CTOMS™ is pleased to announce its participation in the 2024 SOMA conference in Raleigh NC. We will be showcasing our Mission Essential Training™ courses, CTOMS™ Academy e-learning platform, and the lines of our innovative Mission Essential Equipment™.
Visit us at booth 443 for some hands-on with our TRACE™ and FireFly™ micro rope systems, MGTD™ integrated belt and harness system, or newest aid bag, the 2ndLine™ Gen III.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Four Soldiers from Ashland City’s Troop B, 1st Squadron, 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment, won first place during the prestigious 2024 Sullivan Cup competition at Fort Moore, Georgia, from April 29 to May 3, 2024.
Held every two years and hosted by the U.S. Army Maneuver Center, the Sullivan Cup puts the best M1 Abrams tank and Bradley crews from across the U.S. Army, U.S. Marine Corps and its foreign allies in a head-to-head competition to test a crew’s maneuver, sustainment and gunnery skills. Each team is put through a series of challenges designed to determine the world’s best crew. This year, the 1st Cavalry Division won for best Bradley crew and the Tennessee National Guard won best tank crew.
“This is an amazing honor, and these Soldiers should be proud of all they have accomplished,” said Maj. Gen. Warner Ross, Tennessee’s adjutant general. “They competed against the best crews in the world and showed everyone Tennessee’s warrior spirit and what it means to be from the Volunteer state.”
This year’s Sullivan Cup included 62 competitors, comprising 58 men and four women, making up three-person Bradley crews and four-person tank crews. International competitors were from Canada, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. U.S. teams who competed were from the 1st Armored Division, 1st Cavalry Division, 1st Infantry Division, 3rd Infantry Division, 4th Infantry Division, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment and Tennessee’s 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment.
“If I ever wanted to win anything in my life, this is it right here,” said Staff Sgt. David Riddick, tank commander for the 278th crew. “It means everything to bring this trophy back to Tennessee as we showcased our combat skills and mettle.”
Riddick, along with his crewmembers, Sgt. Joshua Owen, Spc. Noah Eddings, and Spc. Seth Carter, competed in a series of rigorous challenges that tested their gunnery precision, tactical acumen, and cohesion. Through a combination of live-fire exercises, simulated combat scenarios, and tactical drills, they were tested in a variety of scenarios that replicated real-world battlefield conditions.
“The pressure was real,” said Riddick. “We knew we were competing against the best, so we had to give it everything we had because everybody else was too.”
By the end of the multi-day competition, the 278th crew defeated 10 other teams, six from active-duty Army units and four from allied nations.
“Winning was evidence of our team’s hard work and resilience,” said Riddick. “The competition challenged us to dig deep down in ourselves while trusting our teammates to be their best. And they excelled at it.”
By LTC Darrin Haas
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (May 10, 2024) – Silencer Central, the nation’s leader in silencer sales and accessories, announces the addition of FN silencer sales. FN’s two models of silencers, the FN Catch 22Ti and the Rush 9Ti will now be available to Silencer Central customers with an introductory bonus.
“Our goal is to be the ultimate one-stop source for silencers in the U.S.,” said Brandon Maddox, Silencer Central CEO. “We have a great relationship with FN and know the quality of the products they produce. It made it an easy decision to add FN’s silencers to the brands we offer our customers.”
“We are excited to have our line of FN suppressors now available through Silencer Central,” said Vice President of Sales and Marketing for FN America, LLC Chris Cole. “Purchasing a suppressor, whether it’s the first or third time, can be cumbersome and we are confident that our customers will appreciate the efficient and easy process, including the direct-to-your-door shipping, that Silencer Central offers.”
The FN Catch 22Ti is a lightweight, tough and quiet rimfire suppressor, reducing muzzle blast from all .22 LR firearms. It uses a direct thread ½” x 28 mount and has a user-serviceable blast baffle and baffle stack. The Catch 22Ti is rated for .22 LR, .22 MAG, .22 WMR and .17 HMR. It has a 1.1-in. diameter, and the titanium tube keeps the weight at 5 oz. The Catch 22Ti clears suppressor-height sights and comes with a limited lifetime warranty from FN. For a limited time, you can buy an FN Catch 22Ti silencer from Silencer Central and save an extra $100.
