MICH TC-2000 Combat Helmet

The Modular Integrated Communications Helmet (MICH) is a combat helmet and one of several used by the U.S. military. The MICH helmet is the primary combat helmet for use by soldiers of the United States Army. It was developed by the United States Army Soldier Systems Center to be the next generation of protective combat helmets for use by the U.S. Army. The Advanced Combat Helmet is derived from the MICH.

The MICH was originally part of a series of combat helmets designed for the U.S. Army Special Operations Command as a replacement for the PASGT helmet and the various non-ballistic skateboard, bicycle, and whitewater "bump" helmets solely within those units.

The main reason for the development of the MICH was due to the protective but heavy PASGT being supplanted by these bump helmets by special forces operators due to them being lighter, more comfortable, closer-fitting, and made of plastic making them easier to mount accessories onto, especially night vision devices and communications headsets, without putting undue strain on the neck or requiring drilling holes through Kevlar to affix night vision mounting brackets, compromising its protective ability. Inevitably, operators suffered injury and deaths due to taking their wholly unsuited plastic helmets into the unforgiving environment of close-quarters warfare, especially the 1993 Battle of Mogadishu where at least one special forces operator (either SFC Shughart or MSGT Gordon) was supposedly killed by a rifle shot to the head. While no ballistic helmet of the time (or even the present time) could protect from rifle fire in close-quarters combat, it inspired the U.S. Army to create a new helmet to better protect special forces in direct action missions while providing the weight and modularity they desired that caused them to cease using the PASGT in the first place.

An initial stop-gap solution was provided in the RBR helmet, which is difficult to find information on but appears to be derived from the French SPECTRA helmet; it particularly resembles the Canadian CG634, which is a derivative. Meanwhile, development was under way of a purpose-built helmet under SPEAR MICH, which eventually produced the MICH in the late 1990s and offered in three cuts to allow operator choice in balancing protection and weight to suit their preferences and mission profile. While it did not entirely replace the plastic bump helmets, it replaced them almost completely in direct action missions where operators are most likely to suffer head injury from fragments, concussive force, or bullets. Initially, it was used almost exclusively by SOCOM; however, the U.S. Army later determined that the improvements presented by the lighter, higher-cut, and brim-less MICH over the PASGT helmet warranted organization-wide distribution, and began to release examples to the Army at large and developing the ACH as a more cost-effective solution to reequipping the entire Army. To date, the MICH and its derivative ACH has replaced the PASGT in active U.S. Army service.

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