This is not new, there are reports of these sub standard armoured vests being withdrawn as far back as 2012, seems the US forces finally found a use for them.
Around that time and a decade before, there was a massive series of scandals about US arms contractors supplying no end of sub-par gear to the army (The useless oops sorry US Bradly fighting vehicle for example that has expected losses of 33% in any combat operation and usually exceeds it. All of the remaining stock was sent to Ukraine to get rid of them: see "The Pentagon Wars" by Col. James G. Burton) The more serious story is of the infamous M16 rifles used in Vietnam that jammed continually because they were not designed for humid jungle environments and so rusted internally and had to be quickly replaced with the much more expensive chrome lined M16a2, but not quick enough to save hundreds of lives. Guess were all those 50 year old M16s are now?
Take the tax dollars and use part of it to ship out the garbage that has been cluttering up the storage for decades which active US regiments refuse to use because it is useless dangerous or both.