The FN Rush 9Ti is a highly versatile and reliable 9mm suppressor that mounts quickly and easily to any pistol barrel threaded ½” x 28. It uses a tight piston gas seal to contain carbon fouling in the baffle core, making for a smooth shooting experience without heavy blowback and stoppages. The FN Rush 9Ti is 7.3″ long with a 1.375″ diameter and a weight of only 10.8 oz. It carries a limited lifetime warranty from FN. For a limited time, you can get the FN Rush 9Ti from Silencer Central and get a free tax stamp, a $200 savings.
For more information, go to www.SilencerCentral.com or call (866) 891- 4494. Let Silencer Central’s expert team guide you through all the paperwork and get your approval started.
NEWINGTON, N.H., (May 10, 2024) – SIG SAUER, Inc. is pleased to announce the official booth presentation schedule for the upcoming NRA Annual Meeting (NRAAM) in Dallas, Texas. SIG SAUER will be located at booth number 9251 at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center beginning Friday, May 17, 2024 through Sunday, May 19, 2024.
The SIG SAUER booth presentations feature a SIG CONNECT capabilities demonstration, product walk throughs with members of Team SIG, and a full Team SIG autograph session.
The SIG SAUER NRAAM booth (#9251) presentation schedule is as follows:
Friday, May 17, 2024:
9:30am: SIG CONNECT Capabilities Demonstration
11:00am: SIG SAUER Red Dot with Team SIG Captain Max Michel
11:30am: SIG CONNECT Capabilities Demonstration
1:30pm: SIG CONNECT Capabilities Demonstration
2:00pm: SIG Military Product Review with Daniel Horner
3:30pm: SIG CONNECT Capabilities Demonstration
4:00pm: Team SIG Autograph Session
Saturday, May 18, 2024:
9:30am: SIG CONNECT Capabilities Demonstration
11:00am: SIG SAUER Red Dot with Team SIG Captain Max Michel
11:30am: SIG CONNECT Capabilities Demonstration
1:30pm: SIG CONNECT Capabilities Demonstration
2:00pm: SIG Military Product Review with Daniel Horner
3:30pm: SIG CONNECT Capabilities Demonstration
4:00pm: Team SIG Autograph Session
Sunday, May 19, 2024:
10:30am: SIG CONNECT Capabilities Demonstration
11:00am: SIG Military Product Review with Daniel Horner
11:30am: Team SIG Autograph Session
12:00pm: ROSE by SIG SAUER with Lena Miculek
12:30pm: SIG CONNECT Capabilities Demonstration
More daily content from SIG SAUER is available with Team SIG Professional Shooter and ROSE Visionary Lena Miculek at the ROSE Boutique and at the NRA Seminar Series with SIG SAUER Academy in Room D167 on the lower level of the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center.
The contract will see Avon Protection continue to supply and support the General Service Respirator (GSR) for all branches of the UK military’s forces from its facility in Melksham, Wiltshire.
9 May 2024, Melksham, UK: Avon Protection, the leader in innovative CBRN personal protective equipment, is pleased to announce that it has been awarded the continued supply of the General Service Respirator (GSR) and associated in service support contract by the UK Ministry of Defence.
The contract, over four years, with five further 12-month option periods is valued at up to £38 million.
The twin-canister, single-visor GSR is the standard issue respirator for all UK service personnel across the British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy. Designed and manufactured to the UK MoD’s precise specifications, it provides high-performance filtration protection for users operating in CBRN threat environments.
Avon Protection was first awarded the contract to supply and support the GSR in 2018. Since then, it has supplied over 90,000 GSRs to UK MoD users from its facility in Melksham, Wiltshire. This new contract will sustain many highly skilled jobs at the Melksham facility as well as in the supply chain that is primarily based in the United Kingdom – ensuring the nation maintains sovereign CBRN protection capability through domestic production and R&D.
“We are proud to have secured this new contract with the UK MoD, reaffirming our commitment to providing sovereign capability and unparalleled protection for those who tirelessly defend our nation,” Steve Elwell, President of Avon Protection, said. “We remain dedicated to delivering excellence so our protectors can complete their mission and come home safely, every time.”
“We welcome the award of this contract, which will ensure continued support of the respiratory protection available to our armed forces. We have worked with Avon on supporting GSR for the past 6 years and look forward to continuing this relationship, offering high levels of protection to our troops across the world,” Richard Bloomfield, Head of Electronic Warfare and CBRN at Defence Equipment and Support, said.
