Ever on the lookout for ways to lighten its soldiers' load, the U.S. Army is eyeing new ways to keep troops' battery-powered gadgets and gear charged.
Among the proposed systems are propane, methane and solar power. Another promising contender, Army officials said, is a BAE Systems idea to make body armor that acts like a battery.
Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, with the service's Program Executive Office Soldier, has likened soldiers to Christmas trees.
"We keep hanging things on the soldiers," he said. "We are putting on more gear, and not taking anything off. It may only be 5 pounds, but 5 pounds is 5 pounds."
The problems and promise inherent to emerging technology are evident in Nett Warrior, a system that will provide better situational awareness by plotting friendly and enemy locations as well as mission objectives on a digital map. The map will be viewed through an eyepiece mounted on the soldier's helmet. It will be a great asset on the battlefield, Fuller said, but again - power is an issue.
To operate its predecessor, Land Warrior, one soldier needs three batteries a day. The batteries weigh 2.2 pounds each. A company requires 578 batteries a day, which requires another 4.08 kilowatts from generators to recharge the batteries in 10 hours. That comes at a heavy cost, when petroleum is running upwards of $400 a barrel in Afghanistan.
A leading contender to replace batteries has emerged through ECLiPSE Gear, an arm of BAE. Called the Integrated Power System, it is a conformal battery shaped like body armor that can be wired for individual devices.
The system offers a 72-hour battery life in the field - promising news for soldiers who have to carry as many as 300 AA batteries for a typical three-day mission.
The plates contain interconnected battery cells and a unique safety system that shuts down a string that has been compromised. As such, a plate can take damage in one portion and the remainder will still work. In addition, the battery strings are made of nonflammable material to eliminate the threat of secondary explosion or acidity, said Michael Haynes, manager of business development at BAE's Security and Survivability department.
"We've done a lot of destructive testing on these with actual projectiles and simulated fragmentation, and they have performed very well," Haynes said.
Each battery has 100 watt-hours of storage and a small LED indicator to show how much power remains. A distribution hub allows a soldier to run four systems off the hub.
An empty battery can be fully charged in an hour, and it can be charged via a vehicle power adapter if a soldier is on the move, Haynes said.
The front and back plates weigh only 2.3 pounds, and the side plates weigh 1.5 pounds. A soldier need carry only as many plates as the mission requires.
Right now, five batteries will meet the communications requirements for a squad on a standard Afghanistan mission, Haynes said. That's not five batteries per person - that's five batteries for the whole squad.
But as individual soldiers need more power for things such as Nett Warrior, soldiers are likely to wear their own batteries. For example, BAE modified the MBITR radio by taking off the big battery block and replacing it with an adapter that plugs into the vest.
The IPS is making its way through Army channels as it undergoes final testing by BAE.
"Our metric is not 'How many MRAPs have we lost?' Our metric is 'How many kids have been killed and how many have been injured?'"Fuller said.
Congress in the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act requires the defense secretary to conduct a study to "more effectively address the research, development, and procurement requirements regarding reducing the weight of body armor." That study is due to Congress by June 22.
So significant is the issue that the forthcoming Soldier Technology U.S. Conference is focused entirely on lightening the load and increasing situational awareness for the small unit and tactical operator. The conference is taking place the week of Jan. 31 in Washington, and features dozens of defense, industry and international experts.
But making lighter body armor is easier said than done.
"We've taken your grandmother's china, wrapped it in Kevlar and given you the capability," Fuller said. "You want more protection? More china, more Kevlar, that's weight. How do we move this forward?"
This comes at a time when government agencies have called into question the methods and materials used to make body armor. Among them:
■ A March 31, 2008, report by the Defense Department's inspector general found 13 contracts that did not have documentation of first-article testing;
■ An Oct. 16, 2009, Government Accountability Office report said the Army failed to follow established testing standards for X Small Arms Protective Inserts, or XSAPI. The report said several aspects of the new armor would have failed if tests were done properly;
■ Army Secretary John McHugh on Nov. 20, 2009, ordered an independent review by the National Research Council. It focused specifically on the behavior of ballistic clay and on other issues relating to the test process.
In its subsequent April 22, 2010, report, the council outlined 19 recommendations that are "urgently needed to achieve greater part-to-part consistency in the ballistic clay, to analyze [back-face deformation] dynamics, to determine possible replacements for modeling clay, to achieve a national clay standard for testing body armor, and to implement statistically based protocols."
■ A Jan. 3 DoD inspector general's report that said the IG could provide only "limited assurance" that Interceptor Body Armor vest components meet ballistic and quality requirements.
Col. William Cole, project manager of Soldier Protection and Individual Equipment, emphasized that Army body armor has never failed to stop a threat for which it is rated, and often outperforms its rating.
"I am confident we are fielding the best possible body armor," Cole said.
