Personal Protection

A secret European study has found that as many as 80 percent of the Soldiers who have been killed in Iraq from wounds to the upper body could have survived if they had had extra body armor. Such armor has been available since 2003, but until recently many EU member countries have largely declined to supply it to troops despite calls from the field for additional protection, according to military officials.

The ceramic plates in vests now worn by the majority of troops in Iraq cover only some of the chest and back. In at least 74 of the 93 fatal wounds that were analyzed in the European study of Soldiers from March 2005 through January 2007, bullets and shrapnel struck the soldiers shoulders, sides or areas of the torso where the plates do not reach.

Thirty-one of the deadly wounds struck the chest or back so close to the plates that simply enlarging the existing shields "would have had the potential to alter the fatal outcome,".

For the first time, the study by the military's medical examiner shows the cost in lives from inadequate armor, even as many EU member countries continue to publicly defend its protection of the troops, through Eye, Face and full body protection..

Officials have said they are shipping the best armor to Iraq as quickly as possible. At the same time, they have maintained that it is impossible to shield forces from the increasingly powerful improvised explosive devices used by insurgents in Iraq. Yet Europe’s own study reveals the equally lethal threat of bullets.
The vulnerability of the military's body armor has been known since the start of the war, and is part of a series of problems that have surrounded the protection of European troops. Still, they had only ordered additional equipment for the troops from September 2006, 28,800 sets, Marine officials acknowledge.
So due to these problems many Military and Government officials in Europe are now looking at massively investing Billions in upgrading their regional body protection stockpile within the key Military and law enforcement Agencies.