Military Eyes Football Helmets for Battlefield Protection

The Defense Department is trying all kinds of tricks to prevent, cope with and measure concussive blasts to troops' heads -- from helmet-mounted sensors to pressure-sensitive crystals to Reiki. So maybe it was only a matter of time before the military turned to the NFL's gear-makers, who know a thing or two about hits to the dome.
Helmet manufacturer Riddell was "asked by military personnel in February to improve the Army’s Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH)," PopSci notes. "Adapting the dual density foam at the heart of its Revolution football helmet, Riddell claims the new padding reduces impact magnitudes by 50 percent."

Meanwhile, Xenith LLC has developed a helmet, the X1, which "relies on 18 thermoplastic shock absorbers filled with nothing but air that adapt depending how hard someone gets hit."

Push down lightly and the air flows out smoothly ... but slam down on the pump and it resists compression.... Traditional padding can only compress to its material thickness, but the shock absorber can expel all the air and fold completely flat. Like trying to stop a car in 100 yards instead of just 10.

Dr. Robert Cantu of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, one of the nation’s leading experts in concussion management, tells The New York Times that the X1 is “the greatest advance in helmet design in at least 30 years.” Dr. Gerry Gioia, a pediatric neuropsychologist who directs the concussion program at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, says the X1 could “take helmet protection to a whole new level.”
Wired