M80A1, M855A1 vs Level IV Armor

[LRRPF52]

There was a guy who ran a software company in the 1970s who the DOJ approached looking for solutions to their problem of having purchased independent computer hardware in the different Federal regions without any centralized oversight, planning, or coordination. The result was that US Attorneys and staff could not send their data to each other on floppy disks because the operating systems were not compatible, and it would have been too expensive to re-purchase hardware again across the Nation.



INSLAW, the software company, provided the software solution with a program called PROMIS. The DOJ took delivery of it, refused to pay him, left him in the dark, then transferred the technology and intellectual property to a company in Arkansas called Systematics. Systematics then upgraded the program from 8-bit to 32-bit, and sold it to Alltel Telecom. By this time, the program had gained interest from not only FBI, but other 3-letter agencies, once its potential for electronic surveillance was realized, and it became central to the NSA's bank-monitoring program tracking illicit activities of foreign governments and non-government actors.

The inventor of the software won several court cases with expert witness testimony provided by a retired USAF officer who also wore a double hat as a CIA case officer, but the DOJ refused to compensate the plaintiff repeatedly. It was also discovered in the course of the investigation (paid for by the plaintiff using PIs and expert witnesses), that the DOJ failed to secure hardware with the program on it, selling it off in gov't auctions that the retired USAF/NoVA officer was able to acquire during the proceedings, then notified the DOJ of major security violations in court when being questioned by the DOJ's unprepared attorneys. These court cases all had to be done under sealed special court provisions for technology that had very high levels of TS clearance to even be aware of, as many agencies had adopted the program for their work.

It was later learned that corporate officers of Systematics were selling the proprietary and special access technology to unauthorized foreign agents for some serious coin as part of an ongoing foreign exploitation program directed against the United States, and this was addressed when Alltel discovered it and filed a sealed lawsuit against Systematics for major breach of contract, with National Security violations cited by the DOJ and referrals from NSA and others when they saw their program being compromised. One of the PIs in the case was found dead in his hotel room, immediately ruled a suicide.

I could go on into it more, but I think it would distract from the scope and intent of this forum. Suffice it to say, one of the men who was compromising the program now sits in Federal Prison in Colorado in a cell not too far from Ramzi Yusef, the other (who was caught and issued a sealed indictment for espionage while he still worked in the White House) "committed suicide" the day after the FBI Director was fired (July 19th, 1993), and the perpetrators walked away clean. The FBI Director, William Sessions, was probably the best Director the Bureau ever had-a Distinguished Eagle Scout, who let the chips fall where they lay in the course of investigations. The senior FBI official who is now in Federal Prison is Robert Hanson. He was using his special access to this program from within the Bureau and selling it to the Russians. They made a movie about it called Breach.






The problem with dealing with the Federal and many State governments is that legislators have exempted themselves from insider trading. The moment you actually meet a need or solve a problem they have that has serious potential for market, your intellectual property is subject to being passed off to investors who have relationships with larger companies that are in a better position to capitalize off the new product. Something to be aware of when approached by DoD or any Federal or State agency. The legislators and their friends know they can bury you in court, so they usually just steal the technology and laugh at you.

Look at what happened with DragonSkin, for example. Pinnacle Armor already had a full product line and capacity to manufacture and fill larger orders, since they did building and vehicle armor.

Whatever relationship existed between DoD and the 9 major body armor manufacturers seemed to come into play, because Pinnacle Armor wasn't willing to share licensing with them. This is a legitimate concern for DoD, because they are already used to working with large suppliers for critical equipment, so Pinnacle's unwillingness to license to Ceradyne, Point Blank, etc. was a major red flag. They didn't want to be left out hanging with all their eggs in one basket with Pinnacle, so a campaign to discredit the armor technology of Dragonskin was launched and successfully executed.

It didn't help that Pinnacle pushed the angle with the media, revealing that Generals and their security details were using Dragonskin, while Joe Infantry and Jane Truckdriver were stuck with Interceptor. They even had the designer of Interceptor openly state that DragonSkin was far superior to Interceptor. General Brown is the one who stated that he wished insurgents would wear DragonSkin, while Generals, GRS, SAD, SF, PSDs sourced DragonSkin for themselves. Even General Downing covered down on it, stating that the tests he helped supervise showed that DragonSkin out-performed Interceptor substantially.

The interesting thing is the NIJ never cited ballistic performance or the staged failures of the vests when they pulled the NIJ certs, but cited a clause in the warranty. This leaves the door open in the future for competitors who want to re-market the technology after acquiring the license or simply waiting out the patents. The Army's procurement officer at the time, General Brown, after said DragonSkin was so bad he wished insurgents in Iraq would wear it, also stated that the M110 SASS was more accurate with more effective range than the M24. The M110 has a 20" barrel and is semi-automatic. The M24 has a 24" barrel and is a bolt gun, probably the most accurate rifle the Army had ever adopted up to that time. While I prefer a SASS over the M24 SWS, General Brown's comments were demonstrably false on the matter, just as they were on body armor.

[video=youtube;ulmHXI0cPiY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulmHXI0cPiY[/video]

To top it off, the DoD classified one of DragonSkin's enhanced protection vests which provided even more ballistic protection from high velocity HP projectiles, something no armor had been able to do then. Pinnacle Armor filed for bankruptcy in 2010 IIRC. Keep in mind that Pinnacle had substantial production infrastructure already in place, with automated systems, TQM, certs, you name it, and they still were wrecked, while the Army came out with the monstrosities known as the side SAPI plates to try to CYA when it was shown that DS provided even more coverage of a soldier's vital areas and potential penetration vectors from the sides of the abdomen and chest.

The armor I'm talking about is a fraction of the weight of current ceramic and polyamide plates. It smokes the performance of DragonSkin even, offering next generation protection against ballistic threats that don't even exist in any known fielded military ammunition. If you don't have your ducks lined up, including greasing politician's skanky palms, my advice is to avoid DoD like the freaking plague. Refer any unsolicited approaches to good legal counsel with experience dealing with DoD contracts, and focus on the private sector with cool products that benefit a much larger market.

Also be aware of paid foreign agents looking for any developmental technology in the US, many of whom may be actual agents of the US government selling out our Nation. This happens with far more frequency than most people would ever know. There's a reason so much foreign money goes into K Street lawyers/lobbyists in DC. With congressman bought off, they have access to the Congressional committees, which includes Defense and Intel committees. Any new technology that actually has market potential is often stolen and sold to foreign agents before the inventors have a chance to really market it.