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DOJ removes “Dragon Skin” vests from approved list

By SANFORD NAX
The Fresno Bee

FRESNO, Calif. — Officials of a Fresno manufacturing company said they are baffled by the Department of Justice’s removal of their innovative Dragon Skin protective vests from the list of approved body armor, a move that has caused law enforcement agencies to cancel orders.

The federal agency announced Pinnacle Armor did not provide enough evidence that its vests will hold up through its declared six-year warranty period.

“Effective immediately, this body armor model will be removed from the [National Institute of Justice] list of bullet-resistant body armor models that satisfy its requirements,” the Department of Justice said.

The announcement Friday is significant because many law enforcement agencies will only buy equipment certified by the National Institute of Justice, which is the research arm of the federal Department of Justice, said Andy Mournighan, director of governmental affairs of the National Association of Police Organizations.

“Manufacturers volunteer to have the DOJ test it so they can get on the list,” she said.

Mournighan said this is the first time she’s ever heard of a company being removed from the list.

Pinnacle Chief Executive Murray Neal said the action was based on warranty documentation issues and had nothing to do with ballistics capabilities.

“Pinnacle is working with the NIJ to provide further documentation,” he said.

The body armor was certified according to interim standards developed in 2005 -- requirements that Neal said were devised in response to new technology by Pinnacle Armor.

One of the interim requirements was to provide documentation on the warranty, which Pinnacle said it supplied.

“The NIJ said [the documentation] wasn’t sufficient,” said Kevin Merlo, equipment testing technician for the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center in the Department of Justice.

Merlo said the National Institute of Justice is expected to roll out new standards early next year.

Pinnacle spokesman Lloyd Ramirez said Pinnacle has no reports of Dragon Skin failing on the battlefield or in a gunfight but is testing old vests to validate the six-year warranty -- one of the longest in the industry.

“We worked hard to get that certification,” he said. “Agencies are questioning the viability of our product.”

Pinnacle is one of 50 manufacturers of body armor that participate in the voluntary compliance program. Pinnacle also has been in a high-profile dispute with the Army over the military’s refusal to approve Dragon Skin for its troops.

That dispute reached national levels recently when NBC News aired a report that questioned why some generals wear the vests but won’t allow troops in the field to wear them. The House Armed Services Committee also recently heard the issue.

Dragon Skin is made of 2-inch ceramic discs laid out in an interlocking pattern like scales of a fish. Pinnacle says the discs are more difficult to crack than the single large ceramic plates in Interceptor vests used by some federal agencies, including the Army.

The Army says Dragon Skin failed its testing, but Neal says it hasn’t been assessed fairly. He’s called for Pinnacle’s vests to be tested alongside other armor, including the Interceptor systems.

The Army has refused side-by-side testing, but 28 congressional members have urged the comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office to investigate.

And a provision in a defense authorization bill awaiting Senate action includes a provision that calls for an assessment of commercially available body armor.

Copyright 2007 The Fresno Bee

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