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Michael Kelly, IVAS Acquisition and Operations Chief

Monday, April 14th, 2025

Fort Belvoir, Va

If you had told 18-year-old Army recruit Michael J. Kelly in 1987 where he would be nearly four decades from then, he wouldn’t have believed it.

“I didn’t think I would be here after I retired from the Army,” Kelly said during a recent interview. “I didn’t think I’d go back into government civilian work.”

Yet after serving honorably in the Army for 25 years, Kelly proudly serves as the Acquisition and Operations Chief for Project Manager IVAS.

The Integrated Visual Augmentation Systems (IVAS) is the Army’s cutting-edge mixed-reality headset of the future that provides Soldiers with a single platform to train, rehearse, and fight through a mixed-reality heads up display. IVAS has the flexibility to integrate situational awareness tools such as low light and thermal sensors, augmented reality, advanced targeting capabilities, 3D mapping and navigation, squad immersive training, and much more all in one platform.

IVAS provides Soldiers with a level of situational awareness and human-machine integration capabilities not currently seen anywhere else in the world.

It’s that unprecedented level of flexibility and Soldier integration that Kelly is most excited about while working with IVAS.

“It’s the extensibility and everything else that we can bring into the system,” Kelly said about IVAS, noting the advancements offered to Soldiers now compared to when he was in the Army.

Having used old PVS-5 night vision goggles, which he jokingly described as “like strapping a brick to your face,” Kelly knows first-hand just how much Soldiers will benefit from using IVAS headsets.

“There’s no extensibility in goggles,” Kelly said, holding his hands up to his face to mimic binoculars as a way to demonstrate a goggle’s smaller field of vision. “You don’t get the extensibility or ability to be extensible.”

IVAS is unique in that it provides both low-light and thermal vision to Soldiers, as well a fused option to provide soldiers with an unprecedented amount of visibility all in one headset.

“When you’re in the woods, even with low-light and enhanced night vision there’s still parts you can’t see,” Kelly explained. “But if you turn thermals on, if there’s a person there they won’t be able to hide.”

That’s also in-part due to IVAS providing Soldiers a significantly wider FOV that what night vision or thermal goggles.

There’s a lot more that Kelly enjoys about working with IVAS, such as the headset’s digital zoom feature to allow soldiers to see objects from further away, or IVAS’ ability to create 3D maps and models that can be shared across all soldiers to provide enhanced situational awareness.

But it’s getting to work with the IVAS team that Kelly most appreciates.

“I like this team,” Kelly says, answering almost immediately when asked about what he liked most about his position. “This is a very high-performing team. It’s one of the things I enjoy about this. More than most places I’ve worked, it’s the team here at IVAS. And I’ve been on a lot of teams in a lot of situations both in and out of the Army.”

Kelly definitely speaks from experience, having served multiple tours in the Middle East during the height of the War on Terror.

Although he prefers not to think of moments during his life and career as highlights, Kelly did mention one moment in particular as something he is particularly proud of.

In 2008, Kelly was again deployed to Iraq as a First Sergeant. His unit was moved around a lot, due in part to the fact that America had already begun the process of withdrawing from the country. Despite that, all of Kelly’s unit returned home.

“We brought everybody back,” Kelly says. “We had some injuries, but no KIAs.”

Kelly has lived a fascinating life, one that has taken turns that even he never would have expected. Throughout all of it, however, Kelly has always held the mindset of embracing things as they come, and it’s led him to where he is today.

“Never say never. Because you don’t know what is going to change in your life,” Kelly said, reflecting on how he never imagined he’d have the duties and position he has now. “So keep your possibilities open. Keep your options open.”

By Zach Montanaro

Posted in Guest Post, PEO-Soldier | 5 Comments »

Airborne, SOF Soldiers Test New Weapon Sights

Monday, July 15th, 2024

FORT LIBERTY, N.C. — Airborne and special forces Soldiers at Fort Liberty are testing the latest small arms weapon sights.

The 82nd Airborne Division, joined by the 3rd and 10th Special Forces Groups, are in the final stages of testing the Family of Weapons Sights – Individual, or FWS-I, for static line and military free fall airborne infiltration.

