April 2010 | Soldier Systems Daily Soldier Systems Daily

Archive for April, 2010

Warrior Protection and Readiness Coalition Members to Brief Congress on Need for Warfighter Equipment

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Members of the Warrior Protection and Readiness Coalition (WPRC) will meet this week with more than forty Congressional offices as part of their ongoing effort to educate Members and staff on Capitol Hill about the need to adequately fund Individual Equipment programs for Americaâ€™s Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines. This is an issue that is very dear to Soldier Systems Daily.

The WPRC is an industry-led coalition comprised of many of the leading manufacturers and suppliers of combat clothing and Individual Equipment for the American warfighter. The WPRC provides a unified voice for a key component of Americaâ€™s domestic industrial base and is actively engaged in advocating for policies that ensure that our warfighters are outfitted with the clothing and equipment they require to ensure battlefield superiority. This week, the WPRCâ€™s primary goal is to educate Congress and the Administration on the importance of meeting warfighter needs during times of war, as well as during times of relative peace.

Luke Hillier, the Chief Executive Officer of WPRC founding member ADS Inc., explained the WPRCâ€™s mission, noting that â€œOperational readiness is not just a wartime concern. We need to make absolutely certain that when Congress stops providing supplemental appropriations to fund overseas conflict, our warfighters do not lose access to the best possible clothing and Individual Equipment available. Building the WPRCâ€™s relationship with Congress is a critical step in raising awareness of the warfightersâ€™ needs, and preventing a funding vacuum that our Armed Services and our country cannot afford.â€

The founding members of the WPRC include ADS Inc., Darn Tough, Insight Technology, Integrated Wave Technologies, London Bridge Trading, Milliken, New Balance, Otis, Pelican, Sperian, Surefire, Wiley X and W. L. Gore. Additional leaders in the Individual Equipment industry are expected to join as this effort gains momentum. For more information on the Warrior Protection and Readiness Coalition please visit www.warriorprotection.net.

Tags: ADS, Warrior Protection and Readiness Coalition
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SOCOM Seeking New VBL III

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Currently Insight Technology provides the SU-233 / PVS gun light which is more commonly known as the Visible Bright Light (VBL) III component of the Miniature Day / Night Sight in the Special Operations Peculiar Modification (SOPMOD) kit. Any new light will be judged against it and will have to show improved, cost, schedule, and performance. Please take note of the order of those words. The first two are what will get an acquisition professional in trouble, the last one is generally just icing on the cake.

Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane which is responsible for SOCOM weapon programs, recently released a solicitation for a new VBL III. Once selected, the awardee will be responsible for providing Crane with between 10 and 37,500 lights over the next five years in batches of less than 1000.

The list of requirements is extensive and very well written. It includes compatibility with Mil Std 1913 rails but I found it interesting that they were open to other attachment systems if the government could obtain rights to use the system on all of their accessories. Other requirements include waterproofing to 66 ft, and six operating modes which include full and reduced visible white light, infra-red, strobe, non-accidental discharge, and reduced glare modes.

One big issue is that the new light has to exhibit recoil shock endurance sufficient to allow use on all SOF small arms. Word on the street is that the current block II SOPMOD accessories have been having a rough time with the SCAR.

It also has to be compatible with a laundry list of weapons including naturally, the M4 and Mk16/Mk17 (SCAR-L/H) but also the AK 47 and AK 74, M14, and so on, as well as a few that had me scratching my head such as the M3 MAAWS (Carl Gustav) and M2 Heavy Machine Gun. You really need to look the solicitation up and read it. Some of these just don’t make sense for a small light like this. Pistols however, were not listed.

While Insight Technology has long been a favorite of the folks at Crane but Surefire seems to have built one heck of a competitor with their RAID M720 which seems to fit the bill quite nicely.

Full specifications as well as details of the solicitation are available here.

Tags: Crane, Insight Technology, Surefire
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Princeton Tec Remix Pro

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

The first thing I noticed when I turned it on was that my son standing across from me was blinded. Then I switched to the strobe function and he was mesmerized wanting to in turn blind his siblings. Ahh, youth. The on/off button is large and easy to find. It’s powered by a single CR123 providing up to 40 hours of light at depending on the setting (4 hours at the max 70 lumens) which is produced by either a single high intensity LED or a combination of three lower powered LEDs. LEDs are available in white, green, or red.

www.PrincetonTec.com

Tags: Princeton Tec
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Clothing That Really Gets Your Attention

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

Ping clothing is designed to give the wearer alerts thanks to embedded electronics and haptics meaning the garment will provide tactile feedback. Think of something along the lines of a tap on the shoulder. While Ping in particular is a commercial application directly tied to social networking media, imagine the same technology in a tactical garment. It could alert you to an incoming message or the tactical network calls stand to and your shirt squeezes your shoulders to rouse you awake. Or perhaps it could be used for inaudible cues within a small unit. The possibilities are endless. Hopefully we will see a viable version of such technology integrated into a Soldier ensemble.

