FORT GREELY, Alaska — Deployed Soldiers are constantly loaded with gear, but are particularly encumbered when operating in a cold weather environment.
In addition to their conventional weapons, Soldiers need to utilize heavy equipment like space heaters, cooking stoves, fuel and heavy-duty thermal tents to survive operations in arctic climates.
The Army’s Arctic Mobility Sustainment System, or AMSS, all-regions tactical clothing with updated cold weather clothing, snowshoes and ski poles underwent rigorous testing at U.S. Army Arctic Regions Test Center — known as ARTC — this winter with the help of Soldiers from the Army’s 11th Airborne stationed at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
“We’re traveling longer distances to get the snow that we need,” Hannah Henry, ARTC test officer. “We’re getting a lot more data this year.”
The AMSS items under test will replace the legacy Ahkio sled and 10-person tent the Army currently uses. Testers expected extreme cold for the multi-week test, and the interior Alaska winter delivered a wide span of Arctic conditions, from brutal temperatures below 0 degrees Fahrenheit to rapid, but short-lived swings to relatively mild winter temperatures only slightly below freezing.
“We’re testing some different base layers,” said Steven Prewitt, ARTC test officer. “Our unusually warm winter here has been very good for observing insulating and moisture management factors with the clothing.”
On a typical day, Soldiers would pack an AMSS sled under test with the tent, a heater, and their basic standard issue items for arctic infantry operations, then pull the sleds in either nine-Soldier squads or four to five Soldier teams as ARTC’s test personnel led the way. Moving the heavy sleds across CRTC’s hilly tundra, thickly forested areas and the dense, frozen boggy vegetation called muskeg is challenging in any conditions, but particularly so in extreme cold and deep snow.
“Our snow is so dry and powdery,” said Isaac Howell, Chief of ARTC’s Test Operations Division. “You don’t stand on it at all, whether you are on skis or in snowshoes — you don’t go across the top of it, you go through it. You are plowing snow the entire day regardless of whether you are wearing snowshoes or not.”
After a two-and-a-half-hour movement, testers kept track of how long it took the soldiers to emplace and erect each tent and get the space heaters operating. Following a cold weather MRE for lunch, the Soldiers disassembled the tent and heater and returned to their day’s starting point following a different route. Following a sensing survey on their opinion of the items and hot meal, the Soldiers reassembled the tents and heaters and prepared to sleep in the long, cold Arctic night.
Through it all, telemetry on the Soldiers measured their body core and extremity temperature for both feedback on the clothing and for safety. They also participated in a comprehensive feedback focus group every week that will be used when assessing the effectiveness of the tested gear.
By Mark Schauer