The FWS-I program will provide Soldiers with thermal enablers for individual weapons.

“The FWS-I gives Soldiers the capability to see farther into the battlefield, increase surveillance and target acquisition range, and penetrate day or night obscurants,” said Lashon Wilson, a test coordinator for Project Manager Soldier Lethality.

“American paratroopers and special operations Soldiers are renowned for attacking when and where least expected and almost exclusively at night,” said Staff Sgt. Derek Pattle a test NCO with the Airborne and Special Operations Test Directorate, also known as ABNSOTD.

“Conducting forced entry operations during daylight hours leaves paratroopers exposed to enemy ground fire and counterattack during airborne assault,” he added.

“That’s why mastering night vision devices and targeting systems is a critical skill for Army paratroopers and Special Operators and vital to mission accomplishment during forced entry parachute assault.”

According to Capt. Joseph Chabries, a plans officer at ABNSOTD, the core question for military equipment employed by Army paratroopers and special operations regarding is in its survivability.

“’Can the system survive airborne infiltration?’” said Chabries.

“Individual paratroopers as well as vehicles and cargo delivery systems are bristling with technology, which can at times be fragile,” he added.

“Ensuring these systems are both suitable and effective for issue to airborne forces often requires a more technical approach.”

Staff Sgt. Dalton Carter, a weapons squad leader with 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division said, “I feel as if this is a step in the right direction for army night vision and lauded the operational features the FWS-I can provide his squad.”

The FWS-I test also exposed many veteran paratroopers to operational testing for the first time.

Sgt. David Brown, a fire team leader in Bravo Company, 1-325 Airborne Infantry Regiment, serving as a test participant during static line testing, said, “I feel like the FWS-I can be a real force multiplier for key leaders during hours of limited visibility or when the battlefield might be obscured.”

During post-drop operations, jumpers assembled for accountability and to ensure all FWS-Is were fully mission capable by performing a system functions check and collimation using the mobile boresight collimation station, which is used to evaluate the bore sight retention and repeatability of the FWS-I before and after static line and military free fall infiltration.

The data from the mobile boresight collimation station allows the test team to determine if and how much the boresight reticle on the FWS-I was moved or displaced due to any shock induced from exiting the aircraft, the opening of the parachute canopy or landing on the ground.

“ABNSOTD is one of the few organizations in the Department of Defense that maintains a bore sight collimation capability and the only mobile system of its kind,” said Mr. Jacob Boll, ABNSOTD’s operational research analyst.

The ABNSOTD instrumentation section is charged with maintaining and employing this unique capability and trained extensively to conduct post-drop weapons testing before beginning operational testing of FWS-I.

Maj. Joshua Cook, deputy chief of ABNSOTD’s Test Division described the importance of testing and how it plays into the future of technology in warfare.

“Operational testing is about Soldiers and ensuring the systems developed are effective in a Soldier’s hands and suitable for the environments in which they train and fight,” Cook said.

By Mr. Mike Shelton, Test Officer, Airborne and Special Operations Test Directorate, U.S. Army Operational Test Command

Posted in Army, Guest Post, Optics, Parachuting, PEO-Soldier | Comments Off on Airborne, SOF Soldiers Test New Weapon Sights

PEO Soldier Accelerating Integration with New Digital Engineering Ecosystem

Wednesday, July 3rd, 2024

Fort Belvior, Va –

In April, Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier introduced its Architectural Assessment Tool (AAT)—a first-of-its-kind government-owned digital engineering ecosystem (DEE). The new suite of tools functions as a cloud-based software hub for a hub-and-spoke ecosystem, providing systems engineers and equipment developers with a centralized data source for 3D modeling and configuration management.

The AAT was developed under the Adaptive Squad Architecture (ASA) program which began in 2018. The AAT addresses the need for a comprehensive catalog that provides the Army Acquisitions community immediate access to authoritative data about equipment for dismounted Soldiers.

In developing the catalog, the team’s primary challenge was answering the question of how best to describe a complex, highly contextualized Soldier platform when the Army enterprise has various needs in developing, producing, and fielding Soldier equipment.

