Current News |
Manufacturer in $2
Million Accord With U.S. on Deficient
Kevlar in Military Helmets
By BRUCE LAMBERT
Published: February 6, 2008
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/06/us/06helmet.html?_r=1&ref=us&pagewanted=pri&oref=slogin
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.”
Pasgt, pronounced “pass-get,” stands for
the Personal Armor System for Ground
Troops, which includes the helmet model
being replaced.
At the core of the investigation was the
contention by two former plant managers
that Kevlar woven at Sioux failed to
meet the government’s “critical” minimum
standard of 35 by 35 threads a square
inch.
When properly woven, Kevlar, a polymer
thread made by Dupont, is stronger than
steel, and able to deflect shrapnel and
some bullets. Government regulations
call for rejecting Kevlar below the
35-by-35 standard.
The company “was underweaving,” Mr.
Wrigley said.
“That is undebatable,” he said.
The factory’s own inspection records
often showed weaves of 34 by 34 threads
or as low as 32 by 34 and 33 by 34.
Looms were “always set for 34 by 34,
always,” said Jeff Kenner, who operated
and repaired the looms and oversaw crews
on all three shifts.
In a statement, the company president,
Carl R. McKay, denied “any and all of
the allegations originally brought to
the attention of the Department of
Justice by disgruntled ex-employees.”
Settling the case, United States v.
Spirit Lake Tribe, filed in Federal
District Court in Fargo, Mr. McKay said,
was “a prudent business decision” to
avoid legal costs and “should not be
construed as an admission of
wrongdoing.”
The potential harm is difficult to
judge. Helmet damage depends on the
projectile. Whether a damaged helmet
would hold up better with a tighter
weave is hard to calculate, experts
said.
“You must have a certain amount of
protection, and you can’t go below
that,” said Gwynedd A. Thomas, associate
professor of ballistics and protective
fabrics at Auburn University.
Although the difference between 34 and
35 threads a square inch seems modest,
the cumulative loss in layers of fabric
is significant, Dr. Thomas said.
“Every time that you’re losing some
mass, you’re losing some integrity,” she
said.
The strength comes from crossed yarns,
the points that disperse projectile
impact. “The fewer crossovers, the less
energy dissipation you’re going to
have,” she added.
A 34-by-34 weave results in 5 percent
fewer crossovers than 35 by 35, a
difference Dr. Thomas called “quite a
lot.”
“I’m surprised somebody is not pursuing
that more vigorously from the
government,” she added. Were she a
soldier’s parent, she said, “I would
want to give my son a better helmet.”
The $2 million settlement is far short
of what the two former managers, Mr.
Kenner and Tamra Elshaug, hoped for in
2006 when they filed a whistle-blower
suit. The suit, for $159 million in
damages, accused the company of
defrauding the government and violating
safety standards.
“I think they got away with it,” said
Mr. Kenner, who worked at Sioux for 20
years and was the weaving supervisor.
“Sioux Manufacturing basically got a
slap on the wrist,” he said. “The
Justice Department did a really good
job, but the Department of Defense is
really just downplaying this. They’re
embarrassed and want it to go away and
would not admit to anybody’s getting
hurt or even killed.”
Mr. Kenner and Ms. Elshaug’s lawyer,
Andrew J. Campanelli, challenged Defense
Department contentions that it was
unaware of injuries from defective
helmets. “There are tons of injuries
with shrapnel and bullets going through
helmets,” he said. “My clients
documented that American soldiers did
not get the protection that the
government paid for, that the taxpayers
paid for.”
In the evidence in the suit were
hundreds of daily inspection records
showing repeated violations of the
weaving standards, as well as tape
recordings of six managers and
employees’ admitting covering up
violations.
In a conversation Mr. Kenner secretly
taped, Rhea Crane, quality assurance
officer, worried “if we ever had someone
get killed, and they decided to
investigate because they thought maybe
the helmet wasn’t any good.”
“If we ever got audited,” she said, “you
know what they would do to us. Shut us
down and fine us big time. Probably
never see another government contract.”
Ms. Crane did not return repeated calls
for comment.
Justice Department officials said some
Sioux records listed looms with 35-by-35
counts, with a few at 36. Dr. Thomas
agreed looms could be adjusted to do so.
Mr. Kenner and Ms. Elshaug, who worked
at the plant for 26 years and was in
charge of buying Kevlar, say thread
counts were routinely rounded up to
reach the 35-by-35 minimum.
The papers in the suit showed a Kevlar
surplus of up to 30,000 pounds and a
resin shortage. Extra resin was applied
to the Kevlar to bring it up to a
specified weight, the former employees
said.
Extra resin also poses a hazard to
soldiers, Dr. Thomas said, adding, “If
they were putting more resin in, they
were doing something that will hurt
soldiers, because it reduces elasticity
and increases brittleness.”
Mr. Kenner said, according to the suit,
that when he asked Mr. McKay about the
violations, he responded: “That is the
way we are going to weave it. Don’t you
worry about it.”
Mr. McKay did not respond to e-mail and
phone messages.
Despite excellent job ratings, Mr.
Kenner and Ms. Elshaug were fired after
protesting the violations. Mr.
Campanelli will share part of the
settlement totaling $406,350. There is
no further legal recourse, he added.
Soldiers generally cannot sue the
government. And Sioux is owned by an
Indian tribe, the Spirit Lake Nation,
that can, he said, assert sovereign
immunity against private suits.
The company also benefits from a 5
percent federal incentive program for
Indian contractors and preferences for
disadvantaged small businesses.
Ms. Elshaug and Mr. Kenner said they did
not regret suing. “It was never about
the money,” he said. “It was about the
soldiers. I’m still shocked. I wouldn’t
be wearing one of those helmets.”
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