Industry Interview: Military Wraps Research and Development, Inc.
K. Dominic Cincotti
Executive Vice President
Military Wraps Research and Development, Inc.
K. Dominic Cincotti is executive vice president of Military Wraps Research and Development, Inc., a privately held firm based near Fort Bragg, N.C., at the Defense Industrial Park in Lumberton.
Q: Since November, Military Wraps Research and Development has generated seven patents. By any objective standard, that’s pretty astonishing. What has driven this pace of innovation?
A: Coffee. Lots of coffee! And the application of divergent breakthroughs. We started out by asking simple questions. For instance, how could what we know now about perceptual psychology, engineering psychology, and biophysics inform camouflage, concealment, and deception? What technologies could we bring to bear? Could we use them in combinations that have never been used before? And then it turned out that the applications of what we learned about camouflage can have a significant impact on training.
Q: How so?
A: Painted-on camouflage is so—how to put it? So last century. Almost everything else in the warfighter universe of weapons, equipment, training, tactics—has changed radically, everything but camouflage. CCD has been sorely lagging. So, instead of paint, we think photography, and when we combine high-resolution, digital megapixel photography with state-of-the-art inking systems on specially developed vinyls, we get camouflage that can match terrain so vividly that vehicles, weapons, equipment, buildings—even the warfighter—can seem to disappear into the battlescape. So we developed what we call Photo Real and Photo Stealth technologies. This camouflage goes on fast, and if there’s a change of mission, it comes off fast, for different camouflage.
Better, faster and more cost effective over a range of environments than paint.
These technologies informed our development of the Photo Veil, an innovation over ULCANS. The Photo Veil is an operator concealment device that is portable, waterproof, folds or rolls easily like a large wall map, and works fast in any environment— mountain, desert, jungle, forest, even urban. It incorporates megapixel photography, advanced inking systems, and a revolutionary lightweight/waterproof mesh and has applications for sniper/spotter concealment, surveillance/counter surveillance, and escapeand- evasion, as well as force protection. It also suppresses thermal and infrared signatures and can be customized for one-way visibility, meaning the concealed combatant can actually see through the Photo Veil.
Q: And there are training applications?
A: If the warfighter trains in shoot houses, C-IED Lanes, or full-training facilities, shouldn’t they replicate, as nearly as possible, the projected environments? By applying these same principles, and adding perspective- scaled, computer image-editing, we can now re-create any potential op site on Conex containers. These op sites can be a building, a house, a city block, a whole village. With detail replicated down to the color of stone or brick or concrete and graffiti in the local language.
Q: Is this P.I.R.A.T.E.?
A: Yes, P.I.R.A.T.E. is our short-winded way of saying Photo-Immersive Realistic Aides for Training Environments.
The immersive aspect is key. The operator has to filter visually a myriad of details, so why not have him train in the replicated environment in which he will operate? And when missions change, as they do, we can now adapt the training environment just as quickly, be it mission rehearsal, pre-deployment, drill, instruction, or exercise. So you have site-specific images, Photo-Realistic details, customization for any op environment, and rapid reconfiguration for multiple, cost-effective uses of existing training sites.
We’ve installed P.I.R.A.T.E. sites at private facilities, and for the U.S. Army and Marines, based on needs expressed by operators and trainers.
Q: Can you describe the development process at Military Wraps?
A: Sure. Ask simple questions. To be more specific, ask simple questions of the right people. We don’t have many rules, but one that we do have is talk to the operator. I’m always surprised that other companies don’t do more of this—talk to the operator. He’ll tell you what he needs, what works, what doesn’t.
Mark Tocci, our chief technical advisor, is a master of talking to the operator, because he was one. He’s a former Ranger and the son of a much-storied Special Forces father, Sergeant Major Mark Tocci, so he has access to a range of operators that help us translate their need statements into innovation.
And we try not to be afraid to ask questions that are both simple and big. Why take an old technology and try to improve it one percent, two percent, three percent? We are looking for orders-of-magnitude advances. That comes from Trevor Kräcker [Military Wraps president and CEO.] In Trevor, we have a leader who is both an industry expert and personally tenacious in his corporate vision. He was a lineman in college, so he comes by it honest.
Q: Speaking of coming by things honest, you have some interesting family background yourself?
A: Well, yes. My grandfather, after he served in North Africa in World War II, was a defense contractor in the Middle East and Vietnam. And my father, Joe Cincotti, who was a colonel in Special Forces and commandant of Special Forces schools, was also a defense contractor. One of the inadvertent benefits of this job is that I meet so many people who knew him and have such affection for him still. And I have heard many stories about Dad—some of which may even be true. ♦