The Army recently released a new version of FM 6-0, Commander and Staff Organization and Operations (May 2022) which provides commanders and their staffs with tactics and procedures for organizing and operating their command and control (C2) system.
Check it out at:
armypubs.army.mil/epubs/DR_pubs/DR_a/ARN35404-FM_6-0-000-WEB-1
NATICK, Mass. — Some heroes wear capes, and some wear jumpsuits designed by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, or DEVCOM SC.
America’s smokejumpers literally dive into danger. They are an elite group of firefighters who parachute into remote areas to put out wildfires. They need and deserve the very best equipment to do their jobs effectively and safely. DEVCOM SC’s Design, Pattern & Prototype Team in the Soldier Protection Directorate took on the task of updating the jumpsuits that smokejumpers wear when they take the leap to put out wildfires.
“The rough terrain jumpsuit is worn by smokejumpers working for the United States Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management,” said Patti Bigrig, a clothing designer on the Design, Pattern & Prototype Team, or DPPT. “There are about 400 to 500 smokejumpers within the United States. Their mission is to parachute into remote areas, where vehicles have no access, to extinguish forest fires.”
Zach Glover, one of the smokejumpers who aided DEVCOM SC in a fit and integration check for the new and improved rough terrain jumpsuit, explained that the jumpsuit is used to protect smokejumpers from any kind of impalement from tree limbs and has a built-in letdown system if they get caught in a tree. The jumpsuit adds some fire protection as well.
Glover values the opportunity for smokejumpers to provide input into the new prototype. “The new suit will improve mobility, be lighter weight, and allow for better protection, range of motion, and freedom of movement,” said Glover.
The effort is a perfect fit for DEVCOM SC’s expertise. “DEVCOM SC’s long-term expertise in developing clothing to meet Warfighter needs benefits this project in all aspects,” said Annette LaFleur, DPPT’s team leader.
“We not only look at the musculoskeletal structure and movement of the human body within the framework of a clothing item but how the necessary equipment works cohesively with the garment to enhance performance and mission success,” said Bigrig. “We listen to the user to find out what isn’t working and devise a solution.”
DPPT is adept at designing for function and specific occupational specialties — whether it be a protective ensemble for a fuel handler or bomb suit for an explosive ordnance disposal operator or a new rough terrain jumpsuit for smokejumpers. On a daily basis, the team works to meet the needs of Warfighters and other users by translating user requirements into tangible prototypes. The prototypes incorporate materials and features to meet the specific needs of the user. For the rough terrain jumpsuit, the prototype includes padding with the proper impact protection, as well as flame-retardant base materials.
“The team starts by sketching design options, discussing ideas with the user before drafting patterns and sewing the first prototype,” said LaFleur. “We design, test and validate, ensuring the item is user tested and approved. We don’t want the user to have to think about or be burdened by their clothing or gear. If they are solely focused on their mission, then we know we have done our job well.”
The rough terrain jumpsuit prototype includes improvements to features and materials.
“Due to the natural rough terrain in which these parachutists are entering, the current jumpsuit has a short field life,” said Bigrig. “The current jumpsuit is made from Kevlar, which has great puncture resistance but very low abrasion resistance. It quite frequently requires repair or replacement. Kevlar is sensitive to, and weakened by, exposure to sunlight, and this factor also plays into a shorter use expectancy. The goal of this new jumpsuit is to increase the durability, protection and extend the life of its use.”
Melynda Perry, a textile chemist on DEVCOM SC’s Textile Material Evaluation Team, ran tests on the current jumpsuit material and suggested some materials to be integrated into the new suit. The new suit includes two layers — a base layer and a higher abrasion resistant layer. The goal is to identify lighter weight materials with improved abrasion resistance that have lower amounts of aramid fibers to offer higher protection against UV exposure, extending the life of the jumpsuit.
The new jumpsuit prototype also features an improved collar and integrated impact resistant foam. It also includes an adjustable side pocket at the bottom of the jumpsuit trousers. The pocket is used to hold rope and other gear.
