On Thursday, Army officials released an ALARACT (All Army Activities) message to the field addressing a concern with the Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH). The Army is recalling 44,000 of the helmets and ordering troops to perform a physical inspection of their ballistic head protection to see if their ACH came from ArmorSource, a defense contractor responsible for making the headgear.

image from Castle Argghhh!!

“Soldier safety is our number one priority,” Said Brigadier General Pete Fuller, Program Executive Officer (PEO) Soldier (PEO-Soldier). “We want to ensure they are confident in that equipment.”

In November, the Army had contacted ArmorSource about paint adhesion on the ACH. While only a cosmetic issue, it was one that was specified in the 2006 contract, which called for the company to provide the Army 102,000 ACH. Between August 2007 and November 2009, ArmorSource delivered 99,000. 44,000 have been shipped to the field with another 54,000 in bonded storage. After failing to adequately fix the paint adhesion problem, the Army refused to accept the remaining 3,000 helmets.

BG Fuller said the recall was based off a Department of Justice investigation and ballistics testing conducted in conjunction with the investigation. The testing – which included maximum muzzle velocity (basically point blank range), perfect angles, and multiple shots – resulted in inconsistent results.

“The results were not life threatening, but fell short of Army standards,” said Fuller.

The ACH was introduced to Special Forces units in 2002 and quickly became standard issue for the Army, Navy and Air Force. The Marine Corps uses a similar version of the helmet called the Lightweight Helmet (Marcus can correct me if I got the name wrong). As a matter of fact, the investigation into the helmets began with the Marine Corps version, then spread to the ACH. However, all the affected stock of helmets in the Marine Corps are in warehouses and haven’t been issued to Marines.

All units, Central Issue Facilities, and deployed environments are conducting physical inspections of their gear. This morning, Bagram reported that they had checked their storage without finding any of the recalled ACH, but that troops had begun performing direct exchanges of recalled ACH. My unit is conducting a personal inventory as well that is to be completed this afternoon.

Due to the ongoing investigation, DA officials couldn’t get into specifics about what prompted the Department of Justice to look into the helmets.

The recall will not affect troop equipment. The Army currently has approximately 1.6 million ACH in its inventory, with ever deployed Soldier issued one.

“We’re doing due diligence on a vendor that is under investigation and has not done everything they should have,” explained BG Fuller. “So, we’re recalling all equipment associated with that vendor in the interest of safety of our troops.”

Wanna know what concerns our media about this recall? Numerous times, a reporter repeatedly asked Army officials why they waited until the markets closed on Friday to issue the press release! Seriously! Somehow, this reporter thinks there’s a military conspiracy to protect the markets and therefore probably held onto the press release until after the markets closed.

The problem is that the ALARACT didn’t come out until Thursday, only one day after the testing data became available. It took them another day of working through the logistics of turn-in and other pressing issues before they got around to sending out a press release. I just found the questioning quite telling. I wish I knew what news agency she was with so I could ridicule her.