Among the proposed systems are propane, methane and solar power. Another promising contender, Army officials said, is a BAE Systems idea to make body armor that acts like a battery.
Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, with the service's Program Executive Office Soldier, has likened soldiers to Christmas trees.
"We keep hanging things on the soldiers," he said. "We are putting on more gear, and not taking anything off. It may only be 5 pounds, but 5 pounds is 5 pounds."
The problems and promise inherent to emerging technology are evident in Nett Warrior, a system that will provide better situational awareness by plotting friendly and enemy locations as well as mission objectives on a digital map. The map will be viewed through an eyepiece mounted on the soldier's helmet. It will be a great asset on the battlefield, Fuller said, but again - power is an issue.
To operate its predecessor, Land Warrior, one soldier needs three batteries a day. The batteries weigh 2.2 pounds each. A company requires 578 batteries a day, which requires another 4.08 kilowatts from generators to recharge the batteries in 10 hours. That comes at a heavy cost, when petroleum is running upwards of $400 a barrel in Afghanistan.
A leading contender to replace batteries has emerged through ECLiPSE Gear, an arm of BAE. Called the Integrated Power System, it is a conformal battery shaped like body armor that can be wired for individual devices.
The system offers a 72-hour battery life in the field - promising news for soldiers who have to carry as many as 300 AA batteries for a typical three-day mission.
The plates contain interconnected battery cells and a unique safety system that shuts down a string that has been compromised. As such, a plate can take damage in one portion and the remainder will still work. In addition, the battery strings are made of nonflammable material to eliminate the threat of secondary explosion or acidity, said Michael Haynes, manager of business development at BAE's Security and Survivability department.
"We've done a lot of destructive testing on these with actual projectiles and simulated fragmentation, and they have performed very well," Haynes said.
Each battery has 100 watt-hours of storage and a small LED indicator to show how much power remains. A distribution hub allows a soldier to run four systems off the hub.
An empty battery can be fully charged in an hour, and it can be charged via a vehicle power adapter if a soldier is on the move, Haynes said.
The front and back plates weigh only 2.3 pounds, and the side plates weigh 1.5 pounds. A soldier need carry only as many plates as the mission requires.
Right now, five batteries will meet the communications requirements for a squad on a standard Afghanistan mission, Haynes said. That's not five batteries per person - that's five batteries for the whole squad.
But as individual soldiers need more power for things such as Nett Warrior, soldiers are likely to wear their own batteries. For example, BAE modified the MBITR radio by taking off the big battery block and replacing it with an adapter that plugs into the vest.
The IPS is making its way through Army channels as it undergoes final testing by BAE.
Lighter Body Armor
Batteries are not the only place where the Army looks to lighten the load this year. Lighter body armor stands as a priority for defense and congressional leaders alike."Our metric is not 'How many MRAPs have we lost?' Our metric is 'How many kids have been killed and how many have been injured?'"Fuller said.
Congress in the 2011 National Defense Authorization Act requires the defense secretary to conduct a study to "more effectively address the research, development, and procurement requirements regarding reducing the weight of body armor." That study is due to Congress by June 22.
So significant is the issue that the forthcoming Soldier Technology U.S. Conference is focused entirely on lightening the load and increasing situational awareness for the small unit and tactical operator. The conference is taking place the week of Jan. 31 in Washington, and features dozens of defense, industry and international experts.
But making lighter body armor is easier said than done.
"We've taken your grandmother's china, wrapped it in Kevlar and given you the capability," Fuller said. "You want more protection? More china, more Kevlar, that's weight. How do we move this forward?"
This comes at a time when government agencies have called into question the methods and materials used to make body armor. Among them:
■ A March 31, 2008, report by the Defense Department's inspector general found 13 contracts that did not have documentation of first-article testing;
■ An Oct. 16, 2009, Government Accountability Office report said the Army failed to follow established testing standards for X Small Arms Protective Inserts, or XSAPI. The report said several aspects of the new armor would have failed if tests were done properly;
■ Army Secretary John McHugh on Nov. 20, 2009, ordered an independent review by the National Research Council. It focused specifically on the behavior of ballistic clay and on other issues relating to the test process.
In its subsequent April 22, 2010, report, the council outlined 19 recommendations that are "urgently needed to achieve greater part-to-part consistency in the ballistic clay, to analyze [back-face deformation] dynamics, to determine possible replacements for modeling clay, to achieve a national clay standard for testing body armor, and to implement statistically based protocols."
■ A Jan. 3 DoD inspector general's report that said the IG could provide only "limited assurance" that Interceptor Body Armor vest components meet ballistic and quality requirements.
Col. William Cole, project manager of Soldier Protection and Individual Equipment, emphasized that Army body armor has never failed to stop a threat for which it is rated, and often outperforms its rating.
"I am confident we are fielding the best possible body armor," Cole said.
