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New Reserve Parachute Testing Seeks to Eliminate Potential Premature Activations

Friday, January 8th, 2021

FORT BRAGG, North Carolina — Certified parachute test jumpers here finished 23 risk reduction jumps with the T-11R Single Pin Troop reserve parachute, making sure it works as it should during equipment test jumps.

The Airborne and Special Operations Test Directorate (ABNSOTD) tested the chute from both rotary winged and fixed winged high performance aircraft to eliminate the potential for premature reserve activations.

Any necessary changes were made to address the previous version’s premature activation thought to be caused by wind blast, according to Lt. Col. Derek Johnson Chief, Test Division at ABNSOTD.

“Testing promotes and delivers a safe, and more durable piece of equipment to the Warfighter,” said Johnson. “Soldiers relish in participating in day-to day testing. It ignites their enthusiasm to rig and load a piece of equipment which will ultimately serve our future Soldiers during combat missions.”

After the risk reduction jumps, ABNSOTD conducted 53 operational static line jumps during daylight hours to be fully certified by the Natick Soldier Research, Development, and Engineering Command located at Natick, Massachusetts.

While employing a host of risk reduction measures to ensure potential test items are safe and effective from the intended user’s standpoint, test events with the T-11R kicked off with new equipment training.

Parachute Riggers participated in New Equipment Training to learn the assembly of the chutes new components and closing of the pack tray.

“There is a huge increase in the amount of information that is provided to Soldiers who are given the opportunity to practice what they are learning in the form of hands-on training,” said Mrs. Shonda Strother, editor with ABNSOTD.

Testing new airborne equipment enables Soldiers the opportunity to provide feedback to the Army concerning current Soldiers needs in the field, according to Staff Sgt. Robert Whan, 2nd Battalion, 508th Parachute Infantry Regiment’s Battalion Air NCO.

All airdrop test iterations were airdropped with Soldiers in full combat equipment as if they were jumping into a combat operation.

“The T-11R Single Pin reserve parachutes were then inspected for any damage in order to make sure they can hold up to the high demands of the airborne mission,” said Sgt. 1st Class Katherine Greene, ABNSOTD’s T-11R test noncommissioned in charge.

The new T-11R Single Pin pack tray is manufactured from the same materiel as the current issue item. The current T-11R version has a square shaped look while the redesign has a rectangle shape.

The re-designed pack tray includes a change where the reserve ripcord handle is now a single pin pull, and a change in the geometry of the reserve handle eliminates the risk of windblast.

A plastic viewing window also assists the jumpmaster when inspecting the curve pin during jumpmaster personnel inspection. The reserve handle remains a textile type.

Story by Mr. William Slaven, Airborne & Special Operations Test Directorate, U.S. Army Operational Test Command

Some of photos by Jim Finney, Airborne & Special Operations Test Directorate, U.S. Army Operational Test Command

Posted in Army, Guest Post, Parachuting | 2 Comments »

Ten Weeks in Thailand: 1st SFG(A) Green Beret is First US Soldier to Complete Royal Thai Army’s Ranger School

Thursday, January 7th, 2021

Wearing Royal Thai Army (RTA) fatigues and black leather boots, a U.S. Army Green Beret wades waist deep through a swamp carrying a heavy rucksack and an old-fashioned Mannlicher M1888 bolt-action rifle. With soaked feet and pain spreading through tired muscles, there are still miles left to trudge.

The night prior, he slept an hour because of a successful patrol in the swamps. On nights where the patrols are unsatisfactory, he’s lucky for a half hour of uninterrupted sleep in the quagmire. Twenty-two hours out of the day are devoted to patrolling.

The other 72 days of the RTA Ranger School are just as relentless. Earning the Royal Thai Army Ranger Badge is a grueling effort, but high attrition rates are unusual for the course. The candidates rely on one another to push each other through to the end, whether it means carrying another’s rucksack for five weeks due to a broken ankle or a quick nudge to awaken a tired teammate. From Oct. 17 to Dec. 29, 2020, a Green Beret with 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) attended the RTA’s Ranger School in the Kingdom of Thailand and earned the Thai Ranger Badge along with recognition as the course’s distinguished graduate.

