Crye Precision has evidently revamped its "armor chassis" concept with the new CAGE (Crye Assault GEar) armor vest.
[Photo: Military Morons]
I've been a big fan of Crye's innovation over the years (though I was a bit put off by their lack of public relations savvy at the SHOT Show) and always believed their original armor chassis was spot on in terms of how armor should be designed, but lacked a realistic ergonomics to make it appealing to the mainstream of operators.
Now they've clearly taken the best of the original chassis and made it a bit more user friendly with the new CAGE.
CAGE (Crye Assault GEar) Armor Chassis: Unlike any other armor vest, the CAGE Armor Chassis is the result of years of design and engineering. Made by an entirely new production process, the articulated Chassis provides the most comfortable and stable armor/load-carriage platform to date. The design provides passive cooling via large air channels that run under the armor. Designed for use with our armored BLAST Belt, the CAGE Armor Chassis is fully modular and highly adjustable. Designed to be worn snug to the body like sports equipment. Features include: dual emergency doff, accepts 6X6 side plates and shoulder strap plates, front opening access, uninterrupted side coverage (no side seam), meets or exceeds IBA & USASOC frag and handgun requirements.
It's my pet peeve that conventional armor makers design these lumbering boxes of Kevlar and ceramic that feel like you're wearing a barrel over your chest. Crye's got it right with the "designed to be worn snug to the body like sports equipment" idea. Take a good look at the photo presentation on the armor. I'm sure we'll see them entering new armor competitions pretty soon.
Here's a good write up on it from Military Morons.
-- Christian
