The Navy is inviting manufacturers to make submissions of the best designs in a move in which they intend to acquire new armored survival vests for helicopter crew members and pilots.
The process is already underway and the navy made it clear by publishing the solicitation on the official US federal contracting site. According to the Naval Air Systems Command, the new armored vest will serve to protect crews from hostile fire and increase water survival in instances of a maritime emergency.
The specification of the design published on the contracting site highlighted a compact vest that allows the user’s mobility a feature that is great for in-cockpit visual scanning and increases physical movement in the post-crash scenario. More importantly, it should allow quick evasion and have the capability to jettison a negatively buoyant hard plate in water.
The vest will be used by a variety of crew members on different rotorcraft platforms including but not limited to attack Marine Corps attacks and heavy-lift helicopters and Navy’s ship-based maritime choppers. More importantly, the armored survival vests will come in handy for the following aircraft crew members:
- Marines’ AH-1 Viper
- MV-22 Osprey
- UH-1 Venom
- CH-53E Super Stallion
Different specifications may apply to different aircraft as per the solicitation notes.
But the vest should integrate soft armor inserts that are mainly used in modular scalable vests. They should be protective while being light so as they can facilitate the following:
- Evasion maneuvers during an escape
- Zero interference while the wearers are discharging their in-flight or pre-fight jobs
- Ample room to carry survival and mission gear
- Allow the wearer to stay in flights of between 6 and 12 hours without heat stress or back pain
- Last up to six years
- Pack serious protection
The solicitation also dictates that the vest should be able to be dependable on by the wearer in cases they are exposed to cold turbulent seas. It should protect the wearer in events of close-range small arms fire in combat cases on the ground from 7.62mm 9mm AP rounds, rapid exit from aircraft through a fireball, and close detonation of anti-aircraft munition in flight.
Notably, with the advancement of technology, Naval aircrews have interacted with more protective survival vests. In 2009 a one-piece protective vest replaced separate body armors. And by 2013, the navy had introduced an aircrew endurance survival vest that had advanced ballistic protection and ideal load distribution.
And since then the armor has continually advanced in development and the army wants to keep pace with technology in those systems and secure modular solutions that can match different aircraft platforms and serve the crew protection needs.
The navy even celebrated survival vest industry day, an event that took place February 25 to 26,2020. According to the solicitation, the navy had requested a response from the major players in the industry by February 16, 2021.
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Photo Credit: Kelly Schindler / U.S. Navy