PEO Soldier
Provides the Best for the Best.
by Debi Dawson
"The soldier is the common component of every system in the U.S. Army," explains Brigadier General R. Mark Brown, commanding general of Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier. "Whether it's a helicopter, tank or artillery piece, there is a soldier involved. So it's important to make sure we get his or her equipment right. That has an impact on everything else the Army does. And that's why we work so hard to make sure every soldier has the best equipment."
Since 2002, PEO Soldier has been equipping U.S. soldiers with the most technologically advanced gear available when they answer the call to duty. Headquartered at Fort Belvoir, Va., PEO Soldier designs, develops, procures, fields and sustains virtually everything the soldier wears or carries. Through three project managers (PMs)—PM Soldier Warrior, PM Soldier Equipment and PM Soldier Weapons—and the Rapid Fielding Initiative, PEO Soldier provides the best clothing and individual equipment, protective gear, weaponry and systems to improve communication and situational awareness. Together, this gear improves soldiers’ combat effectiveness, ensures their survival, and increases their physical comfort wherever they serve.
THE MODERN WARRIOR
Land Warrior is one of PEO Soldier’s most recent success stories. The soldier-worn computer system provides enhanced mission planning, communications and situational awareness capabilities. Soldiers of the 4th Brigade, 9th Infantry Regiment took Land Warrior into combat a year ago and quickly discovered that it increased the speed with which they can accomplish their missions.
“We used this system every day in combat,” said Command Sergeant Major Phil Pich, who recently returned from Iraq, where he served with the 4-9. Pich has served in five combat tours, including Operation Just Cause in Panama, Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield, as well as two tours in Afghanistan. “Any time a leader rolls outside the wire, he has the Land Warrior system up and running. We used the system for everything from convoy operations all the way to large battalion-size raids in urban environments.”
“The system itself gives you four distinctive advantages that other soldiers do not have,” Pich said. “It gives you situational awareness, which allows you to see all blue [friendly] forces that are in your area of operations. It gives you maps and imagery, so I can see down to one-meter imagery or I can go back to any size map that I want. It also allows the leaders to change graphics while on the move. And it gives us voice and text messaging capabilities.”
The soldier views the maps and imagery through a helmetmounted display that flips down in front of one eye. That close to the eye, the display is equivalent to a 17-inch desktop monitor. The system includes a Type 1 radio for voice and data network communications, a GPS-based navigation capability, a hand-held controller for the computer and radio and a small computer. The handheld controller operates much like a computer mouse but has other functions as well, including call-for-fire, push-to-talk, and call-for-medic buttons. Each soldier wearing the system is represented by an icon on the map. Using drop-down menus, team leaders and commanders can place virtual icons onto a map identifying enemy locations or other essential information, and the icons populate the maps of all soldiers linked to the network. The LW network interfaces with FBCB2 through a vehicle integration kit mounted on FBCB2-equipped platforms.
Staff Sergeant James Young, a weapons squad leader with the 4-9, said the system is very easy to learn and to use. “It’s really surprisingly user friendly. A lot of people in the military, I can speak for my generation in particular, are technologically savvy. If you can operate Windows, you can operate this system.”
“It’s hard to quantify the time saved,” said Pich. “I have seen a conventional unit, as they run into an obstacle going to their target… palm groves or a mountain range … they have to do a map check. I have been on missions where map checks have taken well over an hour. With the Land Warrior system, as an obstacle is encountered, the leader is able to change his planning on the move. He’s able to drop the virtual chem light in the location of the route. …You are able to reduce literally hours off of getting to a target, actions on the objective and withdrawing from an objection.”
Air Warrior is a modular, integrated, rapidly reconfigurable combat ensemble that merges aviation life support and mission equipment into a single ensemble that is engineered to promote freedom of movement within the confines of aircraft. The system includes mission-planning, navigation and communications equipment; a lightweight flight helmet and integrated laser eye protection; as well a microclimate cooling system that helps lower core body temperature while in the aircraft, thus reducing heat stress and increasing mission endurance by as much as 350 percent; and equipment that increases the odds of evasion and survival for downed aircrew members. More than 16,000 Air Warrior Systems have been fielded to date.
THE BEST IN PROTECTION
Soldiers trust their gear for one simple reason: It works. Sergeant Curtis Pittman, Alpha Company, 4th Brigade, 9th Infantry Regiment, knows first-hand that Interceptor body armor (IBA) does what it is designed to do. “It saved my life. I was hit by a suicide bomber, and the plates in the body armor stopped the shrapnel from going into my chest, which would have killed me,” said Pittman, who bears no visible wounds.
According to Brown, IBA is the best body armor available, and the soldiers’ lives saved prove that. But he said that PEO Soldier continues to look for ways to improve body armor, including reducing its weight. The most recent change to body armor, the introduction of the improved outer tactical vest, decreased the weight by as much as 3.8 pounds depending on size. The side-opening vest increases soft ballistic coverage and adjusts for better comfort, and also includes a quick-release that allows soldiers to instantly remove the vest in emergency situations such as to escape a burning vehicle.
In an effort to increase the protection provided by the advanced combat helmet (ACH), and the combat vehicle crewman helmet, PEO Soldier recently issued to two brigade combat teams sensors that attach to the ACH and CVCH and measure the impact from blasts from roadside bombs and improvised explosive devises (IED), as well as blunt force trauma. The sensor collects data on changes in air pressure and force around a soldier’s head during these events and will be used to make further improvements to the helmet.
Sergeant Justin Pizzoferrato, an infantry squad leader with the 101st Airborne out of Fort Campbell, Ky., has good reason to be excited about the new helmet sensor. “I was IED’d two times in vehicles, and we were mortared fairly regularly, and we had hearing loss, ringing of ears, that type of minor injury,” he explained. “A lot of soldiers complain about concussions and things that happen over there that can result in hearing loss, even post-traumatic stress. … Anything that might be done to help understand that better and prevent it from happening to other soldiers is excellent.”