“This award demonstrates the strength of our technology and our commitment to protecting those who protect us by providing a world-leading sovereign CBRN protection capability from our facility in Wiltshire,” Jos Sclater, Chief Executive Officer, Avon Protection plc, said. “As we have seen with the reported deployment of chemical agents in Ukraine and in other recent conflicts, the highest grade CBRN protection is critical to operational capability for warfighters in the evolving reality of near-peer, hybrid warfare. We are very proud to have won this tender with the UK MoD and to continue support the UK’s objectives of providing the highest quality, most reliable and trusted protection equipment for our service men and women.”
NATICK, Mass. — Researchers at the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center, or DEVCOM SC, have invented a personal flow meter to measure water consumption. The invention, which has been licensed to an industry partner, will serve to help prevent dehydration in the nation’s warfighters. Preventing dehydration is important since it can impact Soldier health and performance. Monitoring and understanding hydration status of warfighters can help prevent heat exhaustion and heat stroke.
DEVCOM SC engineers Michael Wiederoder, Ph.D. (project lead), Eric Brack (project lead), Matt Hurley and Andrew Connors invented the device to specifically meet the needs of the nation’s Soldiers. Existing products didn’t provide the level of accuracy needed by warfighters, and some products require large batteries, which are impractical for Soldiers on the move.
“The flow meter is a handheld device with an inlet and outlet that connects to tubing that is currently used by Soldiers to drink from a hydration bladder they carry in their backpacks,” said Wiederoder. “Inside the device there is a water-wheel-like piece with fins that rotates as water passes through. There are magnets on the wheel that can either generate electricity or pass by a sensor that can correlate the volume of water consumed with the number of rotations by the wheel.”
Wiederoder explained that the flow meter tracks water consumption. The flow meter also helps Soldiers know when the filter needs to be changed, which is important because Soldiers often need to drink water that is available to them in their environment, making proper filtering essential.
“It can measure the amount of water that is consumed by an individual warfighter,” said Wiederoder. “It can also measure how much water is being added to the hydration bladder. The second part is relevant because the hydration bladder may contain a chemical filter that can only treat a certain volume of water. So, a flow meter can help warfighters understand when they need to change filters to ensure their water is safe to drink when they source it from the indigenous environment to reduce logistical burden.”
DEVCOM SC’s Bootstrap Initiative played a role in the development of the flow meter. The Bootstrap Initiative encourages innovation and provides employees the opportunity to come up with ingenious, cost-effective solutions to challenges facing the warfighter, while streamlining processes and minimizing bureaucracy. Through the Bootstrap program, DEVCOM SC’s civilian employees may submit proposals for a new technology, research project, business process, or administrative process that supports the Soldier Center’s science and technology mission.
Douglas Tamilio, director of DEVCOM SC, stated that the Bootstrap program is part of the organization’s dedication to finding cutting-edge solutions to best serve the warfighter.
“The innovative efforts of our world-class scientists and engineers enable us to work to overcome the challenges facing warfighters — all while optimizing their performance and increasing their lethality,” said Tamilio. “The development of a personal flow meter to measure water consumption, made possible by our Bootstrap program, is just one example of ongoing efforts to accelerate the process of getting the latest and best technologies into the hands of our warfighters.”
Wiederoder noted that the Bootstrap Initiative gave the team the boost their idea needed.
“The Bootstrap program allowed the team to turn an idea to solve a known problem into a physical device without waiting for the conventional proposal cycle,” said Wiederoder. “We had the right people, expertise, and equipment already at SC, we just needed Bootstrap funding to get started.”
The DEVCOM SC team used some of the Bootstrap funding to 3D print multiple iterations of two different flow meter designs and test their performance. The result is a compact, accurate device that can be manufactured with low-cost components, and since it is self-powered it can be used without the need for batteries.
The team then used test performance data generated to support filing of a patent application for the flow meter, with the patent being issued in 2022. DEVCOM SC signed a patent license agreement with HydroSmart, LLC, in early 2024. HydroSmart is an Ohio-based company that develops fluid consumption and hydration monitoring and management solutions for consumer, healthcare and military markets. DEVCOM SC’s patent license agreement with HydroSmart is an important next step in turning the prototype into something that is readily available to the warfighter.
