The Department of Defense is designing a new outer garment to properly shield a soldier’s lower torso- hilariously known as the “POG”.
Short for Protective Over Garment, the protective gear is essentially a pair of short, kevlar- woven chaps designed to protect the lower torso from fragmentation.
POG also happens to be a popular military acronym for the phrase “person other than grunt” and is commonly used to describe soldiers and Marines who are non-infantry (non-grunts) or non-combat arms in a derogatory manner.
The POG is just one of several items that make up the new Soldier Protection System, a new combat loadout of gear, sensors and armor that will allegedly make ground troops safer.
According to Motherboard, the original design consisted of a woven boxer short and two Kevlar plates that proved uncomfortable and unpopular for soldiers.
Many troops avoided the original design like the plague, with soldiers often avoiding wearing the item altogether.
Unlike the old system, the POG is designed to embrace the sensitive areas of combat troopers with less interference. The previous protection was only designed to fully cover male reproductive organs. The new design is more robust and covers more of the pelvis region – offering more protection of female reproductive organs.
Lt.Col Kathy M. Brown, a project manager for the new protective gear program, says soldiers testing the gear at Fort Lewis, WA “highly rated” the gear and its comfort-level.
“The soldiers really were able to compare this favorably to the (older) system,” she said.
The equipment should be available in 2019, barring excessive delays by government bureaucracy.
A DoD spokesperson said the Pentagon will announce more details on the program by spring of this year.
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