U.S. Army soldiers can look forward to using the new combat vest next year once tests are complete. The 71st Ordnance Group and 10th Chemical Hazardous Response Company conducted the final set of tests for a new body armor designed to be modular, customizable and lightweight.

Called the Modular Scalable Vest (MSV) is a modular, scalable system built to protect the soldier that is lighter than the existing PPE. The MSV is part of the U.S. Army’s Soldier Protection System (SPS) which is part of the next-gen Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) system, and the tests were conducted last 16-20 October 2017 at Fort Carlson in Colorado.

"We have been working on this vest for the past five years and have since have gone through four versions of the vest and an additional two versions of the Soldier plate carrier system," said Stephen McNair t est manager for Project Manager Soldier Protection Individual Equipment, a division of Program Executive Officer Soldier at Fort Belvoir who was onsite to observe the tests according to a news report at the Army.mil website.

A medium-sized MSV weighs 11 pounds with no ballistic plates and when it is fully configured, the it will weigh in at around 25 pounds, which is still 5lbs lighter than the Improved Outer Tactical Vest (IOTV). Many soldiers noticed the weight difference.

"Compared to my IOTV, this vest is lighter and cooler, has a greater range of motion, and a better fit," said 1st Lt. Dawn Ward, a platoon leader with 663rd Ordnance Company and officer in charge during the evaluation. Further adding that, "It is a huge improvement over previous body armors."

Apart from being even more lightweight, the MSV is also scalable and can be configured to meet the requirements of the mission. There are four tiers with the first tier that enables the wearer to pull out the inside soft armor to be used as concealable body armor. The second tier is the soft armor with plates. The third tier is the vest with ballistic plates and soft armor.  The final tier is the addition of a ballistic combat shirt that has built -- in neck, shoulder and pelvic protection and a belt system designed to relocate much of what Soldiers affix to their vest to their hips.

Since there are different body sizes, the U.S. Army allowed for sizing options.

The report also says that the testing was done with the soldiers going through an obstacle course, do weapons training, conduct don and doffing procedures, practice tactical vehicle access capabilities, and a ruck march.

Once the evaluation is complete, production will come next. The first batch of the MSV is expected to be ready by summer 2018.

Photo Credit:  U.S. Army photos by Staff Sgt. Lance Pounds