According to Dan Kitts, Architecture Lead for ASA, “Most platforms pay a lead systems integrator (LSI) to perform this function. In the case of the Soldier platform, however, there are seventy to over one hundred distinct items on a given Soldier configuration but without an LSI to manage them.”

The solution evolved into a digital engineering environment with a suite of tools that provides users with immediate firsthand access to the central source of authoritative data. Since no out-of-the-box software solution existed, the ASA team built its own.

The new cloud-native software application is the product of a multi-year effort that included developing the software and preparing it for deployment on the Army cloud network cARMY, with secure enterprise access management through EAMS-A.

For Aaron Copeland, Lead Technical Manager for AAT, having a centralized digital catalog of Soldier equipment is crucial for the future of systems integration. “The complexities of Soldier equipment negate having a single expert. For informed integration, we needed a well-curated system that’s immediately accessible,” Copeland said. “Engineers haven’t had this before. Now they can crowdsource data and look at Soldier systems in detail.”

Functionally, the AAT enables engineers to drag and drop any number of PEO Soldier’s equipment items onto a 3D Soldier model (or digital manikin) and allows them to test-fit items for a clearer picture of potential configuration and interoperability challenges earlier in the developmental process.

The tool also gives engineers immediate access to specific data points like bandwidth, interfaces, aggregate weight, and Soldier load, helping create a common operating picture of the Soldier platform.

To Kitts, the real purpose of AAT is to foster Soldier centered design throughout an item’s lifecycle. “ASA’s mission is to place equipment in the context of the Soldier before Soldier Touch Points,” Kitts said. “The desired outcome is that Soldiers intuitively understand the equipment they receive

from PEO Soldier was built for them, similar to when someone unboxes a new phone or buys a new car.”

The AAT achieved Authority to Operate (ATO) and Authority to Connect (ATC) in April, giving the ASA team the green light to deploy the tool on cARMY.

The journey to achieving a government-owned solution was necessarily lengthy and Kitts appreciates the strategic patience ASA received from PEO Soldier’s senior leadership. “Their patience and support in getting us to this point allowed us to pivot from cybersecurity audit compliance to getting additional functionality, curating data, and onboarding additional DEE tools,” Kitts said.

The vision that drives this strategic patience has a broad focus – looking beyond enhancing PEO Soldier’s capabilities alone to helping close data-sharing gaps to foster more efficient collaboration with Army and Joint stakeholders.

“The real benefit of the Architectural Assessment Tool is helping our strategic partners achieve Soldier centered design,” explained Gary Keller, the Assistant Program Executive Officer for Futures and Integration, PEO Soldier. “With this tool, we can get accurate Soldier equipment data to the right people, when they need it, accelerating integration across the enterprise.”

With input from early adopters, the team continues to innovate with plans for AAT 2.0. The future update will feature an improved database better matched to describe Soldier context and a transition to a more widely used 3D engine.

In the near term, the ASA team is incorporating iPOWER, a power management system designed by the Naval Research Lab, and plans to add Cameo MagicDraw to the suite.

By Kris Hutsell, ARMY

Posted in Army, Digitization, Guest Post, PEO-Soldier | 1 Comment »

Hometown Army Fellow Joins PEO Soldier as Next Gen Body Armor Engineer

Monday, April 8th, 2024

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

Posted in Armor, Guest Post, PEO-Soldier | 8 Comments »

Welding Individual Protective Safety Ensemble

Sunday, April 7th, 2024

Last month, members of Product Manager Soldier Clothing and Individual Equipment (PdM SCIE) issued the Welding Individual Protective Safety Ensemble to Soldiers at Fort Eustis, Virginia is. The ensemble provides Soldiers with personal protective equipment to perform most welding duties in any operational environment. The equipment went into Limited User Testing and Evaluation with Allied Trade Specialists, focusing on Soldier ease of movement and functionality. Early testing included welding tasks while wearing body armor.

