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Blast proof boxers for the American soldier
Facing the prospect of shrinking military spending and an imminent drawdown of forces in Afghanistan, you might expect the defense industry to be hunkering down for a dry spell, similar to what happened after the Vietnam War and following the breakup of the Soviet Union. But what is surprising about this years Association of the U.S. Army exhibition in Washington, D.C., which happened this week, was the sheer size of it. It covered two expansive floors of exhibit space at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
It seems that defense contractors arent responding to the specter of a shrinking share of the government pie with austerity. Instead, theyre responding like in the rest of the commercial world: with sex and alcohol. And theyre targeting the few growing markets that are leftincluding, most prominently, protective underwear.
Blast-resistant boxers were all the rage in D.C. this week. At the booth of BCB International, which is marketing boxer shorts designed to protect soldiers groin area from bomb blasts, a notably busty brunette modeled the Kevlar shorts for visitors.
Injuries to the groin areaparticularly the genitaliadont frequently make it into public discussions about body armor, but are of increasing concern to the military. A June report prepared for the Army Surgeon General noted an "increased rate of double and triple amputees, coupled with pelvic and genital injuries, represented a new level of injury to overcome." Genital injuries, the report says, represent not just complex medical and psychological trauma, but also effect battlefield morale. Some soldiers, the report noted, make "do not resuscitate" pacts with buddies in case of such a life-altering injury.
In comparison to the buxom underwear model, BCB International sales manager Edward Schmitt offered a more subdued message about the product. "I would gladly have this market go away," he says, referring to the devastating injuries it is meant to prevent. But so far, it hasnt gone away, and the company is selling about 200 pairs a week. Many of the customers are families sending the boxers to their loved ones serving in Afghanistan, and the U.S. military has also bought some for testing, Schmitt says.
Blast underwear is an extremely competitive market: At Point Blank Solutions, a body armor company, an employee physically jumped in front of me to block a shot of boxers the company was marketing, worried, he later told me apologetically, that I worked for a competitor come to steal the design.
Soldiers seeking protection from bomb blasts have two basic choices: boxers that offer ballistic protection, but can be heavy and constraining, and silk boxers, which do little to protect against a blast injury, but can prevent debris from embedding itself in the skin. The tradeoff is immediately clear: comfort versus protection. The body armor company Armor Works was advertising silk boxers; ballistic protection simply isnt practical for undergarments, said Tom Short, the companys director for soldier survivability programs. Such shorts, he added, "are too thick, too heavy, and too constraining. They can also cause nasty chafing."
With the war in Afghanistan producing unending insurgent attacks and leading up to an impending drawdown of U.S. troops (and spending), its perhaps telling about the nature of the current war that blast underwear has proved to be one of the few growing markets for defense products. But the show hasnt entirely lost its superpower focus on high technologyand its concomitant worries about espionage. At Teledyne Reynolds, employees stopped me from taking a photo of the companys helmet tracking system, which is designed to allow pilots to target and shoot without looking at the cockpit display. They explained that pictures werent prohibited, but that an Army special agent from the 92nd Intelligence Group had stopped by and instructed them to report the names of anyone taking pictures of its helmet. (And when technology alone fails to attract people to your booth, theres always booze. More than a few companies served free beer to show goers, hoping to get an edge on the competition. HESCO Bastion, which makes barricades, continued its tradition of setting up a full bar area staffed with attractive young models.)
As for why so many companies turned out for this years show, everyone had a different explanation, ranging from the need to compete harder for fewer dollars, to a "use it or lose it" attitude about marketing budgets. Schmitt, the blast boxer vendor, has his own view of the state of affairs: Everyone knows that defense spending is about to go down, but it hasnt yet. And companies are scrambling for dollars before they go away, he suggested.
"This," he said, motioning to the busy floor, "is the last hurrah."
