My first interaction with PEO Soldier BG Nichols was at a recent media roundtable. I can tell you that she knows her stuff and I get the feeling she is a hands on kind of a leader. These photos, taken during a recent visit to Afghanistan of her and CSM McPherson only solidify this position. They were on a fact finding trip, soliciting feedback from the field on how the equipment they provide to our Soldiers is holding up under some of the most rugged conditions on earth.
Photos: US Army
In the past, PEO Soldier has produced large format, bound copies of briefing sheets for their entire portfolio. But this year, they’ve gone high tech and have published it on the web. These days, as fast as things move, a hard copy version is out of date as soon as it’s printed.
For those of you who don’t follow us on Twitter or just plain old missed it, we’ve taken all of our tweets and posted them here so you can see what you missed. There in chronological order although sans time stamp. And remember, you got all of this, live as it unfolded.
BG Nichols, PEO Soldier related that they spent $2.8 Billion on Soldiers last year.
#PEOSodlier officials regularly visit troops in the field for constant feedback on equipping issues
COL William Cole relates that #PEOsoldier is fielding kevlar bike shorts as pelvic protection.
(more…)
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
*UPDATED* Natick has been busy developing several new variants of UCP which retain the base pattern but replace individual colors. Word has it that some of them are down right ugly. It has recently been revealed by Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, PEO-Soldier that the new “UCP-Delta” which integrates Coyote Brown into the pattern along with Multicam will be evaluated in Afghanistan beginning in October. In response to the Congressional directive to field a new camo pattern for operations in Afghanistan two Battalions worth of uniforms will be tested.
Below are two photos of UCP-Delta. One with an IOTV and one without.
Photos courtesy of PEO-Soldier
According to sources at Natick, 30% of the pattern of the UCP-Pattern is Coyote Brown. One advantage exhibited in the photos is that UCP Delta offers the perception that current UCP field equipment will not need to be replaced.
We recently mentioned that the Army is working to pair the Army Combat Shirt with a Pant. A successful Limited User Evaluation earlier this year is going to be followed up with a rather extensive Field Trial in Afghanistan early next year.
Yes, they look mysteriously like Crye knee pads.
While there is still no formal requirement for the ACP, newly revealed plans include integrating the trouser’s special features into the ACU. Naturally, by extension, any changes made to the ACU will also be made to the FR-ACU. So, perhaps by 2011 we could begin to see the ACU transform once again into an even more combat focused uniform. What will be interesting to see is if it can survive peacetime.
BG Mark Brown will turn over PEO-Soldier to BG Peter Fuller on an as yet determined date. BG Fuller is a former Armor officer and currently serves as RDECOM’s Deputy Commander. BG Brown will move to Deputy for Acquisition and Systems Management, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army (Acquisition, Logistics and Technology).
Titusville, Florida: On Thursday June 12, 2008 the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Material Command and the U.S. Army Vice Chief of Staff awarded C. Reed Knight Jr., owner of Knight’s Armament Company of Titusville, Florida one of the Army’s “Top Ten Greatest Inventions of 2007” award in a ceremony held in Arlington, Virginia.
The award was presented to Mr. Knight for the M110 7.62mm Semi-Automatic Sniper System (SASS) that was Type Classified by the Army in 2007.
Knight Armament Company initially won the Army program to develop and field a new sniper rifle system during 2005 in a hotly contested competition against some of the bigger and well known names in the gun industry. However, Knight’s ability to beat all others during months of rigorous army testing was partly due to the maturity of their existing design- the Mk 11 Mod 0 Sniper Rifle System officially adopted by the U.S. Navy for the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) in 2000. That was when Knight’s had less than 100 employees and was located in Vero Beach, Florida. But since the Gulf War has ended, they have moved to Titusville Florida, creating 350 new job opportunities; while greatly expanding their production capability by about 10 times.
“When we read the Army’s SASS requirement prior to the 2005 competitive selection, we knew that we were already close to achieving what the Army wanted by modifying the rifle we were currently building for USSOCOM,” so said Mr. C. Reed Knight Jr., “so we designed and incorporated some new features that the Army advertised they needed.” But what is really neat about this award is that it’s the result of thousands of soldiers voting for our rifle. Nine other items also received enough votes to make this top ten ranking, but Knight’s was totally privately developed and funded whereas many others were government funded-and Knight’s was the only rifle selected.
The completeness of this “kit” was another advantage Knight’s was able to gain through its many years of supporting this type mission with specialized sniper rifles for other elite services, accessories designed for tactical dominance, state-of-the-art night vision solutions, and sound suppressors to name a few.
The M110 SASS delivers precision, rapid fire on targets,and enables execution of operational missions not possible using the current weapon system.High capacity, ammo configurable, quick change magazines enable suppressed, increased rate of fire precision lethality against personal targets and light material targets. This capability allows for more rapid and focused engagements on several targets with multiple follow-on shots. The SASS is the first U.S. Army weapon system that integrates a quick attach/detach sound suppressor to aid with Warfighter survivability.
More information on the entire line of Knights products can be found here.
