Marlton firm sells Marines 'Lego-type' outposts
"The gear is named for one of my Marines, who was killed by a sniper in Fallujah"
Dynamic Defense Materials LLC, the military-hardware mini-conglomerate backed by Marlton investor Robert A. Lipinski, says it's sold 14 of its McCurdy's Armor kits and trailers, for $800,000, to the US Marine Corps, in a contract signed last week, for use as snap-together checkpoints in Iraq.
McCurdy's Armor is a "Lego-type system" of frames, connected with steel pins, that can be reinforced with armor plate, sand and "ballistic glass", according to Dynamic promotional materials. The parts can be trucked into place and assembled on site as outposts or shelters during "rapid deployment," to defend against bullets and fragments from grenades and bombs.
The armor plates are made by "different vendors throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York," says Joseph Dimond, product specialist and military liaison for Dynamic. He said this was the largest order to date for the system.
Why's it called McCurdy's? "The gear is named for one of my Marines," Lance Corporal Ryan S. McCurdy, "who was killed by a sniper in Fallujah," Iraq, in 2006, Dimond told me. Dimond was McCurdy's sergeant. More on McCurdy's Armor here.