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TECHNICAL REPORT Lightening Body Armor Arroyo Support to the Army Response to Section 125 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 Kenneth Horn • Kimberlie Biever • Kenneth Burkman • Paul DeLuca Lewis Jamison • Michael Kolb • Aatif Sheikh ARROYO CENTER The research described in this report was sponsored by the United States Army under Contract No. W74V8H-06-C-0001. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lightening body armor : Arroyo support to the Army response to Section 125 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 / Kenneth Horn ... [et al.]. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN 978-0-8330-5844-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Body armor—Standards—United States. 2. Body armor—United States—Testing. 3. United States. Dept. of Defense—Appropriations and expenditures. I. Horn, Kenneth P., 1937- II. Rand Corporation. III. Arroyo Center. U825.L54 2012 623.4'41—dc23 2012003923 The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. RAND’s publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors. R ® is a registered trademark. © Copyright 2012 RAND Corporation Permission is given to duplicate this document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Copies may not be duplicated for commercial purposes. Unauthorized posting of RAND documents to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND documents are protected under copyright law. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit the RAND permissions page (http://www.rand.org/publications/ permissions.html). Published 2012 by the RAND Corporation 1776 Main Street, P.O. Box 2138, Santa Monica, CA 90407-2138 1200 South Hayes Street, Arlington, VA 22202-5050 4570 Fifth Avenue, Suite 600, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-2665 RAND URL: http://www.rand.org To order RAND documents or to obtain additional information, contact Distribution Services: Telephone: (310) 451-7002; Fax: (310) 451-6915; Email: [email protected] Preface The body armor that U.S. forces wear in Afghanistan is effective against ballistic threats: There have not been any known penetrations of the body armor or fatalities when the currently issued body armor was struck by projectiles it was designed to stop. However, the combat loads that dismounted soldiers and marines carry on patrol are very heavy, and a large portion of this load is due to body armor. Congress asked the question, How can body armor weight be reduced? Congress’s per- ception is that the Department of Defense has been slow in developing and deploying lighter- weight body armor. In Section 125 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011, Congress requested that a federally funded research and development center conduct a study of lightening body armor. RAND Arroyo Center was selected to perform this study and was sponsored by Dr. Scott Fish, Army Chief Scientist, Assistant Secretary of the Army for Acquisition, Logistics and Technology. This document should interest those involved with lightening body armor and the combat loads of dismounted soldiers and marines. The research was conducted in RAND Arroyo Center’s Force Development and Technol- ogy Program. RAND Arroyo Center, part of the RAND Corporation, is a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the United States Army. The Project Unique Identification Code (PUIC) for the project that produced this docu- ment is HQD116049. For more information on RAND Arroyo Center, contact the Director of Operations (telephone 310-393-0411, extension 6419; FAX 310-451-6952; email Marcy_Agmon@rand. org) or visit the Arroyo Center’s website at http://www.rand.org/ard/. iii Contents Preface ........................................................................................................... iii Figures and Tables .............................................................................................vii Summary ........................................................................................................ ix Acknowledgments ............................................................................................xiii Abbreviations ...................................................................................................xv CHAPTER ONE Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1 Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................. 1 Study Caveats ..................................................................................................... 2 Research Approach ............................................................................................... 3 Literature Review .............................................................................................. 3 Interviews ....................................................................................................... 3 Independent Analyses ......................................................................................... 3 Organization of This Document ............................................................................... 3 CHAPTER TWO Background ...................................................................................................... 5 Soldier Combat Load Is Daunting ............................................................................. 5 Average Combat Loads for Soldiers and Marines .......................................................... 5 Load Impacts Performance ................................................................................... 6 Body Armor Weight Contributes to the Overall Load .................................................... 9 Current Body Armor Is Effective ..............................................................................10 Body Armor Must Be Capable of Handling Multiple Ballistic Round Penetrations and Limiting Backface Deformation..........................................................................11 Basis for the Two Requirements .............................................................................11 Summary .........................................................................................................12 CHAPTER THREE Four Approaches to Lightening Body Armor ............................................................15 Refining Requirements .........................................................................................15 Assessing Threats .............................................................................................15 Tailoring Body Armor as a Means to Lighten Body Armor .............................................17 Using Modular Configurations ...............................................................................17 Examples of Modular Configurations ......................................................................18 Coverage Versus Weight .....................................................................................18 v vi Lightening Body Armor Body Armor Protection Levels ............................................................................. 20 Using Modular Configurations as a Means to Lighten Body Armor ...................................21 Improving Testing ............................................................................................. 22 Literature Review ............................................................................................ 22 Our Findings Regarding Current Testing ................................................................ 23 Our Findings Regarding Future Testing .................................................................. 24 Testing as a Means to Lighten Body Armor ...............................................................25 Improving Materials ............................................................................................25 Materials Used in Today’s Body Armor ....................................................................25 Potential Future Body Armor Materials ................................................................... 26 Improving Hard Armor Materials ......................................................................... 27 Improving Soft Armor Materials ........................................................................... 28 How to Best Develop the Next Generation of Body Armor: Acquisition Program of Record Versus Commodity Procurement ......................................................................29 Developing and Fielding Lighter Body Armor Would Require a Comprehensive R&D Strategy ............................................................................................31 Using the Procurement Process/R&D Funding as a Means to Lighten Body Armor ................33 CHAPTER FOUR Conclusions .....................................................................................................35 Comparison of the Four Approaches .........................................................................35 General Conclusions ............................................................................................37 Specific Issues Raised in Section 125 of P.L. 111-383 ......................................................37 CHAPTER FIVE Recommendations .............................................................................................39 Top-Level Recommendations ..................................................................................39 Specific Recommendations ....................................................................................39 APPENDIX Army, Marine Corps, and SOCOM Processes for Procuring Body Armor .........................41 Bibliography ....................................................................................................45 Figures and Tables Figures S.1. Comparison of the Four Approaches to Reducing Body Armor Weight ..................... x 2.1. An Army Soldier Carrying a Full Combat Load ................................................ 6 2.2. Individual Combat Loads for Marines, by Position ............................................ 7 2.3. Performance Decreases as Combat Load Increases ............................................. 8 2.4. Probability of Lethality as a Function of Backface Deformation ............................13 3.1. Effectiveness of Body Armor Against Different Threat Types ................................16 3.2. An Example of a Suite of Body Armor Plates ..................................................19 3.3. Example Components for Modular Body Armor Configurations ...........................19 3.4. Body Armor Weight Increases as Coverage Increases ........................................ 20 3.5. Stiffness of Current and Potential Hard Plate Materials as a Function of Density ....... 27 4.1. Comparison of the Four Approaches to Reducing Body Armor Weight ....................35 Tables 2.1. Average Combat Loads for Army Soldiers in Afghanistan, 2003 ............................. 5 3.1. Body Armor Protection Levels ...................................................................21 3.2. Comparison of Commodity Procurement Versus Hypothetical Program of Record Acquisition ............................................................................... 30 A.1. Summary of Army, Marine Corps, and SOCOM Processes for Procuring Body Armor ....................................................................................... 42 A.2. Summary of Army Body Armor RDT&E Funding .......................................... 43 vii