US Orders Advanced Combat Helmets

ACH in action

The Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH) was one of the 14 Rapid Fielding Initiative items developed in 2004, for soldiers on their way to Iraq or Afghanistan. The ACH is made of a new type of Kevlar to provide improved ballistic and impact protection. Tests show it will withstand a hit from a 9mm round at close range, a test the previous helmets would fail. Some have even stopped IED fragments.

The ACH is smaller and 3.5 lbs lighter then the PASGT model (known colloquially as the “Fritz helmet”) and is cushioned on the inside, which sits more comfortably on a soldier’s head…

Rapid Fire August 15, 2012: Gulf Missile Defense

• It is hard to be more terse than the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in their one-sentence statement last week that they “decided to open a criminal investigation into allegations concerning GPT and aspects of the conduct of their business in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.” GPT Special Project Management is a part of Paradigm, itself a subsidiary of EADS-owned Astrium. Since that statement, the Financial Times has reported that they have seen a copy of a project contract that lists costs without explaining what the “bought-in services” are supposed to be. The FT also explains how retired British lieutenant-colonel and GPT employee Ian Foxley fled Saudi Arabia with “evidence of apparently irregular payments to Saudi officials.” EADS has not offered any comment. The plot thickens given the fact it is the UK Ministry of Defense that is technically GPT’s customer, as part of a liaison program with the Saudi National Guard. This brings back to memory an aborted SFO investigation of Eurofighter contracts.