REDUCING BURN INJURIES
The development of flame-resistant uniforms and accessories by PM Soldier Equipment (PM SEQ) is enhancing survivability by protecting soldiers from life-threatening burns during IED blasts and vehicle fires. As of January 1, 2008, all deploying ground soldiers receive four flame-resistant Army combat uniforms (FR ACUs). Aviation and combat vehicle crews have been issued FR uniforms since before the war. Some units received FR ACUs earlier, and reports from theater demonstrate the uniforms are doing exactly what they are designed to do.
First Sergeant Gordon Sather, of the 4th Brigade, 9th Infantry Regiment, experienced the benefits of his FR ACUs first hand when his vehicle hit a series of IEDs late last summer. “While the truck was on fire, the oil from the engine got all over us and the flame was on us, but it never burned through the material. We got small burn marks on our legs, but it was like very minor sunburn.”
PM SEQ is also issuing flame-resistant gloves, and Specialist Omar Avila, of the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry Regiment, knows that they are effective in preventing burns. “The Nomex saved my hands…. They definitely saved my hands.”
OWNING THE NIGHT
PEO Soldier is developing new technologies that allow U.S. soldiers to accurately identify and engage targets in near or total darkness. Next-generation aiming lights provide capabilities that improve on their predecessors, while offering a reduction in weight and required power supply. Lieutenant Colonel Jim Smith, who leads PM SEQ’s Product Manager Soldier Sensors and Lasers, explained, “These new aiming lights provide a real operational capability to the soldiers, and the soldiers appreciate that. They give them the ability to see in any environment and point in any environment, which most of the forces don’t have today.”
The next-generation AN/PEQ-15 advanced target pointer/illuminator/ aiming light (ATPIAL) and the AN/PEQ-15A dual beam aiming laser advanced 2nd Generation (DBAL-A2) IR laser emit highly collimated beams of IR light for precise weapon aiming, as well as separate, IR-illuminating lasers with adjustable focus. A visible, red dot aiming laser can also be selected to provide accurate aiming of a weapon during daylight or night operations. The AN/PEQ-16A mini-IR pointer illuminator module (MIPIM) also features a white light flashlight. The ATPIAL and DBAL-A2 lasers can be used as handheld illuminators/pointers, or can be mounted on weapons with included hardware.
INCREASED LETHALITY
One of the most technologically advanced systems to come out in recent years is the common remotely operated weapon station (CROWS), which allows a gunner to operate a weapon mounted on top of a vehicle from safely inside the vehicle, using a computer screen and joystick.
“The CROWS are working really well in Iraq,” said Captain Darren B. Fowler of the 2-12 Cavalry. “Our tanks are rolling multiple missions daily and the tanks with CROWS are seeing a lot of action. This system has added more eyes to see the battlefield … without putting soldiers’ lives in danger.”
The CROWS is capable of being mounted on a variety of vehicles including the M1114/M1151, M93 Fox, RG33, Buffalo, Stryker and others. It gives gunners the ability to identify, engage, and defeat targets out to the maximum effective range of whichever weapon is mounted. The system consists of two parts: the mount, which includes the sensor unit and is fixed to the exterior of the vehicle, and the control group, which is inside the vehicle. It is capable of mounting various small- to medium-caliber crew-served weapons, including the MK19 grenade launcher, the M2 .50-caliber machine gun, the M240B machine gun, and the M249 squad automatic weapon.
“Nothing is more valuable than saving the life of the soldier in combat,” Lieutenant Colonel Michael Ascura, product manager for Crew Served Weapons in PM Soldier Weapons. “That is one of the objectives of PEO Soldier and PM Soldier Weapons, to develop capabilities and technologies that enhance a soldier’s survivability and lethality in combat.”
Another crew served weapon that is enhancing lethality, and ultimately survivability, is the M110 semi automatic sniper system, designed to dramatically improve sniper operations with a higher rate of fire than the M24 sniper weapon system (SWS) that can better address the target-rich urban environments in Iraq and Afghanistan. The M110 is comparable in weight to the M24 and fires the same 7.62 round, but it has multiple quick-change 10- and 20-round box magazines, as opposed to the five-round internal magazine for the M24, allowing the soldier to configure reload much faster based on mission requirements.
The M110 is the first weapon issued by the Army with its own sound and flash suppressor. The suppressor, which has a quick-detach mechanism, substantially reduces weapon signature, and thereby minimizes the likelihood of detection by the enemy.
“It’s everything a sniper wants,” said Sergeant Jed Christianson, after training with the new system. “We’re all very excited about this new weapon system because it’s custom-tailored to the kind of fight we’re in Iraq.”
PM Soldier Weapons recently increased the capability of the M4 carbine, which remains the weapon of choice for most soldiers. The M26 modular accessory shotgun system and the XM320 grenade launcher module are undergoing operational testing and when issued to soldiers will give additional capability to the M4. Both systems can be used as stand-alone weapons or mounted underneath the M4.
NEVER AT REST
PEO Soldier is always working to improve the gear that U.S. soldiers carry. “We are modernizing at mach speed,” said Brown. “Just because we know we have something good doesn’t mean that we are satisfied. We are always on the lookout to see if we can develop something better.”
Many of these systems as well as other PEO Soldier equipment will be on display in Booth 1721 at the 2008 Special Operations Forces Industry Conference. For more information on all of the equipment that PEO Soldier fields, visit www.peosoldier.army.mil. Debi Dawson is the PEO Soldier strategic communications officer. ♦