Now that's a knife? :o

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Now that's a knife? :o

Posted: 9/12/2003 4:03:23 AM EDT

www4.army.mil/ocpa/read.php?story_id_key=5077

Posted: 9/12/2003 4:08:47 AM EDT

[#1]

Looks like a great way to work hard at getting your knife back out of anything with ribs.

Posted: 9/12/2003 4:16:53 AM EDT

[#2]

i bet you will play hell getting it out of skin.
did they give any reasoning for making a knife like that? we have been making these things for the last 50,000 years. you would think people eventually would run out of ideas.

Posted: 9/12/2003 4:19:17 AM EDT

[#3]

It's for quickly cutting the belts in a downed aircraft not for really NASTY evisceration.

I don't have an aircraft to crash in, but it is a cool looking knife.

Army developing new aircrew survival knife

By Spc. Petersi Lui
July 28, 2003

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CAMP ARIFJAN, Kuwait (Army News Service, July 28, 2003) -- Army aviation crews will soon have a new tool to help them escape from a crashed aircraft.

Maj. Stephen Long brought a prototype of the Aircrew Survival Egress Knife with him when his Army Reserve unit was mobilized and deployed to Kuwait.

The Army's Directorate of Combat Development at the Army Aviation Center in Fort Rucker, Ala., developed the knife specifically for aviators, Long said.

Long is the executive officer of the 356th Quartermaster Battalion and works for the directorate in the civilian sector.

"There was an incident of a Black Hawk crashing in to the water. Fortunately, the depth of the water was only 50 feet, and the crew chief could hold his breath long enough to struggle loose and get to the surface. But it was a close call," Long said. "With this special seat-belt-cutting blade, pilots can escape from downed aircraft faster."

The ASEK can cut through an aircraft's Plexiglas windows and saw through its aluminum skin, he said.

A special separate blade can slash away seat belts with ease.

In conjunction with its multifunction sheath, this cutting-edge tool can also be used as a hammer, a screwdriver and a precision-edge marker. The ASEK comes with a crushed diamond disk for precision sharpening.

The ASEK will replace the old survival knife, which has been around since World War II, Long said.

The older knife had problems with its leather grip that loosened with age and the sharpening stone that broke easily. Also, the old blade did not hold an edge well, he added.

His development team made a specific list of requirements that aviators need in a survival knife. Those requirements include sawing through aircraft skin, cutting, hammering, a point with which to stab, a hand guard, durability, light weight and holes for tying the knife to a stick to act as a spear.

This list was then given to knife manufacturers and designers. Only two of the eight knife manufacturers produced a sample that met all the requirements, Long said.

Issue of the ASEK to aviators is expected to begin in the near future, Long said. For those who cannot wait or are not aviators, the knife can be purchased for less than $50 commercially.

(Editor's note: Spc. Petersi Liu is a journalist with the Combined Forces Land Component Command-PAO in Kuwait.)

Posted: 9/17/2003 7:30:33 AM EDT

[#4]

It looks like a big can opener to me.

Posted: 9/19/2003 11:15:43 AM EDT

[#5]

Not much of a cutting edge on that thing, and looks like most of it is at the tip. So what happens when you use it like a hammer, instant dull. Looks like they tried to build too many contraptions into that thing and left out the real knife part.

Posted: 9/27/2003 12:15:56 PM EDT

[#6]

I would have thought for sure that was an Air Force design.
What happened to all of the other rescue knives? There have to be at least three or for other J type knives out there already. And they all look like they would perform better.
You could eviserate someone trying to get them out of a stuck belt.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Now that's a knife? :o

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