Arthur J. Villasanta – Fourth Estate Contributor
Fort Carson, CO, United States (4E) – The U.S. Army recently completed the final round of comprehensive field-testing for a new body armor system called the “Modular Scalable Vest” (MSV) that better protects troops from bullets and shrapnel while being much lighter than the existing system.
Soldiers with the 71st Ordnance Group (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) and 10th Chemical Hazardous Response Company at Fort Carson, Colorado were involved in the final round of week-long tests of the MSV.
The vest will go into production once evaluations of the MSV are complete. MSV is expected to reach Army soldiers in the field by the summer of 2018.
Fully configured, MSV weighs around 11 kg (25 lbs.), which is 2.3 kg (5 lbs.) lighter than the Improved Outer Tactical Vest (IOTV), which is the body armor system currently in use. It weighs some five kilograms (11 lbs.) based on a medium size vest without ballistic plates.
Program Executive Officer Soldier (PEO Soldier) at Fort Belvoir, Virginia said MSV was designed around the need to cut down on the weight of a soldier’s load. Soldiers currently lug around an incredible 45 kg (100 lbs.) of armor, weapons, supplies and other gear.
One of the soldiers that tested MSV said this system “is lighter and cooler, has a greater range of motion and a better fit” compared to the IOTV.
MSV is scalable and comes in a four-tier configuration. The tier system allows the soldier to tailor the vest to better fit mission requirements.
The first tier enables the wearer to pull out the inside soft armor to be used as concealable body armor. The second tier consists of the soft armor with plates.
The third tier is the vest with ballistic plates and soft armor. The fourth tier is the addition of a ballistic combat shirt with built-in neck, shoulder and pelvic protection, and a belt system designed to relocate much of the gear soldiers affix to their vest to their hips.
PEO Soldier is responsible for rapid prototyping, procurement, and fielding of equipment for Army soldiers. Its mission is to “Develop, acquire, field and sustain affordable integrated state of the art equipment to improve soldier dominance in Army operations today and in the future.”
PEO Soldier has been working on the MSV for the past five years and went through four versions of the vest, and an additional two versions of the soldier plate carrier system.
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