Kryptek
March 7th, 2012Personal Augmentation Technology – Call for White Papers
March 7th, 2012The US Army Research Development Engineering Command, Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC), Natick, MA, is conducting a Request for Information for Concept (White) Papers on Personal Augmentation Technologies for the Warfighter and Homeland Defender.
They are interested in technologies and concepts that provide improvements in strength, endurance and/or ergonomics while maintaining user safety and reducing muscular fatigue, physical injury, and soreness during various load carriage and various tasks, are of interest. Example load carriage tasks include heavy and repetitive lifting, load transport, and difficult load tasks in unique environments. Ease of use and integration with current and future user clothing and individual mission equipment are factors of interest. Long operating life from a reliable power source, and low cost are also factors of interest.
There are 4 specific personal augmentation technology types sought:
1. Agility – Lightweight, low-powered, quick reaction physiological assist device for dismounted users. Injury reduction, high mobility, and endurance are key focuses.
2. Support – Physiological assist device that helps wearer to conduct sustainment and logistics tasks including heavy supply lifting, loading, unloading, and transporting at a Forward Operating Base (FOB) or alike. Injury reduction, strength assist, and throughput/production augmentation are key focuses.
3. Extreme Support – Specialized physiological assist device designed for specific tasks in extreme environments. Able to interface with special tools to conduct specific tasks. Example users include wild land firefighters and urban search and rescue. Injury reduction, strength assist, and high mobility are key focuses.
4. Depot / Industrial – Specialized physiological assist device designed for specific tasks in unique depot environments. Able to interface with special tools to conduct specific tasks. Injury, stress, and fatigue reduction and throughput/production augmentation are key focuses.
Interested parties have until March 31 to submit white papers in accordance with NSRDEC Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) 11-13, under topic # C16- Future Warrior Technology Integration, which can be found at https://www3.natick.army.mil/. Proprietary information will not be shared outside of the Government.
Check out the solicitation on FBO.
Check Out N-Vision at IWA
March 7th, 2012IWA attendees, be sure to stop by N-Vision Optics at Stand 7A-426 in the US Pavilion.
They’ll be showing several new products including the Long Range Surveillance Monocular which is compatible with Nikon and Canon SLR Cameras and their lenses as well as the PVS Dual Mount seen above.
More Photos of the Browe BCO 4 x 32 in A-TACS AU
March 7th, 2012
SSD Server Upgrades
March 7th, 2012As you probably have noticed over the past few months our server has been a little overwhelmed so we are moving to a new server tonight. By morning you should notice a significant difference and within 24 hours all of the DNS servers should have updated with our new IP and everyone can have a more enjoyable SSD experience. We’re running both servers simultaneously during the process so you shouldn’t experience any interruptions.
I want to say thank you to all of you guys who helped crush the server on Sunday under the weight of your clicks. It was the straw the broke the camel’s back and hastened our long delayed move. Everyone will be the better for it.
Thanks to SC Webmaster for your continued support throughout our growth.
The Brookwood Army Camo Improvement Effort Submission
March 6th, 2012We got some photos of Brookwood’s finalist submission for the US Army Camouflage Improvement Effort and at first we didn’t want to offer them because the patterns didn’t seem to share a common geometry. We were actually hoping to get some better photography that would show the patterns’ common features. Turns out, having a true family of patterns with common geometry was just general guidance and not a factor in selection and the Brookwood patterns don’t include this feature. So here they are.
Thanks for the photos LH
More On Withdrawn Army Pattern
March 6th, 2012
We have learned a bit more about the withdrawn Army pattern from the Camouflage Improvement Effort. Considering several indicators as well as sources of information we believe with a high degree of confidence that the withdrawn pattern is Scorpion. If this is true then it makes complete sense to withdraw the pattern. As it is, there is already OCP (MultiCam) being used as the transitional baseline pattern as well as a Crye Precision finalist family of patterns that are by all accounts, based on the successful MultiCam pattern but featuring individual patterns with specific environmental coloration. So, there will be plenty of MultiCam to go around.
DoD photo by RD Ward
As you can see from this photo, the pattern is in the MultiCam family but really more of an ancestor. Scorpion was developed by Crye Precision under contract for the Army’s Objective Force Warrior Program starting in the early 00s. As the Army transitioned the program it dropped the Scorpion pattern and Crye independently refined the pattern and began to slowly market it as MultiCam. Specialized military units saw promise in the pattern and began to use it. Simultaneously, it was picked up by the tactical industry and offered commercially making it easier for small unit adoption. This increased use of MultiCam by military forces is a truly successful case of grassroots marketing and by the late-00s it was being worn by both American as well as Allied SOF. Over the past two years it has been selected for use by the US Army and Air Force for use in Afghanistan as well as by the UK and Australian military in national variant forms.
Natick kept the Scorpion pattern in their vaults and would occasionally trot it out for experimentation and development including competitive testing. Since it was independently developed by the Army over the past decade the current version is going to be a bit different than Crye Precision’s MultiCam. Apparently, Scorpion was chosen by the Natick as their sole entry for the Army Camouflage Improvement Effort after the decision was made to go with four commercial families of patterns and one Government derived family rather than the original three and two. That tells us that someone has a lot of confidence in the design.
ECHO NiNER – Patch Giveaway on Facebook
March 6th, 2012Remember those cool morale patches from ECHO NiNER we recently showed you? Well now you can win them. ECHO NiNER is trying to reach 500 Facebook fans by the end of March. If they reach their goal they will give away some patches.
To enter the giveaway, you simply have to “Like” their Facebook page, www.facebook.com/echoninerusa.
