I know you work as a nurse. I was an infantryman cross-trained into being a battalion level medic including specifically NBC casualty care, with subsequent employments due to my credentials in the public and private sector. I also came under the tutelage while active duty, for my own thoughts regarding this, through working with/for a couple rather key founders of T3C, who still contribute to it and associated things to this day.
We tried a shitpot of new things in Ranger Regiment while I was there, and it has continued to this day. If we collectively had an idea and something wasn't on the market currently to do what we identified as a need, we had the shit made, or we figured out how to use something "off label" to do it. Some of the things we tried, we tossed in the trash as they didn't work as advertised when tested, or while they did as advertised, the positive effects weren't worth the additional hassle and could be reproduced through more effective application of current techniques/equipment/skills. That's how the R&D process works, there's a field testing component. Hell, I could argue that the fucking ETD is in mass use today, as are TQ's primarily due to the training and fielding Ranger Regiment did with RFR, Isralie dressings, and our original ratchet strap tourniquets in lieu of the vietnam era dressings and tourniquets that were standard issue for the Army as a whole, and got more exposure through our training at "big army" installations and training events.
That might be why I'm more open minded regarding where this could be a positive thing, provided it's overall weight and dimensional footprint increase on the troops having to carry it is minimal to flat out negligible.
Point one: At what point in this discussion was injection of anything brought up?
That seems to be one of the major sticking points for you, and it's not mentioned in the article nor my own concept of how this could work. My last personal concept I laid out in an above post takes a currently in design/testing injectible binary medium and repurposes it, or something like it, for a generally topical application within the confines between the damaged armor, penetrated uniform, and punctured body. I'll agree with you that something full-blown injected that went beyond say, muscle layers, would be bad as once you actually go from the confines of the wound track to that point into the thoracic cavity, you lose control of where agents actually accumulate. A perfect example would be the DARPA foam product, I would wholly assume application above the diaphragm and application with a possibly perforated diaphragm would be contraindicated.
Point two: The "painkiller" agent has yet to be determined, let alone tested, so while you have valid points that I will totally agree with, you're still saber rattling about something we don't know about yet.
Even something like powdered lidocane would have it's issues, but part of the design and testing phase would be creating a mechanism of reliable delivery of effectively portioned hemostatic agent as well as any pain management agent. I don't think you'd be taking an AP round through this and immediately getting the equivalent of a full dose of whatever is in vogue for use now as a narcotic. More than likely it would be a topical agent, and wouldn't end up having a huge effect... and with a known average dosing being necessary for an effective hemostatic application, it falls suit that whatever pain management mechanism is incorporated would be something follow-on care could take into account when doing their own aid and associated pain management. IE, it'd have some effect to reduce the pain of injury, most likely topically, which would have the possibility to help keep the patient from going into pain-related shock, and/or help keep them in the fight as needed until they can have proper aid rendered. Adrenaline plus mindset is great and gets us bad mofrickers with CMOH's, but not everyone's wired like that and a helping hand, properly designed, might make the difference.
Open mind, man. You appear to be steadfast against having a piece of kit that has the potential to provide, at the immediate time and specific place on patient of injury, an occlusive hemostatic dressing and possibly pain management, in lieu of the duration of time from POI to care rendered by either the injured party themselves, or buddies/medic if they are outright incapacitated by the event. It ain't putting you or any other medic out of a job, but it's a valid issue as anything that actually is a torso injury let alone armor penetrating requires extra time to ditch the armor and equipment on that patient. Provided it's proven reliable, it sure as shit could save lives.
The vision of something like this in and of itself is a great idea, the execution has yet to be seen.