Posted in Army, Guest Post, PEO-Soldier | Comments Off on Welding Individual Protective Safety Ensemble

PEO Soldier Equips First Unit with the Army’s Next-Generation Combat Helmet

Friday, February 16th, 2024

WASHINGTON – On Feb. 12, 2024, PEO Soldier fielded the Next-Generation Integrated Head Protection System to approximately 2,000 Soldiers from the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, marking the first-unit-equipped milestone in enhancing Soldier protection.

The NG-IHPS is the Army’s newest combat helmet, replacing the previously fielded Integrated Head Protection System, the Advanced Combat Helmet, and the Enhanced Combat Helmet. The combat-ready NG-IHPS consists of a retention system, suspension system, helmet cover and a night vision device bracket that is able to integrate a mandible protector, hearing protection, communications and heads-up displays like the Integrated Visual Augmentation System and the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binocular.

“This fielding marks significant progress for Soldier protective equipment as it equips Soldiers with protection against relevant battlefield threats, and the innovative helmet design is a purpose-built platform for integration now, and with future Soldier-enabling devices,” said Lt. Col. Ken Elgort, product manager for Soldier Protective Equipment.

The NG-IHPS, which will be fielded to the close-combat force, interfaces with the next generation of night vision devices, while the mandible protector mounts onto the front of the NG-IHPS for additional protection. The mandible protector is fielded to 6% of the force operating in a mounted configuration.

“The NG-IHPS provides increased ballistic and fragmentation protection while reducing the weight required to previously reach this protection level by 40%,” said Maj. Matthew Nulk, assistant program manager of the Head Protection Team. “This is world-leading rifle threat protection we’re providing to our Soldiers.”

According to Alex de Groot, lead engineer for the Head Protection Team, “The boltless retention system and night vision device bracket mount on without compromising the helmet’s structural integrity, thus increasing protection.”

PEO Soldier will equip the 2nd and 3rd Brigade Combat Teams, 82nd Airborne Division, this quarter and will complete fielding to all close-combat force units over the next three years.

Program Executive Office Soldier is responsible for the rapid prototyping, procurement and fielding of equipment for Soldiers. NG-IHPS is part of the Soldier Survivability portfolio, the largest portfolio within PEO Soldier. The NG-IHPS is one part of the Soldier Protection System, which also includes the Modular Scalable Vest, the Ballistic Combat Shirt, the Blast Pelvic Protector and the Vital Torso Protection hard armor plates.

By U.S. Army Public Affairs

The photo is an Army photo of an IHPS, but not from this fielding.

Posted in Army, Guest Post, Helmets, PEO-Soldier | 10 Comments »

Looking Back, Program Manager Soldier Lethality Change of Charter

Friday, December 1st, 2023

Lindner Conference Center –

Project Manager Soldier Lethality held a change of charter ceremony, followed by a retirement ceremony, at Lindner Conference Center on Picatinny Arsenal, August 4.

Brig. Gen. Christopher Schneider officiated the exchange of responsibility of PM SL from the outgoing Program Manager Col. Scott Madore to Col. Jason Bohannon.

“There are three things I think are the secret sauce to being a great Program Manager,” said Schneider. “You have to lead fearlessly and with compassion. You have to have experience. The last thing I call stakeholder management, but it’s actually being a good teammate. Scott does all these things frankly better than most people I know.”

PM SL performs a pivotal role in equipping Soldiers with unparalleled proficiency in both individual and crew-served weaponry. By overseeing the development, production, deployment, and sustainment of contemporary and future weapon systems, along with target acquisition and fire control products, PM SL ensures a continual evolution. As a result, Soldiers are outfitted with advanced systems that significantly elevate their survivability and lethality, reinforcing their effectiveness in the field.

“I feel extremely honored to have been selected to come to Picatinny to be a part of PEO Soldier and to be part of the PM Soldier Lethality Team,” said Madore, giving his final remarks after handing the leadership reigns over to his counterpart. “I cannot imagine a greater group of teammates to finish my career working alongside.”

As the PM SL organization sends off Col. Madore and his family, a warm welcome is given to the leadership skills and technical expertise of Col. Bohannon. The newest member of the PM SL team here at Picatinny Arsenal is no stranger to this organization.