Bigrig conceived the idea for the adjustable pocket, and Chong Whitfield, a DPPT production designer, refined the idea. Being able to adjust pockets helps improve safety.
“It’s the Goldilocks pocket,” said Bigrig. “You can adjust it so that it is just right.”
User input, which plays a key role in all of DEVCOM SC’s product development, is driving the design of the new jumpsuit.
“We had a lot of conversations with the smokejumpers and gleaned great information on how we could make this jumpsuit into something that would greatly improve on what they currently had,” said Bigrig. “It is a wonderful relationship because we adapted the design to the feedback we received.”
Prior to working with the DPPT, the smokejumpers already had a good working relationship with DEVCOM SC’s Air Drop Team, part of the Soldier Sustainment Directorate. This relationship led to the smokejumpers seeking out DPPT.
“We viewed videos of their donning and doffing process, deployment from the plane along with the five-point landing procedure,” said Bigrig. “We had a lot of conversations with the smokejumpers and gleaned great information on how we could make this jumpsuit into something that would greatly improve on what they currently had.”
Other DEVCOM SC teams were also involved in the effort. Bigrig explained that the DPPT has been leveraging the expertise of DEVCOM SC’s Ballistic and Blast Team’s Chuck Hewitt to test impact resistant materials to integrate into the suit. Perry has also been instrumental in testing and providing recommendations for best materials for the new jumpsuit.
“There are people here who are experts in their fields,” said Glover. “They are experts in design, textiles, blunt impact ballistics and parachutes. We are firefighters and smokejumpers first and working with these experts is really beneficial for us.”
Bigrig is proud to work with the smokejumpers on the new Rough Terrain Jumpsuit.
“The users are firefighters with a high degree of ingenuity, and we are honored to help them take the jumpsuit to the next level,” said Bigrig.
By Jane Benson, DEVCOM Soldier Center Public Affairs
FORT LEONARD WOOD, Mo. — Leaders from U.S. Army Futures Command and the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence wrapped up the two-week Maneuver Support, Sustainment and Protection Integration Experiments — or MSSPIX — this week, giving Army leaders and capability developers a chance to gain insights into the viability of emerging technologies through credible and validated operational assessments.
According to Kyle Henry — the chief of the center’s maneuver support battle lab experimentation branch and one of the key organizers of the event — the annual MSSPIX is an important venue for conceptual and materiel development because of the feedback provided by the very Soldiers who may one day use the technology to assist in accomplishing missions.
“Without the Soldiers, this would be a glorified tech demo,” he added. “That’s not what we’re trying to do. We want a non-biased look at these technologies, these capabilities.”
Henry said the overarching focus of this year’s MSSPIX was to enable protection and sustainment solutions in support of what’s called multi-domain operations — the Army’s attempt to address competition and potential conflict between the United States and countries with relatively similar warfighting capabilities across air, land, sea, space and cyberspace. This includes the mitigation of hazards, the preservation of assets and the protection of Soldiers.
“The technologies being assessed are designed to minimize a Soldier’s presence on the battlefield, or otherwise aid in protecting lives, while also improving the ability to defeat enemy forces, disrupt enemy capabilities and physically control spaces,” Henry said.
During a demonstration day event on May 17, Sgt. Daniel Alexander, with Fort Leonard Wood’s 595th Sapper Company, and Spc. Wyanet Nakai, from the 212th Military Police Company at Fort Bliss, Texas, operated what’s being called the Mobile-Acquisition, Cue and Effector, or M-ACE — one of 14 capabilities assessed this year by a group of more than 20 Soldiers from installations across the country.
Integrating radar technologies with a remote cue system, M-ACE can lock onto and disable a moving target, such as a drone.
Having a system like this in a combat environment is ideal for military police, Nakai said, as they are typically considered what’s called “mounted,” meaning they stay inside their tactical vehicles.
“What we’re doing is controlling the weapon from inside,” she said. “This set up is really nice, and it’s safer.”
