US Army soldiers from the Hawaii Army National Guard and US Army Reserve wear their PASGT helmets during a military ceremony in March 2004.
The Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops, oftentimes abbreviated to the acronym PASGT is a combat helmet and ballistic vest that was used by the US military from the mid01980s until the mid-2000s when the helmet and vest were succeeeded by the Lightweight Helmet, Modular Integrated Communications Helmet, and Interceptor Body Armor.
Etymology[]
PASGT, is an acronym, standing for Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops. When used by itself, PASGT refers to both the vest and helmet together.
Colloquialisms[]
In the US military, the PASGT helmet was most commonly known by its wearers as simply the "Kevlar". The nicname has since been adopted for usage with other helmets. The PASGT helmet was also referred to by its wearers in the US military as the "K-pot", similar in name to the colloquial nickname "steel pot" for the M1 steel helmet, which was in widespread US military usage from the 1940s to the 1980s. The PASGT helmet was also, but less commonly known by its wearers as the "Fritz" helmet, for its striking resemblance to the Stahlhelm helmet, which was the standard helmet used by the military forces of Nazi Germany during much of WWII.
On the other hand, the PASGT vest was colloquially known as the "flak vest" by its wearers in the US military.
Helmet[]
The PASGT is a standard infantry combat wear in the US military. The shell is made fron 19 layers of Kevlar, a ballistic aramid fabric treated with a phenolic resin system and is reated at a Threat Level IIIA as per DARPA, USMC, and USA and offers protection against shrapnel and ballistic threats. It meets the 1800 requirements of MIL-STD-662 E. It weighs from 3.1 lb to 4.2 lb.
Overview[]
The PASGT helmet is typically olive drab in color and can be fitted with cloth helmet covers, which come in a wide variety of varying camouflage patterns, inculding, but not limited to, M81 Woodland, six-color desert, and three-color desert, solid black for tactical police operations, as well as the US Marine Corps's MARPAT and the US Army's Universal Camouflage Pattern.
The PASGT helmet is also used by various SWAT teams, where it is oftentimes black in color, with or without covering. It is also used by United Nations Peacekeeping forces where it is often painted United Nations blue to match the color of the UN flag.
When worn with a helmet cover, the PASGT helmet is often fitted with a band around it that has two reflective patches on the rear intended to reduce friendly fire incidents. These bands are also used to hold vegetation or small personal items, as with the M1 helmet before it, during the later decades of its service life. In the US Army, PASGT helmets oftentimes featured a patch with the wearer's rank insignia stitched on to it, with a unit patch on the sides.
Development[]
The PASGT helmet was developed in 1975 and replaced the steel M1 helmet in US military service during the 1980s. It first saw use in combat in 1983 during Operation Urgent Fury in Grenada, and became stadard issue for the US military in 1985.
Accessories[]
There are various available add-on accessories for the PASGT helmet, including, but not limited to, a helmet mount assembly that allows the attachment of night vison goggles, such as the NE-6015 or AN/PVS-14 MNVD, the F5001B or AN/PVS-7B. The PASGT helmet can also be fitted with an acrylic glass face shield visor for use in riot control operations.
Reliability[]
In a demonstration of the H&K MP7 on the Discovery Channel show Future Weapons, a PASGT helmet suffered a catastrophic armor penetration when hit head-on with one round of the MP7's 4.6x30mm ammunition. Similarly, the firearms testing site The Box o' Truth reported that both the 5.56x45mm NATO and the 7.62x39mm were able to yield catastrophic penetrations through both sides of the helmet.
Replacement[]
The PASGT helmet was replaced in US military service by the Lightweight Helmet and Modular Integrated Communications Helmet. Hwever, the PASGT helmet still sees some limited use in the US miltary as of the early 2010s, where it serves as one of the various helmets for sailors assigned to duty on board US Navy vessels.
Usage by civilians[]
The PASGT helmet and its many derivative variants have become popular with civilian news media reporters and journalists reporting from war zones across the world, who will oftentimes wear them, should the situation warrant the usage of a helmet.
Vest[]
History[]
The vest of PASGT was the US military's standard upper torso body armor from the mid-1980s up until the early 2000, when it was replaced by the Outer Tactical Vest of the Interceptor Body Armor System. The PASGT vest replaced the M-69 Fragmentation Protective Body Armor nylon vest that was used during Vietnam.
Overview[]
A US Navy Construction Battalion sailor wears a PASGT helmet and vest.
The PASGT vest utilized Kevlar for the first time in US military body armor, unlike the ballistic nylon that was used in the models of body armor that preceded it. While generally incapable of stopping rifle bullets, the PASGT vest provided better protection against shrapnel and reduced the severity of injuries from small arms fire when compared to the M-69. Anecdotely, it provides roughly level IIIA ballistic protection, not accounting for blunt force injuries, stopping round as powerful as .44 Magnum from a handgun in certain test methodologies, while being penetrated by 9mm FMJ in others. Despite this, the vest was only ever designed or intended to stop small fragments without injury to the user. The PASGT vest weighs approximately 9 lb, a small increase over the previous model.
Accessories[]
In order to provide protection against high velocity bullets, the PASGT vest was, in 1996, combined with the interim Small Arms Protective Overvest pending the adoption of Interceptor Body Armor. The ISPAO weighed about 16.7 lb and consisted of a carrier to hold two protective ceramic plate inserts. A PASGT armor system with overvest weighed more than 25 lb and was criticized by many US troops as unacceptably cumbersome in combat. The ballistic fill consists of 13 plies of 14 oz water repellet treated Aramid fabric.
Use as makeshift armor[]
While phased out as frontline body armor by the start of the Iraq War in 2003, it saw some limited wear and usage by US military personnel during the early stages of the war, where some soldiers would utilize old PASGT vests as makeshift armor as protection for their vehicles in the absence of purpose made, designated up-armor kits.