“This partnership enables HydroSmart to leverage DEVCOM SC’s cutting-edge research and innovative patent to develop our emerging portfolio of products for monitoring and management of personal water consumption for the commercial sports and personal fitness markets,” said Matt Annen, HydroSmart’s chief executive officer. “Additionally, through ongoing collaboration with the Soldier Center’s expertise, HydroSmart is committed to developing an in-line solution for existing hydration bladders utilized by the Army. This collaboration supports our mission to deliver superior hydration monitoring systems which profoundly impact Soldier and citizen health and wellness. HydroSmart commercialization is also supported by the State of Ohio’s Technology Validation and Startup Fund, which has provided a grant to the company to prototype the commercial product.”
Wiederoder said that the patent license agreement will facilitate turning DEVCOM SC’s prototype into a “rugged, portable, food-safe device with integrated electronics.” He noted that the license will enable the technology to mature to the point “where it could be integrated into a user demonstration or field test to generate data needed for transition and potential acquisition by the Department of Defense.”
The technology also has potential to eventually benefit the general public, becoming a useful tool for athletes or anyone participating in physical activity. There is also the potential for other military and medical applications.
Wiederoder and the team are proud of the progression of their invention, and they are committed to serving the warfighter.
“It feels great to know that something you work on as a public servant could improve the lives of the warfighters,” said Wiederoder. “Especially preventing something as potentially tragic as dying from heat stroke due to dehydration. I think it’s really the dream of any researcher at the Soldier Center that the projects they put so much time and thought into end up helping the warfighters who sacrifice so much for our country.”
By Jane Benson, DEVCOM Soldier Center Public Affairs
SAN DIEGO/ROSSLYN – 08 May 2024 – Today, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) announced its partnership with Shift5 to integrate the company’s onboard cyber anomaly detection and predictive maintenance capabilities into the MQ-9A Reaper for the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) and Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC). The GA-ASI and Shift5 partnership will assure AFSOC and SOCOM mission readiness and cyber survivability.
“GA-ASI has long maintained a focused commitment to unmanned combat operations and unmatched unmanned aircraft system (UAS) experience, exemplified through our MQ-9A Reaper,” said GA-ASI President David R. Alexander. “The next logical and immediate extension of our work in enabling the U.S. Air Force is empowering AFSOC and SOCOM with additional resiliency and survivability of the MQ-9A on the battlefield. Shift5 represents a new class of dual-use defense tech business that can successfully operate at speed and scale with us to make an immediate impact for the warfighter.”
The Shift5 Platform reveals critical operational and cybersecurity insights that enable operators to move from data to decisions quickly and confidently. The Shift5 Platform deploys on premises or in the cloud and supports streaming and air-gapped modes for offline and online capability.
“The battlefield of the future will include more remotely piloted, autonomous, and unmanned systems. Central to maintaining advantage in this operating environment is access to real-time data,” said Josh Lospinoso, CEO and co-founder of Shift5. “Our work with GA-ASI represents one of the most efficient and effective ways that AFSOC and SOCOM can gain access to critical operational and cybersecurity insights, democratize that data, and maintain decision dominance.”
Shift5 achieved its first cross-platform Authority to Operate (ATO) Certification from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in April 2023, validating the resilience and security of the Shift5 Platform. Most recently, the company announcedits contract with the U.S. Army to secure the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) against cyber threats and provide readiness assessments to enable predictive maintenance. It also introduced the GPS Integrity Module, the first known cross-platform solution to automate detection and alerts to combat GPS spoofing risks.
NEWINGTON, N.H., (May 9, 2024) – SIG SAUER Academy is proud to present the NRA Seminar Series at the upcoming NRA Annual Meeting in Dallas, Texas on Friday, May 17, 2024 through Sunday, May 19, 2024.
The NRA Seminar Series is inclusive of hour-long educational seminars hosted by the professional instructors of the SIG SAUER Academy offering brief instructions and tips on pistol mounted optics, concealed carry considerations, handgun and rifle selection, and long-range shooting.
The SIG SAUER Academy NRA Seminar Series will take place in room D167 on the lower level of the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center. The schedule is as follows:
Friday, May 17, 2024:
10:00am: Pistol Mounted Optics
3:00pm: Concealed Carry Considerations
Saturday, May 18, 2024:
10:00am: Choosing the Right Handgun
3:00pm: Choosing the Right Rifle
Sunday, May 19, 2024:
1:00pm: Introduction to Long Range Shooting
2:00pm: Pistol Mounted Optics
For more information about SIG SAUER Academy and the SIG Experience Center visit sigsaueracademy.com.