For a combat engineer, like Alexander, whose missions require both mounted and unmounted capabilities, it’s nice to know the Army is trying to minimize Soldier risk on the battlefield.
“It’s nice to know we’re going another route for combat [military occupational specialties],” he said. “We go outside the wire, put our lives on the line, and with technology like this, it takes the Soldier out of many of those situations — it minimizes the dangers.”
This was the first time either Alexander or Nakai have participated in MSSPIX. Alexander, originally from Bolingbrook, Illinois, said he was happy for the opportunity to provide inputs that may one day help improve the Army’s ability to more effectively and safely meet its mission requirements.
“I hope other Soldiers in my unit get this opportunity,” he said.
Nakai, from the Navajo Nation in Utah, said it’s fascinating to be part of a project decades in the making.
“I didn’t know what MSSPIX was,” she said. “I’m amazed by how much time goes into these technologies — someone said 18 years for this one. It blows my mind how much thought and effort goes into building a system like this, and they want to keep improving it.”
By Fort Leonard Wood Public Affairs Office
JOINT BASE ELEMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska — During a multi-service exercise, the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, or ERDC CRREL, successfully demonstrated a groundbreaking technology to detect airborne targets.
The project, called TripLine, was developed by ERDC and uses emitted sounds to passively detect targets. The technology was showcased during Arctic Edge 22, a bi-annual event hosted by the Alaskan Command at Joint Base Elemendorf-Richardson, Alaska, committed to the defense of North America with roots going back more than five decades.
The TripLine project started in 2017 and utilizes technology to detect airborne targets through soundwaves that interact with the ground and transfer a portion of the acoustic energy into the ground. The transferred soundwave energy subsequently interacts with buried sensing fiberoptic cable and induces a small, but highly perceptible, change in the cable that can be measured, analyzed and recorded by the TripLine system. This atmosphere-to-terrain energy transfer enables the presence of aircraft near the TripLine system to be automatically detected.
Dr. Sergey Vecherin, a research physicist at CRREL who leads the team developing a suite of algorithms for Tripline, said the system aims to be low-maintenance and suitable for operations in arctic conditions.
“TripLine is a system for automatic detection of acoustic sources with some unique operation capabilities,” said Vecherin. “Other systems cannot do what Tripline can, either due to scientific or operational limitations.”
When the first TripLine experiments were conducted in 2017, the goal was to prove sensor success for the desired sources in principle. In 2019, TripLine was used in another field experiment for different sources and different locations.
“In August 2020, we had a very successful demonstration in New Mexico,” said Vecherin. “According to the Air Force after the test evaluation, our system was named one of only two, out of more than two dozen tested, that successfully passed the test. This is a huge success considering the caliber of our competitors.”
The TripLine system has been tested and proven to have a high detection probability and a low false alarm rate in several different environments that had a nearly ideal soil structure for the sensing system. These soils are relatively loose, sandy soils with low contrast in air-ground acoustic impedance, and under these conditions, the acoustic detection system has performed nearly flawlessly.
One remaining demonstration of the system needed to be performed, a test of the technology under highly challenging soil conditions. It was determined that the cold, austere environments of the Arctic would present one of the greatest challenges to the sensor system due to the high acoustic impedance from frozen soils, as well as the noise damping from snow and ice coverage.
In the Arctic Edge 2022 exercise, TripLine has been tested under extremely challenging environmental conditions. Vecherin said, “So far, TripLine has successfully passed all the tests, indicating the high value of the technology.”
The highly complex terrain conditions around JBER were found to be ideal for the demonstration project as the ground was completely frozen, most likely well below the buried sensing cable.
In March of 2021, the U.S. Army released its Arctic Strategy, “Regaining Arctic Dominance,” which outlines how the Army will generate, train, organize and equip our forces to partner with Arctic allies and secure national interests and maintain regional stability. Operating in the Arctic allows the Army to powerfully project forces to enhance their ability to respond in competition, crisis or conflict. TripLine will be able to assist in achieving that goal.