Source:http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/news/blast-proof-boxers-a-defense-convention-at-the-dawn-of-a-drawdown
Facing the prospect of shrinking military spending and an imminent drawdown of forces in Afghanistan, you might expect the defense industry to be hunkering down for a dry spell, similar to what happened after the Vietnam War and following the breakup of the Soviet Union. But what is surprising about this years Association of the U.S. Army exhibition in Washington, D.C., which happened this week, was the sheer size of it. It covered two expansive floors of exhibit space at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
It seems that defense contractors arent responding to the specter of a shrinking share of the government pie with austerity. Instead, theyre responding like in the rest of the commercial world: with sex and alcohol. And theyre targeting the few growing markets that are leftincluding, most prominently, protective underwear.
Blast-resistant boxers were all the rage in D.C. this week. At the booth of BCB International, which is marketing boxer shorts designed to protect soldiers groin area from bomb blasts, a notably busty brunette modeled the Kevlar shorts for visitors.
Injuries to the groin areaparticularly the genitaliadont frequently make it into public discussions about body armor, but are of increasing concern to the military. A June report prepared for the Army Surgeon General noted an "increased rate of double and triple amputees, coupled with pelvic and genital injuries, represented a new level of injury to overcome." Genital injuries, the report says, represent not just complex medical and psychological trauma, but also effect battlefield morale. Some soldiers, the report noted, make "do not resuscitate" pacts with buddies in case of such a life-altering injury.
In comparison to the buxom underwear model, BCB International sales manager Edward Schmitt offered a more subdued message about the product. "I would gladly have this market go away," he says, referring to the devastating injuries it is meant to prevent. But so far, it hasnt gone away, and the company is selling about 200 pairs a week. Many of the customers are families sending the boxers to their loved ones serving in Afghanistan, and the U.S. military has also bought some for testing, Schmitt says.
Blast underwear is an extremely competitive market: At Point Blank Solutions, a body armor company, an employee physically jumped in front of me to block a shot of boxers the company was marketing, worried, he later told me apologetically, that I worked for a competitor come to steal the design.
Soldiers seeking protection from bomb blasts have two basic choices: boxers that offer ballistic protection, but can be heavy and constraining, and silk boxers, which do little to protect against a blast injury, but can prevent debris from embedding itself in the skin. The tradeoff is immediately clear: comfort versus protection. The body armor company Armor Works was advertising silk boxers; ballistic protection simply isnt practical for undergarments, said Tom Short, the companys director for soldier survivability programs. Such shorts, he added, "are too thick, too heavy, and too constraining. They can also cause nasty chafing."
With the war in Afghanistan producing unending insurgent attacks and leading up to an impending drawdown of U.S. troops (and spending), its perhaps telling about the nature of the current war that blast underwear has proved to be one of the few growing markets for defense products. But the show hasnt entirely lost its superpower focus on high technologyand its concomitant worries about espionage. At Teledyne Reynolds, employees stopped me from taking a photo of the companys helmet tracking system, which is designed to allow pilots to target and shoot without looking at the cockpit display. They explained that pictures werent prohibited, but that an Army special agent from the 92nd Intelligence Group had stopped by and instructed them to report the names of anyone taking pictures of its helmet. (And when technology alone fails to attract people to your booth, theres always booze. More than a few companies served free beer to show goers, hoping to get an edge on the competition. HESCO Bastion, which makes barricades, continued its tradition of setting up a full bar area staffed with attractive young models.)
As for why so many companies turned out for this years show, everyone had a different explanation, ranging from the need to compete harder for fewer dollars, to a "use it or lose it" attitude about marketing budgets. Schmitt, the blast boxer vendor, has his own view of the state of affairs: Everyone knows that defense spending is about to go down, but it hasnt yet. And companies are scrambling for dollars before they go away, he suggested.
"This," he said, motioning to the busy floor, "is the last hurrah."
Source:http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/news/blast-proof-boxers-a-defense-convention-at-the-dawn-of-a-drawdown
