Our kit’s world class

Kit inspection: Prime Minister John Howard tests the weight of a plate of the Army’s new lightweight enhanced combat body armour, as soldiers show him their new webbing and personal field equipment. Photo by Phil Barling

AUSTRALIAN soldiers deployed on combat operations overseas have some of the best gear available in the world, according to CA Lt-Gen Peter Leahy.

Lt-Gen Leahy moved to reassure troops and their families about the soundness of the Army’s combat clothing and equipment after media reports about sub-standard kit.

Brig David Welch, Director-General Land Combat Systems in DMO, echoed those sentiments, saying DMO “is confident that the combat equipment and clothing used by Army is safe and of high quality”.

Lt-Gen Leahy said the feedback he and CDF Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston received from deployed troops was “almost overwhelmingly that the equipment … from our vehicles, our weapons, our night-fighting equipment down to our clothing and body armour is way ahead of anything else in the theatre, including those of our major allies”.

“I’d really like to reassure all Australians, particularly the families and the mums and dads, that the equipment we’re issuing to our soldiers to deploy forward on combat operations is among the best in the world. We’re not going to ask soldiers to go into these very difficult and demanding conditions without making sure that they’re as well equipped, as well trained, as well prepared and as well led as we can make them. We want them to come home; we’re going to look after them,” he said.

“I’m not going to say that everything’s perfect. Because of changes in technology, because of an adaptive enemy, we’ve got to keep working at it, so we will change the equipment – fairly rapidly at times – in our effort to try to make sure we’ve got the best stuff.”

Both Lt-Gen Leahy and Brig Welch stressed that the RODUM system helped ensure the ongoing safety and quality of combat equipment and clothing.

“RODUMs provide information that allows DMO to identify and respond to safety issues, and to identify possible improvements for future versions of equipment,” Brig Welch said. “The most common type of RODUM on clothing and field equipment reports a manufacturing fault that is identified when an item is issued or first put into use. In the case of the Terra Combat Boot, close to 50 per cent of RODUMs report manufacturing faults such as missing eyelets and lumps of adhesive inside the boot.”

He noted that the number of RODUMs received across the range of combat clothing and field equipment is “small compared to the numbers of each item on issue and in use”.

While RODUMs identified individual problems, that did not mean the items were unsuitable for their intended purpose. Brig Welch said many RODUMs occurred because equipment was incorrectly fitted or used.

“Examples of this are blisters caused by an incorrectly fitted boot – the problem in this case is the fitting process, not the boot,” he said.

To remedy this issue, a program of training for Q store staff will begin in July to ensure all personnel are fitted with correct boots. A new version of the combat boot – version 5 – will be introduced later this year.

Brig Welch pointed out that the fleece combat jacket – which media reports stated was flawed because it showed up under night-vision equipment – was “not intended to be an outer garment when in a ‘combat’ environment”. He said a new version of the combat jacket currently under development would “include the near infra-red technology developed by DSTO”.

In response to media reports that the jackets’ cuffs were highly flammable, Brig Welch said they would be “tested for flammability to resolve uncertainty about flammability characteristics”.

He said new clothing and equipment underwent extensive assessment before it was issued throughout Army.

“Testing can involve agencies such as DSTO, Land Engineering Agency, the Australian Wool Testing Authority and CSIRO. Trialling often involves Army units where a unit is tasked to use one or more developmental systems and provide feedback. This approach has been used with the load carriage equipment being provided by Land 125, Soldier Combat System, enhanced combat helmets and enhanced combat body armour,” he said.

RODUMs: How Defence responds