The goal of the demonstration effort was to show that the TripLine sensing system is capable of detecting airborne objects within proximity of JBER, despite the frozen soil and thick coverage of snow and ice. Between February 25 and March 16, 2022, numerous commercial and military aircraft had flight paths near Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, and the TripLine event utilized those flights to demonstrate that it could detect and monitor movement across the region in real time with a high degree of accuracy.
“As demonstrated, TripLine capability is proven to function in austere environments,” said Dr. Steven Peckham, a Research Scientist at CRREL and a program lead for the TripLine project. “That opens the opportunity to utilize the technology throughout the Arctic.”
This successful live demonstration proves that the acoustic sensing system reliably functions in such locales, despite being buried in frozen soil and under several feet of snow and ice. In addition, this successful demonstration opens the opportunity for the Department of Defense to deploy this new technology in locations around the globe where airborne threats have traditionally been a challenge to detect and monitor in real-time.
One of the next steps for the TripLine project will be to gain more funding for additional testing, research and development, until the system can be approved and released for use by the Department of Defense.
“Going forward we have a presentation to the North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Army Northern Command, as well as our international partners,” said Peckham. “From here, the TripLine project has satisfied all of the requested demonstration testing and can advance, given supporting resources, to deploying the capability in the field for an extended period.”
By SGT David Marquis
AUSTIN, Texas — Geospatial intelligence professionals gathered at the United States Geospatial Intelligence Foundation’s GEOINT 2022 Symposium in Aurora, Colorado, last month to discuss new efforts and achievements in the rapidly growing field.
Topics highlighted at the event included how technological advances have influenced the creation and use of maps, including within military and intelligence communities.
During an April 26 “What is a Map?” panel, guest speakers from the U.S. government and private industry explored how maps have evolved in recent years, what new types of information maps can communicate and why maps continue to be indispensable tools in everything from personal navigation to foreign policy development to warfighting.
“Maps and terrain and that data set is foundational to everything we do,” said Brig. Gen. William Glaser, director of the Army Futures Command Synthetic Training Environment, or STE, Cross-Functional Team.
Glaser and fellow panelists detailed how today’s dynamic, high-performance maps — which frequently utilize 3D imagery and are often informed by an amalgamation of artificial intelligence, fluid data inputs and precision sensors — can improve visibility and thereby increase a user’s understanding of a situation, along with options for action.
“Our relationship with a map now is not just passive,” said panelist Ed Parsons, geospatial technologist at Google. “We’re interacting with the map. The map is changing its contents depending upon what we’re doing, but we’re also sharing what we’re doing with the developers of that map.”
As a result, many of today’s maps are “elastic,” meaning that they can morph and adapt as conditions and user input fluctuate, Parsons explained.
It is this near real-time visibility that can provide Army map users with distinct tactical advantages.
“The ability to visualize the terrain in 3D is absolutely critical for commanders and Soldiers to understand the operational environment,” Glaser said.
He noted that one of the Army’s core STE efforts, One World Terrain, provides a singular synthetic format for use in multiple scenarios. Viewable in “everything from goggles to laptops to PCs,” the 3D terrain data set is helping to more closely link operational and training activities, thereby enhancing overall readiness.
The Army is also developing the STE Information System, a virtual training suite, and equipment such as the Squad Immersive Virtual Trainer, a mixed-reality tool that utilizes a heads-up display.
The ongoing development of a synthetic training platform enabled by advanced mapping technology is groundbreaking because it means the Army “can fight a thousand bloodless battles before we ever put a Soldier into harm’s way,” Glaser said.
The multi-faceted nature of digital maps extends across sectors, of course, and often translates to many users having access to — but also influence on — collective maps.
“Maps are probably more widely used now than at any point in our history,” Parsons said.
This expanded use of maps has also increased demand for functionality and format.