“My family first came here in 2012,” said Bohannon. “I’d like to thank everybody who contributed to putting me here today. This has been the homecoming for the Bohannon tribe…”

“So, when I talk to the Officers, men, and women of PM Soldier Lethality – you have the most consequential task of our generation for small arms development. We will field the most lethal small arms that ground forces have ever seen, those systems must be the most reliable tool a Soldier, Marine or operator can depend on are in a firefight, a tool that [they] can trust.”

This was not only a change of charter ceremony, but also an opportunity for Madore to celebrate his retirement ceremony. Madore served with honor in the military for 31 years. The entire organization wishes him and his family good luck and best wishes as they move toward future endeavors.

Be all you can be, Scott. Thank you for your service to the country and for everything you’ve done in your 31-year career.

Story by Luke Graziani, US Army

Photo by Jesse Glass

Posted in Army, Guest Post, PEO-Soldier | Comments Off on Looking Back, Program Manager Soldier Lethality Change of Charter

PEO Soldier Gets to Ground Truth on Soldier Equipment

Tuesday, November 14th, 2023

FORT BELVOIR, Va. – The Army is continuing its efforts to modernize the force and build towards the Army of 2030 and beyond. To support that effort, Program Executive Officer (PEO) Soldier is engaging with Soldiers at the ground level to get to the fundamental truth of how Soldiers are equipped in the operational environment and what gear they have modified or purchased for mission, environment, comfort and personal effect.

PEO Soldier’s Assistant Program Executive Officer (APEO) Soldier has been conducting Operational Kit (O.K.) Analysis with the operational force to collect this data.

O.K. Analysis seeks to address a multitude of objectives to help shape the Army of 2030 and the future Soldier. The effort looks to proactively identify opportunities utilizing the Soldier Enhancement Program (SEP), influence materiel change proposals, identify equipment training challenges and address installation Soldier equipment logistics challenges.

“The idea behind O.K. Analysis was hatched by APEO Soldier’s Senior Enlisted Advisor, MSG Josh Kaplan,” said COL Douglas Copeland, Assistant Program Executive Officer, PEO Soldier. “He identified the need to bridge the gap between what we think Soldiers and Squads carry as materiel developers and what is actually used out in the field.”

In launching the initiative, MSG Kaplan took a couple of key steps: First, he created a community of interest across various stakeholders. Second, he worked with SGM Daniel Rose, PEO Soldier Sergeant Major, to combine the O.K. Analysis event with the PEO Soldier Capabilities Demonstration, which informs the force of our current and emerging capabilities in the PEO Soldier portfolio. This strategy allows PEO Soldier to gain Soldier feedback about on operational needs and determine exactly how PEO capabilities are impacting the Force.

The goal is to provide operational context to the acquisition force, said SGM Rose. “We’re trying to explain to the acquisition professionals here at PEO Soldier and stakeholders in the Army enterprise how Soldiers are using the equipment that they are designing, procuring and fielding in the operational environment. What we found is that sometimes they won’t be using the equipment the way it was designed to be used. We try to bring that kind of context back to the acquisition force to help them as they’re designing and procuring new pieces of equipment.”

The O.K. Analysis team kicked off the program at USARCENT in Kuwait in March 2023 and has since engaged with the 11th Airborne and 25th Infantry Divisions. As a result, PEO Soldier has, to date, collected data from eight Squads and worked with senior leadership to establish an equipment baseline across the Army’s operational units.

The effort goes beyond simply questioning Soldiers about their thoughts and experience with PEO Soldier capabilities. MSG Kaplan explained, “We deploy a team of senior NCOs with extensive operational experience and extremely smart government contractors who carry out an array of responsibilities, such as data collection, statistics, logistics and photography. We collect several thousand lines of data, hundreds of photos and several hours of interviews that are analyzed as a part of an out-brief to communities of interest, then added to our holistic database for further analysis.”

