When the US Army introduced its Kevlar PASGT helmet in the 1980s, it gave the troops a bit of a stormtrooper look, because it resembled the old German WWII helmet.
Now Revision’s Batlskin helmet is poised to give the troops a different stormtrooper look, because it resembles the Star Wars Imperial stormtrooper helmet.
OK, it looks more like a motorcycle helmet, but the key is that it covers the face, where 30 percent of wounds occur. That raises an important question though: how do you get a cheek weld with that thing on? (In fact, that may explain why the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy has such a bad name. I hope the Batlskin performs better against teddy bears with sticks and slings.)
Actually, the mandible guard raises a few questions:
I’m a Volunteer Firefigher, and while that means jack, at the very least I can tell you that verbal conversations between two people standing next to eachother wearing the SCBA masks are difficult to understand, with all the noise that a firescene can create, you can easily miss something. And while these helmets are not full seal, which will help with that, I just wonder how they sound face to face.
Another issue I can see from here is that the nose and mouth are not covered by anything, so unless there is a fan built into that visor, I wonder about the fogging issue, and whether it exists or not.
It seems to have its downsides as a general-purpose helmet, but one platoon sergeant said it should be required for every vehicle gunner.