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LBT Discount for SSD Readers

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Save 33% now with London Bridge Trading Company’s 33% off select MultiCam products. All items in their mini-catalog are on sale now through April 23. (Please note, some products may require up to 4-6 weeks to ship).

London Bridge Trading Company MultiCam Catalog

Call them at 800-229-0207 (mention Soldier Systems to get the discount) or visit www.londonbridgetrading.com for their complete product line.

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Military Emergency Tourniquet – Generation II

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Tier-One Quality Solutions recently unveiled a new version of their popular Military Emergency Tourniquet, integrating improvements based on feedback from operational use. For example slight material changes have been made to ensure the tourniquet doesn’t loosen after application. The windlass has also been redesigned and is machined from aluminum.

Additionally, the MET is now available in MultiCam as well as AOR1 by special order to authorized customers. They also offer a couple of different color-matched, PALS-compatible sheathing options so it is best to discuss your particular needs with a representative.

This is an indispensable piece of kit when you consider 60% of all preventable deaths encountered on the battlefield are the result of uncontrolled life threatening hemorrhaging at the point of wounding. The swift application of a tourniquet is a critical life-saving measure.

The MET has been awarded NSN 6515-01-537-9259. To order the MET as well as any of their other products, visit www.tqsresponse.com.

Tags: TQS
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Garmin Foretrex 401 GPS

Monday, April 19th, 2010

The Foretrex 401 is a lightweight (3.1 oz with batteries!), wrist mounted GPS receiver that has become very popular with troops down range. The 401 can often be seen strapped to a weapon’s stock so that the shooter can conduct a GPS check by simply rolling his carbine toward his face. In addition to GPS, the device also integrates an electronic compass (yes, mounting it to a rifle affects it) as well as a barometric sensor which comes in quite handy while operating in mountainous terrain. The Foretrex 401 also runs the free Jumpmaster Software package designed to assist parachutists to compute release points. Data for this as well as other applications is easily updated via a USB cable. As an added bonus, you can share waypoint and track data wirelessly with other 401s. It is powered by readily available by 2 AAA batteries which provide up to 17 hours of use.

The best place we have found to purchase Garmin products is Strohman Enterprises. In fact, they have a special on the Foretrex 401 for $159. Owned by Lt Col USMC (Ret) Joseph Strohman, the company supplies Garmin and Aimpoint products to LE & Military organizations as well as individual personnel. Joe and his crew are well versed in all of the products and can answer customer’s questions about anything from mounting solutions to loading map data for the AOR.

Tags: Garmon, GPS
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Negative Pressure Wound Therapy

Sunday, April 18th, 2010

Applying negative pressure or suction to a wound promotes healing by keeping fluid from building up in the wound. A few years ago students in an MIT mechanical engineering class decided to work on a pump to provide suction for wounds. With the help of Dr. Robert Sheridan from Massachusetts General Hospital, the students developed a simple, inexpensive, and lightweight version of the system that required no power supply and could be left in place for days. Danielle Zurovcik SM ’07, was one of those students and not only continued to refine the technology in her master’s thesis but plans make it the subject of her doctoral studies as well.

The pump now has some real world experience thanks to Zurovcik providing 50 of the $3 pumps to Partners in Health for use in the Haitian relief effort. The Partners in Health team was led by led by Dr. Robert Riviello of the Division of Trauma, Burn and Surgical Critical Care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. “Our biggest challenge at the moment is ensuring a reliably intact seal on human skin [that can be] easily applied,” Riviello says. “If we can resolve this, then I think there is enormous potential.” There is a new, more compact version of the device in production and Zurovcik plans on further studies in Rwanda later this year.

While the technology is available today in any western care facility, it is expensive, relying on shore power or frequent battery changes. This pump is power-free. It’s one step up from ditch medicine and that’s simply because it’s a purpose built solution, but it remains inexpensive and easy to apply. The new MIT pump offers many advantages for military or wilderness use. With suction applied, dressing can be kept in place longer; in some cases up to three days. This is a boon for situations where supplies or health care professionals are limited.

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