Furthermore, he became the first U.S. servicemember to attend in more than 40 years, and the first to graduate the course in its modern form. Life changing is what Ranger School is, the Green Beret said. You can’t write or call your family back home; here, your family are your brothers and instructors.

The Green Beret was recognized as a valued teammate whom instructors came to rely on. As the course progressed, instructors placed him in key positions to facilitate the successful completion of missions within his platoon.

“It’s a lifetime bond here,” he said. “I will always remember these guys and I will always keep in contact with them. It’s like brother-to-brother mentorship.”

Ranger School consists of different phases: mountain, forest, swamp, maritime and urban combat. In each phase, a candidate is assessed on the positions of squad or platoon leader, medic, pace man and map, and compass man.

“As a Green Beret, we’re supposed to be masters of the basics,” the Green Beret said. “This course took me back to the basics. For instance, navigating off one map per platoon…In an [Operational Detachment Alpha], you have eight maps plus GPS.”

To pass RTA Ranger School, you must compose operations orders and lead squad or platoon-sized elements on missions. All interactions between teammates and instructors are in Thai.

“You have to be fluent in this language,” he said. “The instructors don’t speak English and there are no translators here.”

As well as being fluent in Thai, the Green Beret is U.S. Army Ranger qualified and drew a contrast between U.S. and RTA Ranger Schools. In U.S. Army Ranger School, a severe enough injury would result in a medical drop from the course, he said. At Thai Ranger School, instructors encourage Ranger Buddies to help one another by shouldering the weight of an injured soldier.

The course was comprised of students from U.S. Army Special Forces, Royal Thai Army, Royal Thai Police, Royal King’s Guards, and the Royal Thai Special Mission Unit. Of the 198 who started the course, 187 graduated.

According to the award write up given by the RTA, the Green Beret’s conduct demonstrates the value the U.S. Army places on equal partnership in support of the U.S.-Thai alliance. His performance set the example for future U.S. Army attendees to the RTA’s Ranger School.

“It’s not so much what he gives to my formation, but what he gives to our entire force at-large in that he is a tactical and cultural diplomat for our country and Army,” said the Soldier’s Company Commander from 1st SFG (A). “The skills that he comes back with and the relationships he forged while there will better prepare both countries to operate with each other for our mutual defense.”

Story by SGT Anthony Bryant, 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne)

Posted in Army, Guest Post, International, Profession of Arms, SOF | 6 Comments »

DC Guard to Wear Black ID Vests for Inauguration

Wednesday, January 6th, 2021

District of Columbia National Guardsmen will wear a black identification only vest during the activation for demonstrations in Washington D.C., June 5 to 7, 2021.

The black identification vest is not body armor nor a tactical vest. It is the traditional uniform worn by the D.C. National Guard members in multiple domestic operations including Presidential Inaugurations, the COVID-19 pandemic response, the 4th of July celebration and the “Anniversary March on Washington” in the last year.

More than 300 Guardsmen are supporting the District of Columbia from Jan. 5 to 7, 2021, at the request of Mayor Muriel Bowser and Dr. Christopher Rodriguez, Director of the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, on behalf of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and D.C. Fire and Emergency Services.

The request for support was approved by the Secretary of the Army, the Hon. Ryan D. McCarthy.

