As the threat of roadside bombs in Afghanistan is expanding to include improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, planted specifically to target troops walking on patrols, the Army is changing its focus for blast protection. To this end, they are designing protective undergarments.
Pentagon officials describe the fabric of the shorts as a sort of “knitted kevlar” designed to go underneath trousers. “Those are instrumental in preventing some of the debris from going into the wound during a blast event,” says Capt. Sam Choi, the Army’s assistant project manager for soft armor.
Commercial companies are making them, too, with names like "Blast Boxers."
For even more protection, the Army is in the process of testing “second tier” protective shorts that soldiers will wear on the outside of pants. “It’s kind of like a diaper, if you will, or a pull-up pant that goes over the outside of the pants,” Captain Choi says.
The response from troops has been, if not highly enthusiastic, at least sanguine. “They didn’t find them very cumbersome,” he notes.
That is no small endorsement, Choi adds, since such garments are notoriously tough to design. Soldiers are particular about the gear – even more so when they are wearing it. In the course of testing the kevlar shorts, Choi says, some soldiers complained that they were too heavy, others that they retained moisture.
The military designed what Choi describes as “ballistic groin cups,” too, but they fared particularly badly during the testing. “During some of the events like low-crawling and marksmanship, soldiers thought they were quite uncomfortable,” Choi says. “They were very disliked.”