After taking part in PEO Soldier’s O.K. Analysis engagement, SGM Brian Disque, G-3, 5 and 7 Sergeant Major, USARCENT, stated that he was very impressed with its effectiveness and potential benefits. He explained, “It is a very ambitious effort to answer an important question: What gear are Soldiers actually using and why? PEO Soldier took the idea of unit outreach and feedback to the next level with a meticulous approach to data collection to better understand the perspectives of Soldiers across the Army. The wealth of data collected will be very useful when informing future efforts to outfit our Soldiers. All of the Army should be grateful that this team was willing to roll up their sleeves and get out to all corners of our Army to answer these questions.”

This effort has already returned positive outcomes. Through the O.K. Analysis initiative, PEO Soldier has been able to strengthen critical partnerships with the Maneuver Center of Excellence, DEVCOM and several Army Corps. PEO Soldier has also been able to facilitate the establishment of Environmental Working Groups with these communities of interest, which include items discovered through the O.K. Analysis effort.

“The most important benefit of O.K. Analysis is to ensure that the Soldier’s voice is heard, including senior leaders in operational units who have important Soldier equipment insights,” Kaplan said. “We do this in the form of detailed equipment inventories, pictures and candid interviews that are shared with the enterprise. If someone asks, ‘Why is Soldier equipment getting heavier?’, our team can say, ‘Let me show you.’ There is a lot of power in that.”

Disque agreed, noting, “For USARCENT and our deployed force, the opportunity to provide our candid feedback to the professional data collection team is of immediate benefit. Innovation is one of our top priorities, and we are always searching for ways to bring innovative concepts to our Area of Responsibility (AOR). Soldier kit is one of those topics for which there is no shortage of great ideas out there, often based on real-world feedback from operating environments across the CENTCOM AOR – you just have to ask the right questions, which I am confident the PEO Soldier team executed to perfection.”

Through this effort, PEO Soldier began an Army-wide innovation synchronization effort that encompasses 18th Airborne Corps’ Eagle Works, I Corps’ Lightning Lab, USARCENT and PEO Soldier’s Soldier Integration Facility. This will allow stakeholders to collaborate and share data and integration solutions across the Close Combat Integration Enterprise (CCIE).

“Any opportunity to connect our modernization efforts to deployed Soldiers on a mission is valuable,” said Disque. “Some of the most innovative ideas come from operating in a deployed environment, and for the PEO team to have access to Soldiers that served recently in Syria and other areas is tremendous.”

Kaplan and his team have proactively submitted proposals for the Soldier Enhancement Program (SEP) on behalf of Soldiers through the O.K. Analysis. The SEP is a process designed to help the Army enhance Soldiers’ ability to execute their combat mission by evaluating prototypes and commercially available items submitted by Soldiers and industry. Since its inception six months ago, PEO Soldier has identified 23 potential SEP opportunities, which is an exponential increase relative to recent years. Soldiers, senior leaders and industry are also able to submit their own proposals utilizing PEO Soldier’s website.

“Soldiers are very innovative,” said Kaplan. “There is always that one Soldier in the Squad who can create ways for his unit to become more lethal. This initiative highlights innovative solutions so communities of interest can stay on pace with the operational force.”

CSM Joseph Gaskin, Command Sergeant Major, 1/11 Airborne Division, added to that assessment by stating, “Any effort the Army uses to better inform equipment requirements from the Soldier on the ground is value added to our formation. The O.K Analysis comprehensive program captured data that will assist leaders to better understand what risk the Soldier’s load presents as we operate in the extreme cold of our operational environment.”

PEO Soldier will continue its O.K. Analysis effort by visiting Soldiers with the 3rd Infantry Division in October and engaging with U.S. Army Europe in the second quarter of 2024. This ongoing effort will collect and share data amongst the CCIE to help shape the Army’s modernization efforts moving into 2030 and beyond.

PEO Soldier is now encouraging other interested U.S. Army operational divisions to reach out and schedule an O.K. Analysis of their area of responsibility.

“We look forward to expanding our O.K. Analysis across the Army’s operational units to further collaboration, leverage creative innovation and enable proactive capability development for Soldier equipment,” said Copeland.

By David Jordan

Posted in Army, Guest Post, PEO-Soldier | 5 Comments »