Born and raised in Alexandria, Va., Britt Wieland grew up going to the Ft. Belvoir summer camp.
Now, as a civilian engineer with PEO Soldier, she works on the Army’s next generation body armor at Fort Belvoir.
Wieland’s primary focus as a Body Armor Engineer is the Army’s new hard armor. In her current position, she enjoys seeing the direct impact of her work on the warfighter every day.
“We procure and field the latest body armor to our Soldiers,” explained Wieland.
“I have some friends serving in the Army, and every time they receive the newest gear, they call me to rant and rave about how excited they are, and I take a sense of pride in knowing I get to play a part in serving those who serve us. There aren’t many jobs that give you that kind of opportunity and fulfillment.”
Having trained as both a Hard and Soft Armor Engineer, Britt frequently is called upon to brief Soldiers, Army Senior Leaders, and industry partners on the Vital Torso Protection (VTP) system.
VTP is a subsystem of the Soldier Protection System, the Army’s newest Personal Protective Equipment. The Army is currently collecting data to verify trade space of weight reduction with protection ability for Soldiers to reduce the Soldier’s load and increase mobility in tactical environments.
“Our goal is to rebalance the testing to optimize the time and cost spent, while maintaining performance. This will allow industry to redirect resources towards developing more advanced designs and technologies, which in turn, benefits the Soldier.”
As the chair for the Vital Torso Protection Purchase Description project, Wieland has had an opportunity to work on the Army’s newest hard armor, where she has demonstrated her leadership skills during the process of changing the testing and evaluations for VTP.
“We’re looking to make the test procedures more statistically significant, operationally relevant, and aligned with the original requirements,” explains Wieland.
“I feel really special knowing my leadership trusted me to represent them even though I was less than a year into my career.”
Britt has served in key briefing roles to the special operations community, including the Spear Side-by-Side, which aimed to develop understanding and communality amongst the kit used in SOF versus the general Army, and USASOC Women in ARSOF, which supports holistic improvements to not only the kit of female Soldiers, but also improvements to uniforms, healthcare and quality of life.
“Britt has been able to brief key senior leaders and a large group of female Sergeants Major from ARSTAFF on improvements to PPE and paths forward for iterative changes based on Soldier feedback. She’s also taken part in HFEs to gain knowledge on Soldier kit,” said Maj. Kim Pierre-Zamora, the assistant product manager for the body armor team.
“There’s also a special place in my heart for the Army’s mission to better equip female and small statured soldiers,” Britt Wieland said.
“As a smaller female myself, I take pride in being a female engineer that gets to help take on this task and find it extremely rewarding every time I get to fit a female Warrior with a new kit that was made with them in mind,” Wieland said.
Britt Wieland graduated Summa Cum Laude from Lawrence Technological University in 2021 with a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering. She became an Army Fellow in 2020 and joined PEO Soldier as a Department of the Army civilian in 2023.
By Scott Sundsvold, Army
