Air Force Materiel Command wants the Air Force to undertake no new contracts with body armor maker Pinnacle Armor Inc., and, if approved, the debarment request would prohibit any federal agency from dealing with the California-based company, reports Megan Scully of CongressDaily. Pinnacle sold Dragon Skin body armor to the Air Force and other services, claiming that it met a level of ballistic testing certification that it did not. At a hearing on the issue last week, Douglas Thomas, executive director of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, stated, “All Pinnacle Dragon Skin SOV 2000 armor received by AFOSI were clearly and falsely marked [National Institute of Justice] Level III.” He added that AFOSI had an independent lab test the armor and it failed.
The crash of a T-38 trainer jet this May—which caused a weekslong pause in flights across the fleet—was caused by an improperly installed pin for one of the jet’s horizontal stabilizers, according to a new accident report released Oct. 30. When the pin disengaged midflight, it created the slightest amount…