According to COL Scott Armstrong, PM Soldier Weapons the Army has renamed the XM25. During today’s PEO Soldier media roundtable he relayed that although originally called the Counter Defilade Target Engagement (CDTE) System the XM25 is now known as the Individual Semi-automatic Airburst System to more accurately describe what it actually does.
I still prefer “Punisher.”
The most common questions we currently field are for updates on Phase IV of the Army’s Camouflage Improvement Effort. Finally, we have an answer. In a PEO Soldier media roundtable earlier today COL William Cole, PM Soldier Protection and Individual Equipment related that the Army received over 20 submissions for their solicitation. The picture-in-picture evaluation strategy has been completed by over 900 Soldiers viewing the patterns in 45 environments. Currently, the Army is evaluating the data. According to COL Cole, they plan to brief the Army Senior Leadership late this month. Ultimately, the mix of patterns may be 3 commercial families and 2 Government or possible 4 commercial variants to 1 Government family of patterns.
At 10 AM EDT today, BG Camille Nichols will host her first media roundtable at the Pentagon. SSD will provide coverage via dial in. Follow our live updates on Twitter twitter.com/soldiersystems
PEO Soldier has finally dispensed with the awkward “Flame Resistant Improved Army Combat Uniform Trouser” and finally called it what it is, an Army Combat Pant (ACP). What’s even better is that they are taking the next step from the pre-solicitation released in late June and have a released a full solicitation for a Commercial Army Combat Pant. This methodology leaves the details open to the vendor and gives general guidelines on the construction of the pants to the vendor. Proposals are due by 25 August 2011 at 3:00 PM EST so if you have a product to offer you’d better get your submission together.
This is a photo of a prototype.
It is going to make a great companion for the Army Combat Shirt and this is a big win for the Soldier.
Make the jump to read all of the details
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The Army’s latest round of Small Business Innovative Research topics includes several from Natick Soldier Systems Center and PEO Soldier.
Natick Soldier RD&E Center
A11-126 Energy Reducing, Ruggedized, Solar Lighting System
A11-127 First Generation of Controlled-Release Bacteriocins/Anti-Microbials
A11-128 Lightweight Material for Full-Scale Parachutes
A11-129 Methodologies and Algorithms for Ground Soldier Load and Route Selection Decision Applications
A11-130 High-Efficiency Energy-Harvesting Battery Charger/Storage Unit
PEO Soldier
A11-134 Nanostructured High Performance, High Angle of Incidence Anti-Reflection Coatings
A11-135 Thermally Responsive Fibers for Environmentally Adaptive Textiles
Officially, the SBIR program:
“The goal of the dual-use SBIR program is to tap into the innovativeness and creativity of the small business community to help meet government R&D objectives. At the same time, these small companies develop technologies, products, and services which they can then commercialize through sales in the private sector or back to the government.”
SBIRs are a great, low-cost way for the Army to rapidly investigate technology development in industry. Broken up into phases, success is awarded with funding for further development. Several years ago, SOCOM’s Modular Glove System was developed by Outdoor Research through a SBIR.
This year’s solicitation is in pre-release with the solicitation opening on 29 August, 2011 and closing 28 September, 2011. Visit www.acq.osd.mil/osbp/sbir/solicitations/sbir113/army113.htm for additional information as well as full submission instructions.
Yesterday, LTC Shawn Lucas (right in the photo above) assumed the charter for Program Manager Individual Weapons from LTC Chris Lehner who had held the position since September, 2008. LTC Lucas comes to his new position with a wealth of small arms experience having served as a Systems Coordinator for Small Arms and most recently as a Program Analyst for Soldier/Maneuver Systems in the Army G-8, Program Analysis and Evaluation Directorate.
A change of charter is akin to a change of command in a troop unit. The ceremony was officiated by COL Scott Armstrong, Project Manager Soldier Weapons, (left in the photo above). Earlier this month, COL Armstrong assumed the charter of PM Soldier Weapons from COL Douglas Tamilio. This is an exciting time to be working in Army small arms with dual pathed strategies for improvements to the existing M4 carbine as well as the search for an entirely new Individual Carbine.
Congratulations!
Here, we see Soldiers from the US Army’s 1/158th Long Range Surveillance and Australian 51st Far Queensland Regiment, Norforce and the Pilbara Regiment as a joint Australian/U.S. surveillance unit at Shoalwater Bay Training Area, Queensland, Australia, during Exercise Talisman Sabre 2011.
Australian Defence Force photo by ADF Lance Corporal Mark Doran/Released
Since it looks like PEO Soldier programs are on the chopping block, we thought this photo would be a great reminder to all as to why there is a Army Camouflage Improvement Effort. All we see these days are photos out of Afghanistan with Soldiers sporting the effective OCP. Don’t forget, it’s a big world out there and in most of it, UCP is still the uniform of the day.
Stay the course. Select and field effective camouflage for our troops.
Nett Warrior was the Army’s latest, in a long line of digitization efforts designed to increase the situational awareness of the Soldiers. But, earlier today we received reports that Nett Warrior, the culmination of over 20 years of development and testing, has been cancelled in favor of a Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) based handheld device combined with a Soldier radio. Numerous reports have recently mentioned experiments using the Android operating system on board the Joint Battle Command-Platform, developed by MITRE Corp. Apparently, they’ve paid off. Look for an RFQ on this piece soon.
This decision will come as a blow to three major defense contractors who have not traditionally participated in the Soldier Systems industry: Rockwell Collins, Raytheon, and General Dynamics. All three were contenders for the production version of Nett Warrior and all three invested a great deal of capital in preparing for this program. What’s just as bad are the countless small business vendors who had partnered with these companies who will have to make some tough decisions in the coming weeks.
One question comes to mind. Is this the first casualty of the new defense budget environment or a preemptive move by new PEO Soldier BG Camille M. Nichols to cut some chaff and protect the rest of her portfolio of programs from the budget axe?
While it’s not really all that surprising from an operational standpoint that Nett Warrior was cancelled, there has been a great deal of Congressional interest in the concept as it has transitioned from one program to the next over the past 20 years beginning with Land Warrior. You can go back a few more if you include SIPE (Soldier Integrated Protective Ensemble). It will be interesting to see if Congress once again breathes life into this program considering the number of jobs it represents.