“Cartography is an art, not just a science,” said Dr. Lee Schwartz, director of the Office of the Geographer and Global Issues at the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research. “Maps need to be visually compelling as well as providing a lot of information.”
Ensuring map development is participatory, such as by involving the contributions of individuals who live in areas being mapped, is also an important consideration in modern map development.
“You have to include the human element always,” Schwartz said.
Moreover, the way maps are used to make decisions means the information they contain needs to be secure and valid. While this is an area for further growth, in many cases, accuracy is attained simply through critical mass.
“The maps are now sort of self-healing; by using the maps, you’re contributing to the content,” Parsons said.
Dr. Daniela Moody, vice president of artificial intelligence at Arturo, also highlighted the storytelling nature of maps, which are increasingly moving beyond instructing the user how to get somewhere to informing the user why to go somewhere.
“This is no longer a static environment,” Moody said. “Maps are becoming the way to tell a story, the way to make that quick decision.”
Glaser emphasized that while digital maps are ushering in transformational capabilities, traditional paper maps are still necessary, particularly for maneuvering in degraded environments. As such, the Army will continue to promote analog map reading skills and compass navigation fluency even as it implements more interactive mapping systems.
“Every Army officer who’s worth his weight in salt loves maps,” Glaser said.
“It’s that one thing that’s going to lead his Soldiers to victory safely.”
You can watch a video of the presentation here.
By Maureena Thompson, Army Futures Command
ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — Underbody blasts from improvised explosive devices were the largest cause of injury for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan This signaled a vital need for an anthropomorphic test device, or ATD, to replicate the response of an underbody blast environment on Soldiers.
The Warrior Injury Assessment Manikin, coined WIAMan, filled that need. WIAMan is an ATD for military use in underbody blast testing of ground vehicles. Developed by the Instrumentation Management Office at the Program Executive Office Simulation, Training and Instrumentation, WIAMan represents the most human-like surrogate yet to provide insight on improving military ground vehicle systems and identify protection mechanisms that reduce the likelihood and severity of warfighter injuries.
Analytical experts from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, or DEVCOM, ensure that WIAMan output is processed to provide reliable injury assessment and analysis. The DEVCOM Analysis Center, known as DAC, processes this immense amount of data via a software analysis tool known as the Analysis of Manikin Data, or AMANDA. On Feb. 2, AMANDA was accredited by the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command for use in live fire test and evaluation — a final stamp of trust in quality and accuracy.
According to Kate Sandora, AMANDA model manager, AMANDA’s most recent release and accreditation is a culmination of a large effort by DAC and its partners, encompassing all WIAMan injury criteria developed over ten years of biomechanics research. The accreditation provides more confidence for the live fire testing community and current users, including DAC, DEVCOM Ground Vehicle Systems Center and the U.S. Army Aberdeen Test Center.
AMANDA is not a single injury model, but an analytic framework composed of multiple types of injury criteria and reference values integrated together. AMANDA processes accelerations, forces and moments recorded by WIAMan and other ATDs as input, comparing the ATD data with associated injury criteria to make predictions of injuries and determine the injury type, location and severity. AMANDA can also read in and process simulated data in lieu of physical testing.
While WIAMan is the hardware subjected to the blast event to record data, AMANDA is the software allowing the collected data to be processed for analysts’ use, pre-loaded with accredited criterion for injury. The resulting analysis has significant impact on Army vehicle design to improve survivability when Soldiers are subjected to an underbody blast environment. Simply put, insight from AMANDA saves lives.
“The WIAMan data acquisition system takes samples from an event at a rate of approximately 200,000 samples a second, and the typical event takes a couple seconds, so we’re talking around 400,000 data samples — an incredible amount of data,” said Jacob Ehlenberger, AMANDA software developer. “When you load that into AMANDA, all subject matter experts have to worry about is looking at the results. AMANDA automates the entire process, bringing complex analysis to the hands of experts so they can focus on their domain of excellence.”
AMANDA also integrates filtering methodology, developed by Aaron Alai, a DAC signal processing scientist, to ensure sensor data does not reflect extraneous noise that could lead to incorrect injury prediction.
