Forward Observer

The other night went out on the town with my fiancee. Around midnight while we were walking back home we turned a street corner and - woah! - found ourselves smack in the middle of three lines of riot cops blocking the whole intersection. This happens in Europe and apparently there was some big conference in town between EU and Asian countries, so all the rats were running wild too trying to set the town on fire.

Everything turned out OK for two of us, cops were happy to let us go on our merry way, but I got pretty good close ups how they were catching some of the trouble makers. Although she wanted to go out and start demanding explanation from them what the heck is going on! I took her by the arm and said “Oh no you don’t honey, they are not here to talk, let’s get the hell out of dodge while we can.”

Later we of course laughed about it, funniest thing being that the cops wore the riot gear I represent! I can now honestly claim to be one of the few if not the only salesman who has seen his riot gear in action from the wrong side of the line!

Anyways, I also started to reflect on the importance of good realistic training for the riot cops. Rioters are out to instigate and provoke, and they use real Molotov Cocktails and other weapons. It’s not easy to stand in and hold the line, it takes courage and nerves not to go out and just beat the hell out of everybody. But if you break the line, and that’s exactly what rioters are trying to achieve, the whole hell breaks loose all over town.

So, of course we take out our riot gear and training suit, go out to the range and see what happens….

No harm done, not even a scratch, just great full contact training, and the “suspect” is in custody.

Another lesson learned during the day: if you go out on riot control, first you better get used to the idea of being in the receiving end for Molotov Cocktails. You got to trust your gear, right? So naturally we whipped out that jerry can full of gasoline!

Another good example of our not-so-scientific approach to testing but hey, how many times are you going to face controlled environment like in a lab out there? Exactly, and that’s why we come up with these scenarios, because people come to us asking questions pertinent to real life. Like: “How well does your vests do against flash fires?”

We do not only believe in our stuff, we go out and find out. And you know how much fun it is actually, so of course we tend to go a bit overboard, but at least then we know where we stand. So we started burning our ballistic panels, first for 30 seconds, then for a full minute, and then shot them multiple times. Hmm, interesting.

Test 1. First we burned the armor panel for 30 seconds in gasoline fire.

Then we shot the vest three times with MP-5, 9 mm FMJ at 1 443.5 fps (440 m/s), which correspondes to level NIJ-IIIA.

Results of Test 1: All shots were stopped and trauma in each shot was less than 0.98 inch (25 mm).

Test 2. We burned the panel full 60 seconds in gasoline fire. Well, this is not exactly a flash fire anymore, and anybody exposed to flames that long would not need to worry about his or hers vest anymore. However, we want to see how far can we go.

Then we shot it again two times with MP-5, 9 mm FMJ.

Results of Test 2: Both shots were stopped and trauma was still less than 0.98 inch.

In conclusion, the C.P.E vests containing Dyneema do not loose their protective properties even after being exposed to open fire for extended period of time. Now I think that’s very good to know, particularly if you need to travel in a vehicle across hostile territory.

Went to the range the other day to see how well our insert plates stand up against HK MP-7 PDW, or Personal Defense Weapon. The PDWs are intended, as name implies, to be a defensive sidearms for troops, vehicle crews and other military personnel who previously were issued pistols or in some cases submachine guns, but proliferation of body armour in recent years made the weapons ineffective. But of course, these beauties have many more potential applications besides that.

MP-7 is 4.6×30mm, rate of fire is 950 rounds per minute, and it has effective range of 200 meters.

The 4.6×30mm ammunition is loaded with spitzer-pointed, all-steel bullet with brass jacket. Bullet is 25 grains (1.6 gramm) and the muzzle velocity is about 2400 fps (ca. 725 m/s). Manufacturer claims 100% penetration of the CRISAT body armour (1.6mm of Titanium plus 20 layers of Kevlar) at the distance of 200 meters. Well, against soft body armor, yes, this baby will penetrate. But what about hard insert plate at NIJ-III level?

Lock and load, ready to rock ‘n roll. MP-7 is really nice weapon to work with. During my day MP-5 was the tool of the trade to have but if I got in active today, I think I’d choose MP-7.

The results were pretty nice. Actually, they were excellent because if I had been wearing that vest with insert plate, I would still be here to tell the story. Too bad, some of you may say, but hey…

No penetrations! That makes me feel so good, you know. I am selling these plates and vests to cops and operators who depend their lives on them. ‘Nuff said.