By Capt. Tinashe Machona | D.C. National Guard

Posted in Army, Clothing, Guest Post | 14 Comments »

Powerful Example: IVAS Program Uses Middle Tier and Other Transaction Authorities

Sunday, January 3rd, 2021

The Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS) program office employed critical thinking and innovative practices in the strategy, planning and execution of IVAS–an acquisition program designed to give our Soldiers, Marines and Special Operators a decisive advantage in close-combat capability. The program team leveraged the Adaptive Acquisition Framework, Middle Tier of Acquisition Pathway/Rapid Prototyping Path as highlighted in DoDI 5000.80, as well as Other Transaction Authorities to contract with Microsoft and other traditional and non-traditional vendors. Additionally, they involved Soldiers in the design and test process (“Soldier-Centered Design”), collaborated with key stakeholders and industry as one team (the “right team”), and effectively identified, managed and drove down risk as development and testing progressed.

Click here to watch the video.

IVAS is a low-profile, ruggedized Heads-Up Display (HUD) with a body borne computer pack, Conformal Wearable Battery (CWB), squad radio, and integrated thermal and low light sensors that provides the Close Combat Force a single platform to fight, rehearse, and train. The IVAS suite of capabilities leverages tactical mixed reality to enable planning, networked information sharing via Tactical Cloud Package (TCP) and Cloud Services, and an augmented reality Synthetic Training Environment (STE) and Squad immersive Virtual Trainer (SiVT) that enables the Warfighter to fight ‘25 bloodless battles’ before engaging the enemy. IVAS integrates next generation situational awareness tools and high-resolution simulations to deliver a single platform that improves Soldier sensing, decision making, target acquisition, and target engagement. These capabilities will provide the increased lethality, mobility, and situational awareness necessary to achieve overmatch against our current and future adversaries.

Team IVAS is on target to begin production in March 2021, with first unit equipped in September 2021, accelerating the development process by more than four years compared to traditional acquisition processes.

Written by Tony Romano, DAU

Posted in Army, Guest Post, Optics | Comments Off on Powerful Example: IVAS Program Uses Middle Tier and Other Transaction Authorities

Army Researchers Acquire Two New Supercomputers

Friday, January 1st, 2021

ADELPHI, Md. — Army researchers are upgrading their computing capabilities with the acquisition of two new supercomputers.

The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, now known as DEVCOM, Army Research Laboratory is home to the Department of Defense Supercomputing Resource Center, where computer scientists are welcoming the bi-annual technology refresh as part of the DOD High Performance Computing Modernization Program.

The two supercomputers, named Jean and Kay, recognize the remarkable achievements and enduring legacies of Jean Jennings Bartik and Kathleen “Kay” McNulty Mauchly, key contributors and computing pioneers as part of the original team of programmers of the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or ENIAC, the world’s first general purpose computer.

These systems will join the Betty system in the center’s production high-performance computing infrastructure. The Betty system is named in honor of Frances Elizabeth “Betty” (Snyder) Holberton, another key member of the original ENIAC programmer’s team.

The two systems are both Liqid Computing platforms containing 48 core Intel XEON (Cascade Lake Advanced Performance) processors integrated with the largest solid state file systems the DOD has deployed to date.

The systems are expected to enter production service in the mid-fiscal 2021 timeframe, and will join the center’s Centennial and Hellfire systems towards establishing a cumulative computational capability of 23.3petaflops.

“Jean and Kay will allow ARL to support many of DOD’s most significant modernization challenges to include digital engineering and other emerging workloads,” said ARL DSRC Director Matt Goss. “By adding specialized technology to augment traditional high performance computing with data analytics, these machines will serve as a spring board on which DOD scientists can make game changing discoveries.”

According to ARL computer scientist Bob Sheroke, these systems significantly enhance the program’s ability to support the DOD’s most demanding data-intensive computational challenges, and include emerging technologies and tools for artificial intelligence, data analytics and machine learning.

The systems include embedded capabilities to support persistent services in additional to traditional batch-oriented processing.

“The DOD High Performance Computing Modernization Program, established in 1992, has invested over $1.2 billion at the ARL DSRC, which has maintained the center’s posture as one of the program’s primary HPC centers and one of the top supercomputer sites in the national supercomputing infrastructure,” Sheroke said.

Visit www.arl.hpc.mil to learn more about center’s computational capabilities and support services.

