WASHINGTON, March 3 (UPI) -- About 2,700 U.S. troops in Afghanistan don't have proper body armor, the civilian chief of the Army told Congress Wednesday.
Acting Army Secretary Les Brownlee told the Senate Armed Services Committee the armor exists, but getting it to the appropriate soldiers is difficult.
"We now have more than enough in theater to equip every soldier. It's a matter of distribution within the theater," Brownlee said.
Manufacturing and deploying enough body armor and armor plates for Humvees to protect troops from shrapnel from roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan has been one of the Army's main problems in the war.
A year ago, only 12 percent of the soldiers in Iraq were equipped with body armor. The Army is now contracting for up to 25,000 body armor sets per month.
