FORT KNOX, Ky. (AP) – The Army is rushing to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan a new and easy-to-use plastic tourniquet that could save more lives on the battlefield.

The nylon and plastic device, which uses a one-inch Velcro strip, was demonstrated Wednesday by Fort Knox soldiers. It is considered much faster and easier to use than more traditional equipment.

The Army has ordered 172,000 of the new tourniquets and will begin distributing them next month.

Currently, soldiers improvise tourniquets using gauze bandages and whatever stick or similarly shaped piece of equipment they can find on the desert battlefield to twist the bandages tight and stop the bleeding.

The new tourniquet is a circular band that is slipped onto a limb and cinched like a seat belt, with a pencil-size plastic bar already attached to tighten the device around the gushing wound. It can be applied with just one hand, officials said.

“This is going to save the lives of some soldiers that we had been losing on the battlefield,” said Col. Greg Jolissaint, surgeon general for the Army’s Training and Doctrine Command. “You’ve got about two minutes to save the life of a soldier once you’ve blown up an artery and that artery is just squirting blood on the battlefield.”

Jolissaint, a physician, said the Army realized the need for a better tourniquet in Iraq and Afghanistan because of the large number of limb wounds caused by mines and other explosives improvised by insurgents.

The new Velcro bands will cost about $20 each and will be supplied by North American Rescue Products Inc. of Simpsonville, S.C.

Maj. Gen. George Weightman, commanding general of the U.S. Army Medical Department and School in Fort Sam Houston, Texas, said in the past, tourniquets were seen as a last resort; cutting off the blood flow for too long can force doctors to amputate the limb.

But combat medics have learned that the band can be left on for three or four hours and the limb may still be saved, Weightman said.

The Army said regular soldiers also are getting increased training and other medical equipment that used to go only to battlefield medics.

“We’re putting soldiers with increased trauma skills a lot closer to the point of injury,” Weightman said.

On Wednesday, a group of infantrymen who began basic training last week spent the morning in a class at Fort Knox training to use the new tourniquet. In a matter of hours, Pvt. Avery Carter of Richmond, Va., said he felt comfortable using it.

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