Better, but Heavier

The Army is upgrading the plates in our body armor.

The new armor weighs about 18 pounds, about one pound heavier than the original plates, and consists of thicker plates that could shield soldiers against stronger attacks, according to the Army official.

Sounds like a fair trade to me. Our IBAs (interceptor body armor) are already heavy as hell, one pound more shouldn't make very much difference. What would be nice is to have shoulder protection four our IBAs to protect those soldiers who shot their rifles Weaver style