down their lives being needlessly killed as a joke just doesn't tickle my funny bone.

Go figure.
 
Varine

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Seth Cross said:
Eh, something about people who are already signed up to lay down their lives being needlessly killed as a joke just doesn't tickle my funny bone.

Go figure.
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Eh, most of them really didn't do that.
 
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