“A common misconception is that sensors and data acquisition systems measure only what one intends for them to measure, but in reality, they respond to anything that can influence the measurement pipeline: a litany of sources from electromagnetic noise to mechanical linkage vibrations. So, data must be filtered to glean accurate information,” Alai said. Alai leveraged frequency analysis to come up with a new method of inferring appropriate filters, working with Ehlenberger and other DAC teammates to ensure they are implemented and contextualized properly.
DAC analysts can then more reliably provide injury assessments that inform vehicle evaluation, design and requirements to better protect Soldiers, bypassing time-consuming manual data manipulation.
Sandora and Ehlenberger, who have worked closely with both analysts and developers of the design and standards for WIAMan, commend the experts’ diverse perspectives to make appropriate injury assessment possible. “You have subject matter experts in the field of human vulnerability working in close contact with engineers of high caliber discussing the ATD experience and mechanical response,” Ehlenberger said. “It is such an impressive marriage of distinctly different and invaluable expertise.”
It is through extensive testing and problem-solving from these experts that WIAMan can produce data to feed AMANDA analysis, ultimately enabling the Army to better quantify risk to the warfighter and identify trade-offs during vehicle design. This analysis ensures growing Army knowledge in human vulnerability and automotive design — and soon, even more, as AMANDA will be integrating more WIAMan injury criterion this fiscal year.
By Kaylan Hutchison, DAC Strategic Communications
WASHINGTON –- The future Soldier will soon be significantly more lethal.
The Army recently announced that the Next Generation Squad Weapon, the XM5 rifle and XM250 light machine gun will replace the M4/M16 rifle and the 249 light machine gun, with some Soldiers expected to receive the weapons by the fourth quarter of 2023. New Hampshire-based weapons manufacturer Sig Sauer was awarded the contract.
The new weapon system will use the 6.8 mm family of ammunition instead of the 5.56 mm ammunition the M4/M16 utilized. The 6.8 mm has proven to outperform most modern 5.56mm and 7.62mm ammunition against a full array of targets.
“We should know that this is the first time in our lifetime – this is the first time in 65 years the Army will field a new weapon system of this nature, a rifle, an automatic rifle, a fire control system, and a new caliber family of ammunition,” said Brig. Gen. Larry Burris, the Soldier Lethality Cross-Functional Team director. “This is revolutionary.”
Army units that engage in close-quarters combat will be the first to receive the weapons including those with 11B infantrymen, 19D cavalry scouts,12B combat engineers, 68W medics, and 13F forward observers.
According to Brig. Gen. William M. Boruff, the program executive officer in the Joint Program Executive Office, the course of action to support readiness with the new ammunition is going to be carried out through a combined effort of the industrial base at Sig Sauer and the Lake City Ammunition Plant.
“Now, consider preparing a new weapon fielding starting with absolutely zero inventory and the industrial base being established. It’s daunting,” Boruff said.
Despite starting from the ground up the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant has actively began producing rounds during the prototyping process and will continue to provide ammunition in the future.
In 1964, before the Army entered the Vietnam conflict, the M16A1 rile was introduced into the service’s weapons rotation. It was a significant improvement on the M14 rifle, and it became the standard service rifle for Soldiers.
“The Next Generation Squad Weapon and ammunition will provide an immense increase in the capability for the close-combat force,” said Brig. William Boruff, program executive officer for armaments and ammunition.
In 2017, the Small Arms Ammunition Configuration Study identified capability gaps, and in 2018, the Next Generation Squad Weapon program was established to counter and defeat emerging protected and unprotected threats.
“We are here to establish overmatch against near-peer adversaries, and that is more urgent and relevant today than any time in recent history,” Burris said. “We are one giant step closer to achieving overmatch against global adversaries and threats that emerge on the battlefield of today and tomorrow.”
During the prototyping phase, the NGSW outperformed the M4 and M249 at all ranges, and leaders said that the maximum effective ranges will be validated during another testing phase.