By U.S. Army DEVCOM Army Research Laboratory Public Affairs

Posted in Army, Digitization, Disruptive Tech, Guest Post | 2 Comments »

Future Warfare Writing Program at Army University Press

Tuesday, December 29th, 2020

Generally, works of fiction about the future are considered science fiction and allow us to look at current issues by placing our minds in a “what-if?” environment. In some cases, science fiction is also used as a wargaming tool to consider what might be.

Army University Press sponsors a Future Warfare Writing Program – program which is worth checking out.

They offer both Fiction and Nonfiction versions of the program where would-be futurists take a look at trends in Warfighting.

Complex [environment] is defined as an environment that is not only unknown, but unknowable and constantly changing. The Army cannot predict who it will fight, where it will fight, and with what coalition it will fight.

TRADOC Pamphlet 525-3-1; The U.S. Army Operating Concept: Win in a Complex World 2020-2040, 31 October 2014

Although it’s a few years old, the U.S. Army TRADOC Mad Scientist Initiative is my favorite.

Everything is available at www.armyupress.army.mil/Special-Topics/Future-Warfare-Writing-Program.

Posted in Army, Profession of Arms | 7 Comments »

New Medical Device May Change the Face of Battlefield Treatment

Tuesday, December 29th, 2020

The U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity has teamed with one of its commercial partners in the development of a novel medical device that may prove to be a “game-changer” in the frontline treatment of wounded Warfighters. Created by TDA Research, Inc., and funded through the Defense Health Agency’s Small Business Innovation Research program, the Lactated Ringer’s Solution Generator is a lightweight, portable unit that can produce sterile LR solution in austere locations from locally available freshwater sources. The device utilizes proprietary technology to produce one liter-size intravenous bags from a concentrated LR salt solution.

Composed of sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium and lactate, LR solution is used primarily to treat dehydration, deliver medication and restore fluid balance following bodily injury. It is also used to treat moderate hemorrhagic shock, as it has been shown to increase initial survival rates among patients and decrease the chances of organ damage.

Austin Langdon serves as assistant product manager for the LR Solution Generator program within USAMMDA’s Warfighter Deployed Medical Systems Project Management Office. He believes the device will help to save lives on the battlefield, and recently he demonstrated the unit for Army Brig. Gen. Michael J. Talley, Commanding General of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command and Fort Detrick.

“Without question, this small device will dramatically reduce the Army’s logistical footprint of having to ship and store lactated Ringer’s solution, which is the fluid of choice for resuscitation if blood is not available on the battlefield,” said Langdon. “This unit can make LR solution from practically any water source, including ditch water.”

“I truly believe in this device and its application for military use in the near future, although it will probably find its way into civilian medicine as well,” he continued. “For the Army, the LR Solution Generator will increase our life-saving capabilities by helping to reduce our logistical supply chain demands — our ability to make LR solution in the field will also help ensure we’re able to use these critical bags before they expire.”

As a former Army flight medic, Langdon praised the unique qualities of the device, highlighting its size, weight and portability. The unit weighs less than 11 pounds and is stored in a hard-shell case that is approximately 10 inches wide by 18 inches long, and only 6 inches deep. The purification device runs on a rechargeable lithium-ion cell that can produce more than 30 bags of LR solution per single charge.

“Army leadership is continually seeking ways to reduce the logistical strain of getting much-needed resources to the frontline and far forward in Multi-Domain Operations,” said Langdon. “Products such as the LR Solution Generator are far-forward-leaning solutions that can help us think outside of our normal parameters of operation. This device, and others like it, will bring forth new innovation that will change our standard of operation and secure our valuable resources.”

By Jeffrey Soares, USAMMDA public affairs

Posted in Army, Guest Post, Medical | 15 Comments »

5th SFAB, ‘Ghost Brigade,’ Complete First-of-Its Kind-Rotation

Monday, December 28th, 2020

FORT POLK, La. – The 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade completed a first-of-its kind-rotation at the Joint Readiness Training Center’s 21-2 Rotation partnering an SFAB with a real-world unit, the Joint Base Lewis-McChord-based 1-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, “The Ghost Brigade,” in a decisive action validation exercise, Nov. 13-26, 2020.

