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Army chief orders recall of body armor

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Associated Press

Army Secretary Pete Geren has ordered the recall of more than 16,000 sets of body armor after an audit concluded the vests’ bullet-blocking plates had failed testing and might not provide soldiers with adequate protection.

The audit by the office of the Defense Department inspector general, not yet made public but obtained by the Associated Press, faults the Army for flawed testing procedures.

In a letter dated Jan. 27 to acting Inspector General Gordon Heddell, Geren said he did not agree that the plates had failed the testing or that soldiers were issued deficient gear. He said his opinion was backed by the Pentagon’s top testing director. But Geren said he was recalling the sets as a precaution and asking that a senior Pentagon official resolve the disagreement between the Army and the inspector general’s office.

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Hundreds of thousands of body armor sets have been manufactured by several companies in the last seven years. Vests are standard gear for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The contract examined by the inspector general’s office is listed in the audit only as W91CRB-04-D-0040. An Aug. 20, 2004, announcement on the Defense Department’s website says a contract under that designation was awarded to Armor Works of Chandler, Ariz.

The Army bought 51,334 sets of the protective inserts under the contract for just over $57 million, according to the inspector general.

A call to Armor Works was not immediately returned.

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