bobdina
05-04-2010, 08:45 AM
Faster, lighter, better equipment in war zone
By Rob Curtis - Staff writer
Posted : Monday May 3, 2010 20:26:32 EDT
KORENGAL, Afghanistan — The soldiers of “Dagger” Company were decked out in armor vests with all their plates, and knee and elbow pads, and were heading for Shuriyak in Afghanistan’s Pech River Valley.
It was 2 a.m., recalls Staff Sgt. Douglas Middleton, when the platoon landed 600-700 meters from their first objective.
“This was in September and it was still pretty hot,” Middleton said. “It took us seven hours to move about 800 meters. It was hell, absolute hell.” The platoon fought its way back up a mountain ridgeline while in constant enemy contact. By the mission’s end, two soldiers and a pilot were casualties.
Just weeks later, though, the same platoon, part of 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, sprinted through the hills carrying 15 to 23 pounds less gear, each courtesy of the Asymmetric Warfare Group’s Lighten the Soldier’s Load assessment program.
The effort aims to determine how much weight soldiers can shed without losing capability.
Middleton said the new gear was a game changer. With new plate carriers and other, lighter gear dropping about 14 pounds per rifleman and more for gunners, the 2-12th moved a mile in about 15 minutes over tough terrain.
The Army chose the 2-12th Infantry Regiment to try out the new gear because of the terrain they covered.
“We were focusing on the extremely mountainous, high altitude, rugged terrain,” said William Garland, a deputy project manager with the Rapid Equipping Force, the organization that provides the equipment. “We went through each of the [combat outposts] and [outposts] with 4-4’s commanders to decide who would get the [the gear] based on these high-traffic patrol areas.”
The 2-12th was given more than a dozen nonstandard items to try out. The new gear included Eagle MBAV-A plate carriers, Arc’teryx Knee Caps, MK48 machine guns, wrist-top Suunto GPS units, new boots and better socks.
“It’s so much easier to move in that stuff; it doesn’t constrict. It’s easier to breathe. It’s more light weight,” Middleton said.
The new gear-up started with a predeployment assessment by the brigade’s senior noncommissioned officers. Lt. Col. Brian Pearl, the commander of 2-12th, said that Sgt. Maj. Charles Sasser picked up the ball back in August 2008.
Sasser “got with all the soldiers and asked them what they would want if they were ‘king for a day’ kit-wise,” Pearl said. “We put together a list of stuff that we prioritized and started to purchase to make us a lighter, better-equipped, better fighting force.”
They started stocking up on Oakley M-Frames, Army combat boots, Mutant Mittens, MSR Whisperlite International stoves, Wiley-X gloves and headlamps from Princeton Tech.
As Sasser was developing his wish list, the AWG and the REF were simultaneously preparing to spend millions to outfit a group of lucky soldiers with lighter gear in a battlefield test.
In all, the Army spent about $4.4 million to buy 500 sets of designer equipment chosen by the veteran warriors of the Asymmetric Warfare Group to outfit most of the grunts in 2-12th, and part of a couple of others, 3-61st Cavalry and 1-12th Infantry. 2-12th scored about 300 sets of what they call the REF gear.
The theater command later said the soldiers with lighter gear were a great test bed for the Army’s camouflage assessment. So PEO Soldier bestowed the battalion with what would become the Army’s camouflage pattern for Afghanistan, MultiCam uniforms and load-bearing gear.
After six months of testing, the men of the 2-12th decided the new gear is far superior to the standard-issue kit.
How will their experience affect the equipment issued to the rest of the fighting force?
Some is already in the pipeline. Troops throughout Afghanistan will have the new MultiCam uniforms by fall. New plate carriers are also coming, said Col. William Cole of PEO Soldier. Cole’s office is overseeing the fielding of plate carriers by the tens of thousands for those deployed to Afghanistan.
As for the rest, Cole says a commander has several options to bring this equipment to his soldiers, pointing out that some methods are more streamlined than others. The traditional route is the slow Joint Capability Integration Development System.
If a unit has discretionary funds, it can buy its own equipment. “The only thing we restrict is personal protective equipment,” Cole said.
Units don’t have discretion to sidestep the Army’s testing requirement or procurement laws for items such as body armor and helmets. On the other hand, Cole said he wouldn’t get in the way of a unit buying something that increases their effectiveness as long as it’s not a PPE item.
Another way is through the Operational Needs Statement process. “This is only for deployed forces or forces that are about to deploy,” Cole said.
Soldiers that want to see their unit get a new piece of kit would send an ONS to their division, which will send it through their theater command.
Contacting the REF to start a franchise project in theater is an additional way for units to get their hands on gear quickly — if the REF finds merit in their request. Units in Afghanistan can contact the REF office at Bagram Airfield.
Cole said he recognizes that the need to bring better equipment to the field can be stymied by an overburdening procurement process. As far as studies such as the load assessment, “I think it drove tighter collaboration between the PEO, the REF and the AWG,” he said. “Stuff like the [load] study beforehand is what forced the collaborations between those agencies and really opened doors.”
