Defective Military Helmets Suit Settled

[flashl]

Source: NY Times

Manufacturer in $2 Million Accord With U.S. on Deficient Kevlar in Military Helmets


A North Dakota manufacturer has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a suit saying it had repeatedly shortchanged the armor in up to 2.2 million helmets for the military, including those for the first troops sent to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Twelve days before the settlement with the Justice Department was announced, the company, Sioux Manufacturing of Fort Totten, was given a new contract of up to $74 million to make more armor for helmets to replace the old ones, which were made from the late 1980s to last year.

Sioux upgraded its looms in 2006, company executives say, and the government says it has started inspections at the plant.

The United States attorney for North Dakota, Drew H. Wrigley, called the accord “an appropriate resolution” because the Defense Department had said that 200 sample helmets passed ballistic tests and that it “has no information of injuries or deaths due to inadequate Pasgt helmet protection.”

NY Times

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/06/us/06helmet.html?ref=us

[gratuitous]

1. Give back a buck a helmet, get another contract

Can't see anything wrong with this. Unless, of course, it was you or someone you know who suffered a traumatic brain injury. Or got killed. But we don't know anything about that, because the Defense Department helpfully didn't compile any information about that.

Spin the wheel again, Jocko. More rubes coming down the pike.

[peace13]

2. That makes me ill.

That is all.

[happyslug]

3. Here is some background on the owners

http://www.spiritlakenation.com/about.htm
http://www.spiritlakecourt.com/
http://www.spiritlakenation.com/

Yes this is owned by an Native American Tribe.