12/21/03
Effort to send armor to soldiers may be misguided
By JEANNIE KEVERFor a price.
An exchange between a Tennessee National Guard soldier and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld earlier this month pushed the issue of protective equipment for soldiers back into the news. The military still is scrambling to provide armored vehicles in combat zones, with stepped-up production at several plants around the country, including the Stewart & Stevenson plant in Sealy. Most troops now have protective body armor, following a well-publicized shortage last year.
Here at home, the products are available to anyone with cash in hand. Used vests can be had for as little as $39.95, and protective vests can cost more than $1,000.
A few sporting goods and gun stores offer Kevlar vests, made of a synthetic fiber invented almost 60 years ago by a DuPont chemist. They are widely available on the Internet. Other styles use newer technologies, said to last longer and withstand higher impacts.
Prices vary, as does the quality of the equipment.
So when Al Renteria, founder of Operation Interdependence, an organization that allows people to send care packages to deployed troops, began hearing from people who wanted to include body armor alongside the disposable razors and packets of hot chocolate, he was leery.
"I try to have them reconsider that support," he said.
Protective body armor sold to civilians seldom meets military specifications, Renteria said. "The mismatch is so prominent that, although it's an incredibly kind gesture, it really creates a liability."
In other words, he said, don't do it.
But people do. "A lot of parents were concerned with the quality of vest they (deployed troops) got," said Sabih Demougin, spokesman for USA Body Armor. "They were heavy and not comfortable."
The Internet-based company, which sells both off-the-rack and custom-fitted vests, was founded in January 2002 and increased its U.S. presence about a year ago as demand grew, Demougin said.
Prices for protective body armor — popularly known as bulletproof vests — are all over the board. Army-Navy Superstores, a company based in Gastonia, N.C., with a huge Web presence, offers used Kevlar vests starting at $39.95, although the Web sites note that they should not be used as personal protection.
At the Ammo Dump in Houston, prices range from $500 to as much as $1,200, with higher-priced vests rated to stop higher-caliber weaponry.
A clerk, who declined to be identified, said most of the store's customers work in law enforcement; security guards and convenience store clerks also buy them.
Armored cars for civilians are more of a specialty item.
"It's typically wealthy individuals around the world, businessmen who might have a business venture in a country that is hostile toward wealthy individuals," said Darren Flynn, North American sales manager for Armor Holdings, Inc., a Jacksonville, Fla.,-based manufacturer of personal protection and armored vehicles.
The company serves both the military — it recently agreed to boost production of heavily armored Humvee troop carriers to 550 per month, up from 450 — and civilian markets.
Houston-based Stewart & Stevenson began production of armored truck cabs for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan last month. The order came in well before Rumsfeld's sparring with a National Guard soldier, who asked why soldiers had to scrounge for scrap metal to fortify their vehicles, said Dennis Dellinger, president of tactical vehicle systems for Stewart & Stevenson.
The company also provides fortified vehicles for other government agencies but seldom for the civilian market, Dellinger said.
Those markets — especially nonmilitary government customers, including the State Department — have expanded in recent years, said Michael Fox, a spokesman for Armor Holdings. "That's definitely grown since 9/11."
Demand from U.S. business clients is also up since 9/11, Flynn said. But the biggest growth has been international.
Costs are based on the type of vehicle used, as well as the level of fortification chosen. Heavier fortification, for example, requires more work on the vehicle's suspension, Flynn said.
He estimated that costs could range from $60,000 for a Volkswagen Jetta fortified to protect against handguns to $750,000 for a stretch limo modified to protect and pamper a head of state.