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/05/army_best_equipment_050310w/
By Rob Curtis - Staff writer
Posted : Monday May 3, 2010 20:26:32 EDT
KORENGAL, Afghanistan — The soldiers of “Dagger” Company were decked out in armor vests with all their plates, and knee and elbow pads, and were heading for Shuriyak in Afghanistan’s Pech River Valley.
It was 2 a.m., recalls Staff Sgt. Douglas Middleton, when the platoon landed 600-700 meters from their first objective.
“This was in September and it was still pretty hot,” Middleton said. “It took us seven hours to move about 800 meters. It was hell, absolute hell.” The platoon fought its way back up a mountain ridgeline while in constant enemy contact. By the mission’s end, two soldiers and a pilot were casualties.
Just weeks later, though, the same platoon, part of 2nd Battalion, 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, sprinted through the hills carrying 15 to 23 pounds less gear, each courtesy of the Asymmetric Warfare Group’s Lighten the Soldier’s Load assessment program.
The effort aims to determine how much weight soldiers can shed without losing capability.
Middleton said the new gear was a game changer. With new plate carriers and other, lighter gear dropping about 14 pounds per rifleman and more for gunners, the 2-12th moved a mile in about 15 minutes over tough terrain.
The Army chose the 2-12th Infantry Regiment to try out the new gear because of the terrain they covered.
“We were focusing on the extremely mountainous, high altitude, rugged terrain,” said William Garland, a deputy project manager with the Rapid Equipping Force, the organization that provides the equipment. “We went through each of the [combat outposts] and [outposts] with 4-4’s commanders to decide who would get the [the gear] based on these high-traffic patrol areas.”
The 2-12th was given more than a dozen nonstandard items to try out. The new gear included Eagle MBAV-A plate carriers, Arc’teryx Knee Caps, MK48 machine guns, wrist-top Suunto GPS units, new boots and better socks.
“It’s so much easier to move in that stuff; it doesn’t constrict. It’s easier to breathe. It’s more light weight,” Middleton said.
The new gear-up started with a predeployment assessment by the brigade’s senior noncommissioned officers. Lt. Col. Brian Pearl, the commander of 2-12th, said that Sgt. Maj. Charles Sasser picked up the ball back in August 2008.
Sasser “got with all the soldiers and asked them what they would want if they were ‘king for a day’ kit-wise,” Pearl said. “We put together a list of stuff that we prioritized and started to purchase to make us a lighter, better-equipped, better fighting force.”
They started stocking up on Oakley M-Frames, Army combat boots, Mutant Mittens, MSR Whisperlite International stoves, Wiley-X gloves and headlamps from Princeton Tech.
As Sasser was developing his wish list, the AWG and the REF were simultaneously preparing to spend millions to outfit a group of lucky soldiers with lighter gear in a battlefield test.
In all, the Army spent about $4.4 million to buy 500 sets of designer equipment chosen by the veteran warriors of the Asymmetric Warfare Group to outfit most of the grunts in 2-12th, and part of a couple of others, 3-61st Cavalry and 1-12th Infantry. 2-12th scored about 300 sets of what they call the REF gear.
The theater command later said the soldiers with lighter gear were a great test bed for the Army’s camouflage assessment. So PEO Soldier bestowed the battalion with what would become the Army’s camouflage pattern for Afghanistan, MultiCam uniforms and load-bearing gear.
After six months of testing, the men of the 2-12th decided the new gear is far superior to the standard-issue kit.
How will their experience affect the equipment issued to the rest of the fighting force?
Some is already in the pipeline. Troops throughout Afghanistan will have the new MultiCam uniforms by fall. New plate carriers are also coming, said Col. William Cole of PEO Soldier. Cole’s office is overseeing the fielding of plate carriers by the tens of thousands for those deployed to Afghanistan.
As for the rest, Cole says a commander has several options to bring this equipment to his soldiers, pointing out that some methods are more streamlined than others. The traditional route is the slow Joint Capability Integration Development System.
If a unit has discretionary funds, it can buy its own equipment. “The only thing we restrict is personal protective equipment,” Cole said.
Units don’t have discretion to sidestep the Army’s testing requirement or procurement laws for items such as body armor and helmets. On the other hand, Cole said he wouldn’t get in the way of a unit buying something that increases their effectiveness as long as it’s not a PPE item.
Another way is through the Operational Needs Statement process. “This is only for deployed forces or forces that are about to deploy,” Cole said.
Soldiers that want to see their unit get a new piece of kit would send an ONS to their division, which will send it through their theater command.
Contacting the REF to start a franchise project in theater is an additional way for units to get their hands on gear quickly — if the REF finds merit in their request. Units in Afghanistan can contact the REF office at Bagram Airfield.
Cole said he recognizes that the need to bring better equipment to the field can be stymied by an overburdening procurement process. As far as studies such as the load assessment, “I think it drove tighter collaboration between the PEO, the REF and the AWG,” he said. “Stuff like the [load] study beforehand is what forced the collaborations between those agencies and really opened doors.”
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2010/05/army_best_equipment_050310w/