Yesterday several commentators, including Brit Hume on “Special Report“, noted a column by Jack Kelly about a New York Times article by Michael Moss that reported that “the Pentagon is struggling to replace body armor that is failing to protect American troops from the most lethal attacks of insurgents.”

According to Kelly, the source that told the NY Times about the story, Col. Thomas Spoehr, accused Moss of filing a misleading report. According to Kelly:

There is little evidence insurgents in Iraq are using the special types of ammunition that can defeat the “Interceptor” [body armor worn by our troops]. But the Army wanted to be proactive, to defeat a potential threat before it emerged.
“We’re taking what we think is a prudent step to guard against a step (the insurgents) could take, but that’s a step that really hasn’t developed yet,” Spoehr said.

I e-mailed Moss, who is in Baghdad, to ask him about Kelly’s column — specifically, I asked Moss about his assertion that the current body armor was failing to protect the troops, given Kelly’s report that there is “little evidence” the insurgents have the armor-piercing ammunition. His response:

It’s just too hard to craft a meaningful answer within the confines of our decision on disclosure [regarding vulnerabilities in the original armor and the types of munitions that the original plates cannot repel]. Also, I’d be the wrong person to judge the size of the risk. In my view that belongs to the soldiers and marines in Iraq and Afghanistan and elsewhere.

Moss also wrote:

What I can do is point to the notion floated in the article that while small companies may be the perfect innovators, via programs like the Small Business Innovation Research program that has been funding SAPI development since before Mogadishu in 1993, they may not be the best producers and that there may be an alternate system that would both reward them for innovation and satisfy the soldier’s need for more rapid production.

I think Moss feels that by agitating for his vision of more efficient production he can put pressure on the Pentagon to speed up production of better body armor for the troops