“JRTC 21-02 was the culmination of 5th SFAB’s mission since its inception in June 2019 to man, equip, and train the Army’s newest combat brigade,” Brigade Operations Officer, Maj. Liam Walsh, said. “The training served as a proof of principle as the first SFAB Decisive Action CTC rotation.”

The Ghost Brigade closely integrated with SFAB Soldiers from the Brigade down to the Platoon level throughout the exercise.

“Our units worked alongside 5th SFAB, replicating the role of a professional, near-peer Allied army, which the SFAB was tasked to support as they would for a real-world partner force in the Indo-Pacific Command Area of Responsibility,” 1-2 SBCT Commander Col. Jared Bordwell said. “From the brigade to the individual levels, this rotation was all about supporting one another to make our team unbeatable.”

The SFAB is completely comprised of volunteers who were carefully vetted for service in the organization.

“This rotation has demonstrated that specially trained SFAB Soldiers, selected for their tactical expertise and professionalism, organized into small cohesive teams, and equipped with advanced communications systems can provide a decisive advantage to a threatened but capable foreign partner,” 5th SFAB Commanding General Brig. Gen. Curtis Taylor said.

Altogether, seven units participated in the rotation including the 593rd Expeditionary Sustainment Command, 404th Army Field Support Brigade, 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, 2-2 Stryker Brigade Combat Team, and the U.S. Marine Corps’ 6th Air Naval Gunfire Liaison Company.

Aviation support proved extremely critical during the rotation.

“The 16th CAB’s assets here allowed 5th SFAB to support 1-2 SBCT with a unique aviation capability of Apache and Blackhawk helicopters,” Brigade Aviation Officer, Maj. Ryan Hampton said. “Integrating recon, attack and lift assets for 1-2 SBCT’s scheme of maneuver allowed them to seamlessly expand their lethal reach across the battlefield.”

Hampton’s hard work in this regard earned him the title of, “Hero of the Battlefield” from JRTC Operations Group. Another Soldier recognized was 3rd Squadron Operations Advisor, Staff Sgt. Erica Myers.

“After training out here for two weeks, I really saw how diversity within our teams is a must,” Myers said. No one knows everything needed to successfully train alongside our partners, every Soldier is a crucial piece of the big picture.”

Myers’ also got the opportunity to advise several junior Soldiers from Ghost Brigade on the Raven Small Unmanned Aircraft System.

“They were certified but lacked confidence and understanding of their equipment,” Myers said. “The more time I had with them, the more confidence they gained. By the end of the rotation, I was able to get one of them their first solo flight and night flight.”

Myer’s Squadron Commander, Lt. Col. Timothy Ferguson shared a similar sentiment following the exercise.

“Our experience during JRTC 21-02 was a tremendous learning opportunity as it enabled us to visualize our role in the organization,” Ferguson said. “We gained invaluable experience through live repetition with our partnered force while forcing us to adapt and develop strategies across the competition, crisis, and conflict phases.

The 5th SFAB is expected to continue sending Teams into the Indo-Pacific region alongside U.S. partners there.

“As we look across the world today, there are many potential crisis scenarios where this kind of capability is absolutely vital to deterring aggression against US Allies and Partners,” Brig. Gen. Taylor said.

The 5th SFAB officially activated in May 2020 and has since sent Soldiers on missions to Thailand and Indonesia. With JRTC complete, the 5th SFAB has been validated for worldwide deployment in support of U.S. Combatant Commanders’ priorities.

By Maj William Leasure, 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade Public Affairs

Posted in Army, Forces Focus, Guest Post | Comments Off on 5th SFAB, ‘Ghost Brigade,’ Complete First-of-Its Kind-Rotation