The US Army will field a new Integrated Head Protection System (IHPS) that has an optional mandible guard for lower face protection, usually used by soldiers in urban environments or when outside of hatches in vehicles. Credit: Revision.

The US Army issued 2000 new helmets to soldiers in the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, marking the first time the NG-IHPS has been equipped to troops, the US Army announced on 12 February, 2024.

The NG-IHPS offers better ballistic and fragmentation protection than its predecessors the Advanced Combat Helmet and the Enhanced Combat Helmet. 

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The new system also offers options for integrations with soldier-enabling devices, according to Lt. Col. Ken Elgort, product manager for Soldier Protective Equipment.

Comprising a retention system, suspension system, helmet cover, and a night vision device bracket, the combat-ready NG-IHPS is designed to integrate a mandible protector, hearing protection, communications, and heads-up displays, including the Integrated Visual Augmentation System and the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binocular.

“This fielding marks significant progress for Soldier protective equipment as it equips Soldiers with protection against relevant battlefield threats, and the innovative helmet design is a purpose-built platform for integration now, and with future Soldier-enabling devices,” continued Elgort.

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For the 6% of the force operating in a mounted configuration, a mandible protector will also be fielded.

Maj. Matthew Nulk, assistant program manager of the Head Protection Team, stated that the NG-IHPS enhances ballistic and fragmentation defence capabilities while cutting down the weight previously needed for this level of protection by 40%. “We’re offering our Soldiers the highest standard of rifle threat protection available globally.”

Two vendors, Gentex and Avon Protection, completed First Article Testing, a series of non-ballistic and ballistic tests of a random sample of PPE from the first production lot, according to to a 2022 report on Soldier Protection Systems from the Director of Operations Test and Evaluation, with one vendor failing to meet the ballistic test requirements, necessitating a redesign of the ballistic layup and retesting.