JTO - It's been a complex issue. I had the VSI folks complaining that at one point they'd run a test and blown a hole in the helmet. Everyone wanted to blame them, but it turned out that LM had upgunned the MDF to make sure that the canopy fractured.
The canopy issue is that it has to be one-piece because fat kid needs magic cloak. The front bit has to be bird-proof so the top can be only so thin, and because of commonality it had to hinge at the front (because the rear canopy line is different on the B) so it can't be jettisoned. So how do you adequately fracture the canopy without fracturing the pilot?
And they've been trying different things to keep the pilot's head straight for six or seven years, with interventions from UTC Aerospace (formerly Goodrich) who have their own ideas.
I see what you mean about the photo. That's not a big hole to go through, and those look like new and bigger canopy-breakers on top of the seat.
a1b - Why don't you
read the abundant public record about the "expanded pilot population" decisions of the early 1990s? I know it's easier to copy and paste from the program's
PR guy, but it might put you in a position where you make sense.