ARLINGTON, Va. — The Marine Corps is recalling 5,277 sets of body armor after a news article found that some of the outer vests failed to meet ballistic standards.
Sergeants major, operations officers and logistics officers in each of the Marine Corps’ Marine Expeditionary Forces, or MEFs, have been issued instructions on how to handle retrieval and replacement, Landis said.
The Corps has no timetable for collecting the vests and issuing replacements, a task that will be “operationally driven,” Capt. Jeff Landis, a spokesman for the Marine Corps Systems Command, told Stripes on Monday.
The issue arose after an eight-month investigation conducted by the Marine Corps Times.
According to a May 4 administrative message, the recall is for 11 lots of Outer Tactical Vests, or OTVs, manufactured by Point Blank Body Armor Inc. and distributed to Marines in 2004 (see graphic).
The OTVs are part of the Interceptor body armor system, which also includes ceramic insert plates and neck, arm and groin protection.
According to Landis, a small sample in each recalled OTV lot failed to meet one of the Corps’ ballistic standards, but the vests were issued to Marines anyway, under a waiver.
At issue is the resistance of the OTVs to 9 mm rounds, such as those fired by the Defense Department’s M-9 pistol.
But the outer vests were never intended to be bulletproof, Landis said.
“The OTV is designed as a fragmentation vest,” Landis said in telephone interview from Quantico, Va.
In the Interceptor system, the task of preventing rounds from killing or wounding the wearer — in particular the high-velocity 7.62 mm bullets fired from the AK-47 assault rifle — is the purpose of the two Small Arms Protective Inserts, or SAPI plates, that Marines and soldiers are required to insert into vests in combat zones, Landis said.
Nevertheless, Marine Corps officials decided to make 9 mm protection a requirement for the outer vest, too, after a prototype demonstrated it could prevent penetration of such rounds, Landis said.
“We said, ‘Great, let’s do that, too,’” and wrote the requirement into the contract, Landis said.
When about five vests out of the roughly 500 OTVs that make up each lot did not pass the 9 mm test, Corps contracting officials sent them to a private laboratory, where they passed the second set of tests, Landis said.
At that point, the officials “made the hard decision to request a waiver, in the interests of time,” Landis said.
“If we have a 99.9 percent solution in front of us, we’re not going to wait for the 100 percent if Marines need it,” Landis said, calling last year’s requirement to equip Iraq-bound Marines with the OTVs “urgent.”
Marines who believe their vest is part of the recall should notify their chain of command, and keep wearing the vests until they are replaced — but should not, under any circumstances, abandon their body armor in combat zones, Landis said.
“We will stand by the fact that the OTVs, combined with the SAPI plates, does the job” of protecting Marines, Landis said. “The Marine Corps is confident these vests have saved countless lives.”
The Marine Corps administrative message listing serial numbers for the recalled OTVs is MARADMIN 211/05 at: www.usmc.mil/maradmins.
Check your gear
The Marines have issued a recall of more than 5,000 Interceptor protective vests after some were found to be defective in ballistics tests. Here are the affected serial numbers:
Lot Serial numbers Quan. Date Destination
69-09 MC160675-MC161174 490 Feb. 04 I & II MEF CIF
69-12 MC161175-MC161674 490 Feb. 04 I & II MEF CIF
69-24 MC163205-MC163704 489 Jul. 04 II MEF CIF,CARDF
69-96 MC177154-MC177653 496 Jul.-Aug. 04 II MEF CIF
69-102 MC178154-MC178653 391 Jul.-Aug. 04 II MEF CIF
69-105 MC178654-MC179153 491 Jul.-Aug. 04 II MEF CIF
69-111 MC180154-MC180653 496 Dec. 04 II MEF CIF
69-117 MC179654-MC180153 496 Jul.-Aug. 04 II MEF CIF
69-120 MC182654-MC183153 496 Dec. 04 II MEF CIF
71-12 MC174204-MC174624 417 Jul.-Aug. 04 I MEF CIF
71-21 MC176625-MC177153 525 Jul.-Aug. 04 I MEF CIF
5277
Total
Source:@ U.S. Marine Corps
