Army to field new helmet pad

The Army will field 430,000 new helmet pads, designed to better protect soldiers’ neck areas from bomb fragmentation.

The Army will begin shipping “Nape Pads” immediately to soldiers deploying to Iraq and Afghanistan, an Army press release said Wednesday.

The new neck pad went through a series of rigorous evaluations, the release stated. Army Program Executive Office Soldier coordinated testing through a National Institute of Justice laboratory certified in ballistic research.

“Protection of our soldiers is the Army’s priority mission,” Brig. Gen. R. Mark Brown, the head of PEO Soldier, said in the release. “The new helmet neck pad, the eighth improvement in body armor in the last three years, will further reduce injuries and help save even more soldiers’ lives.”

Read the rest at Army Times

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