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Kevlar underwear can protect U.S. Marines against blast fragments flying like slug through the air , but it lack the comfort of simple cotton undies or silky unmentionables . Now the U.S. military has start searching for better alternatives that foreclose chafing as well as battle wounding .
The U.S. Marine Corps see well-heeled undergarments as being equally significant to ballistic protective covering , according to a newrequest for informationaimed at U.S. manufacturers . That intend any Modern underwear fabric must not only shield individual parts against suntan and lilliputian sherd traveling at 650 metrical foot per second — the speed of some bullet train — but also sense lenient against the skin and have the breathability to dry out quickly .
British troops wearing ballistic underwear.
" In particular , we are looking for good breathability , flexibility and comfort while insure our Marines maintain the floor of protection say in our requisite , " said Barbara Hamby , a public involvement representative for the Marine Corps Systems Command .
Wounds in such sensitive areas can lead to rapid roue loss or contagion among U.S. Marine and Army forces in Afghanistan and Iraq , accord to a late Army declaration forballistic underwear . It added , " Without ballistic unmentionable , I MEF ( Marine Expeditionary Force ) and tenth Mountain forces will continue to suffer meaning wound , loss of living , ensue in an adverse result on combat procedure . "
U.S. Marines have antecedently used 75,000 protective undergarments fabricate by a British society for British soldier . The Marine Corps Systems Command also requested 144,000 undergarments made by U.S. supplier Armorworks in late June 2011 , so that U.S. Marines begin receiving them in December .
A simulated improvised explosive device detonates during a realistic training scenario at the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif.
" The protective material in these protective undergarments is a Simplex Weave Kevlar fabric , " Hamby secernate InnovationNewsDaily . " It provides excellent protection from gumption and crushed rock debris fromimprovised volatile devices . "
Silk framework or synthetic fiber such as Twaron may essay more comfortable than the Simplex Weave Kevlar , Hamby said . The Marine Corps has identified several U.S. cloth manufacturers who might create ballistic underwear using such materials .
Any manufacturer that does take up the challenge must also meet hard-and-fast guidelines for hygiene and laundry — the underclothes should be able-bodied to dry out " in less than 4 hours " and resist microbes with " 95 percentage bacteria reduction after 25 home laundering cycles . "