Burris said that with the help of industry partners, the Army accelerated through an acquisition process that normally takes eight to 10 years to complete in only 27 months.
More than 20,000 hours of user feedback from about 1,000 Soldiers were collected during 18 Soldier touch points and more than 100 technical tests have shaped the design of the NGSW system. The Army will continue to improve on the weapon systems by combining new technology while decreasing size, weight, power and cost.
“This is a process driven by data and shaped by the user, the Soldier who will ultimately benefit on the battlefield,” Burris said. “The Soldier has never seen this full suite of capabilities in one integrated system.”
“We committed to kitting the Soldier and the squad as an integrated combat platform in order to introduce and enhance capabilities holistically. We are committed to creating an architecture that facilitates technology growth and capability integration across those platforms,” Burris added.
The XM5, which weighs about two pounds heavier than the M4, and the XM250, which is about four pounds lighter, are still in their prototype phase and may change slightly by the time it is out for mass production. The XM5 weighs 8.38 pounds and 9.84 with the suppressor. The XM250 weighs 13 pounds with a bipod and 14.5 with the suppressor.
Currently the XM5 basic combat load is seven, 20-round magazines, which weighs 9.8 pounds. For the XM250 the basic combat load is four 100-round pouches, at 27.1 pounds. For comparison: the M4 carbine combat load, which is seven 30-round magazines, weighs 7.4 pounds, and the M249 light machine gun combat load, which is three 200-round pouches, weighs 20.8 pounds.
The overall length of the weapons with suppressors attached are 36 inches long for the XM5 and 41.87 inches long for the XM250. The barrel of the XM5 is 15.3 inches long and the XM250 is 17.5 inches long. The barrel on the XM250 is also not considered a quick-change barrel like the M249.
“We are facilitating the rapid acquisitions of increased capabilities to enhance the ability of the Soldier and the squad to fight, win, and survive on the modern battlefield,” Burris said.
By SSG Michael Reinsch, Army News Service
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AUSTIN, Texas — As the Army expands efforts to shape and modernize the future force, it is coordinating with experts across the U.S. government to ensure breakthrough advances in future warfighting equipment and strategies are protected from adversaries.
Army Futures Command leaders recently met with Dr. Stacey Dixon, Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence, at the command’s Austin headquarters to discuss Army-led modernization activities and technological innovations. The visit included a trip to the nearby Army Software Factory, where Soldiers shared with Dr. Dixon their motivations for wanting to contribute directly to the creation of new tech solutions for the Army.
“Deep partnerships across government are essential to maintaining a competitive technological advantage for the U.S., and I enjoyed meeting firsthand the talented Soldiers who are equipping warfighters with modern, tech-enabled solutions to advance our national security,” said Dr. Dixon. Dr. Dixon’s visit also underscored the critical importance of safeguarding development in future tools and concepts — an aim shared by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the U.S. Army.
Through its Tech Protect initiative and rigorous information review process, the Army is actively minimizing the risk of compromising sensitive or proprietary information to ensure the U.S. maintains substantial technological advantages.
“We’re putting in a tremendous amount of effort at AFC to develop state-of-the art systems, equipment and strategies that will provide us with technological overmatch on future battlefields,” said Ed Mornston, Director of Intelligence and Security at Army Futures Command.
“Protecting these advances from compromise by those who seek to do us harm is a central part of our planning,” Mornston said.
The Army estimates that in recent years, 80 percent of compromised information has been obtained through unclassified or improperly secured controlled unclassified information.
With the implementation of Tech Protect, however, the Army, working with the Intelligence Community, has established additional protections to prevent foreign interests from stealing valuable intellectual property and repurposing if for their own military advances.
This enhanced protection posture, which includes reducing unprotected information exchange, ensures that Army modernization activities are able to proceed uninterrupted and ultimately deliver unrivaled operational capabilities to the future force.
By Maureena Thompson, Army Futures Command
