Soldiers get chance to try out the newest Army gear

[unhappycamper]

At a military technology expo in Kaiserslautern, Germany, Staff Sgt. Matt Dodge wears a helmet with a mounted display and earphones that are part of the Land Warrior system. Dodge used the system, when he was deployed to Iraq with 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. It links dismounted soldiers with the digital battlefield network. Dodge can see the image that's on the large screen behind him using his mounted display.


Soldiers get chance to try out the newest Army gear
By Jennifer H. Svan, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Tuesday, January 27, 2009

RHINE ORDNANCE BARRACKS, Germany — With a strong tug to the small lanyard, the body armor vest came off in two pieces, falling almost to the ground, with someone extending a hand to prevent the ceramic plates inside from hitting the floor.

"Those are way more comfortable," Spc. Dorian Thomas, 21, an intelligence analyst with the 21st Theater Sustainment Command, said of the U.S. Army’s Improved Outer Tactical Vest.

But it was the M320 grenade launcher that had Thomas most pumped.

Grenade launchers "used to attach to the M-4," Thomas said. "This one, you just pick up, drop a round in and fire it."

Soldiers got the chance to view and, in some cases, try out, the latest in Army gear and technology Monday at an exhibition presented by the Army’s Program Executive Office Soldier, the organization responsible for all equipment soldiers wear or carry.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=60272