I know that they weren't ballistic helmets and couldn't even protect you from shrapnel but what is their deal? Were they just privately purchased by special forces guys or did Pro-Tec actually sign deals with Delta and other special forces/government agencies?
have you ever bumped your head before
a bit too much it seems
I know that's what their benefits were c**ts. I'm not asking why they were used I'm asking how they were acquired, and whether Pro-Tec ended up making them specifically for the military
>whether Pro-Tec ended up making them specifically for the military
no, they are pretty basic sports helmets that were used for things like skateboarding, sky diving, and whitewater kayaking in the 1980s.
I know that's how they started but how could they have become the norm for SOF groups in the 90s/2000s and be used in such large numbers if that's all they ever were.
Scale. There aren't a whole lot of special forces guys out there, and there were a lot fewer in the early 1990s. Meanwhile everybody in generation X had a Pro-tec bike helmet, even if they never wore it (their moms b ought them). presumably, lots of the special forces already had one for doing cool guy shit on the weekends.
In the 90s, the issue PASGT helmets weren't jump safe for Airborne ops, because of the weight, two point chin straps, and pads. It could cause head and neck injuries during jumps. There were retrofit kits that came out in the mid 90s that fixed the issue.
they didn't fix the issue. I've seen the medical studies.
The "paratrooper" version of the PASGT had one singular pad for the forehead area of the helmet that reduced TBIs by a decent amount, but it was only given to the 81st/101st.
It took until the adoption of the ACH, and pad kits from the ACH (they were stolen on the side and given to units that still had PASGTs) that the PASGT became truly safe for use for jumps... and even then paratrooper units had first dibs on the ACH.
https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA437530.pdf
helmet tech was lagging way behind in the early 80s and 90s. The best shit available in the late 90s was RBS-6 and MICH, and that was at the very end of the 90s. In the early 00s there were attempts to cut up MICH helmets that become the MICH 2001 and 2002, and eventually led us to the midcut, high cut, and super high cut helmet.
But the 80s and 90s? No. No one had anything good that wasn't also heavy. So SOF frequently used the Protec helmet as you could still hear with it and even use some headsets.
Of course by the late 00s everyone, and I mean everyone in the field had a FAST because it combined every positive aspect of what existed by that point.
Right what I'm saying though is whether prior to MICH/FAST helmets government agencies actually ordered large numbers of them or if they were privately purchased. And if Pro-Tec made helmets designed specifically for military use or if they stayed using skateboard helmets with strobe lights on NODs hastily attached to them
and*
helmets protect you from falling debris
I'm looking through some older sources now.
Some soldiers apparently did buy them straight from sports stores or other places.
Some units may have also received the funding to purchase them directly through UFR/Exhibit 6
unfortunately there's not much data on this stuff, it's pre-2000s.
Yeah but you had forced using them well into the 2000s/early 2010s
forces*
no, no they weren't.
Anyone claiming SOF was using bump helmets into the early 2010s for combat ops (training and exercise absolutely yes) needs their head checked.
They simply were not allowed once the FAST XP arrived in numbers. The MICH gunfighter and highcuts had already been out for years. It is standing SOP within these groups that units take ballistic helmets with them in the field when there is a possibility of a gunfight. It is not 1994 anymore.
If I'm not mistaken this was from an exercise in 2012
yes, an exercise. You aren't going to find pictures of them in use in combat ops much at all after 2000 because there were better options. The last recorded uses of the helmets were in Afghanistan around 2001ish
>(training and exercise absolutely yes)
Whoops skipped that part. In any case I'm not just talking about American special forces, I'm talking about SOF around the world. It's hard to believe they were all privately purchased
ok so they were initially privately purchased or based on private preferences, but they did get the gov't to buy them once they settled on a design. THey just never really made them specifically for this purpose, because the existing helmet did its job well enough.
You can also check their websites:
https://www.protechelmet.com/products.asp?cat=14
is the military website. notable that the FAST looking bump helmet isn't made by protec, also the basic helmets are still made in the US which helps with gov't contracts.
https://protecbrand.com/ is the civilian side.
I'm satisfied. Cheers