Hellenic Army National Guard assault rifles.
From top: HK G3A3, HK G3A4 and HK G3A4 modified.
Mar 31, 2011
AR Rifle Locking Mechanism
AR Vault
Keep an AR Rifle Secure.
GunVault unveils the AR MagVault, a revolutionary new way to keep an AR rifle secure. Inspired by extensive customer demand, the AR MagVault is versatile, easy to use and priced to fit any budget. A must have for AR owners.
This unique design fits in the magazine well and locks into place to keep the AR safe and secure at home, during travel or on the range. Once the AR MagVault is locked into place a round cannot be inserted or chambered.
The AR MagVault features an easy-to-operate key lock system and fits virtually all .223/5.56 AR carbine rifles. It is constructed from extremely durable glass-reinforced nylon for maximum durability.
 |
| Magvault on AR15 |
Labels
Guns
Mar 30, 2011
100 years 1911 pistol.
 |
| M1911 pistol |
Adding to its personality, the 1911 is a kick-butt handgun that has a record of reliability from its inception. Browning submitted the 1911 to the U.S. Army’s Ordnance Department for testing and it went to the top of the class with a series of tests, which included the continuous firing of 6,000 rounds of ammunition.
Mar 27, 2011
Casey: Wars have been catalyst for Army change
 |
| Photo Credit: Myles Cullen. Gen. George W. Casey Jr. discusses the challenges he has faced as Army chief of staff with Jim Garamone of American Forces Press Service. Casey is retiring in April 2011, after four decades of service. |
WASHINGTON, March 24, 2011 -- In a recent speech at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said the Army has changed the most of all the services.
"There's no catalyst for change like a war," said the architect of much of that change, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr.
Gen. Martin E. Dempsey will relieve Casey as Army chief of staff next month, when Casey ends four decades of service. During an interview in his Pentagon office, the outgoing chief of staff spoke about the changes that have happened in the Army since he became the service's highest-ranking officer in 2007.
"We will have done in seven years what normally would take us 20 years to do," Casey said. "We've done it in the middle of a war, and we are a fundamentally different force and a more versatile and experienced force than we were seven years ago. I'm very pleased with the way that turned out."
In the months before Casey took over, stories about the Army and its future were common in the media, centering on concern about the pace of operations and its effect on the service.
It was the height of the U.S. surge into Iraq, and Soldiers were deployed for 15-month tours and often spending less than a year at their homes before deploying again. Worries surfaced that departures of mid-level officers and noncommissioned officers would "hollow out" the service, and that families weary of the repeated deployments would get their Soldiers to vote with their feet and leave the Army.
When he first took office, the general and his wife traveled all over the Army to get their own sense of what was going on.
"When we got back we thought our way through it, and it was clear to us that the families were the most brittle part of the force," Casey said. "We needed to do something immediately to demonstrate to the families that we were going to take a load off."
An immediate move was to hire and pay family readiness advisers. The service put in place the Family Covenant Program, and doubled funding for family readiness programs.
Dealing with deployments was another priority, Casey said.
"The 15-month tours, on top of everything they had already done, that was choking people," Casey said. "We had to show them that there was daylight, and that daylight was going to come sooner, rather than later."
Then-President George W. Bush had authorized an increase in the size of the Army by 2012. Casey told about going into auditoriums full of troops in 2007 and telling them relief would come in 2012.
"And they would look at me like, "C'mon, General, get real,'" he said.
He met with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and told him that the Army growth had to be sped up to 2010, "and he agreed," the general said. The Army met its growth goals in 2009.
Casey also was worried about a hollow force, and instinctively concentrated on the mid-level officers and NCOs.
"They were the ones carrying the heaviest loads," he said.
Casey looked to the Army's Center of Military History for historical research, and the data showed it really was all about the midlevel leaders.
"When the people it takes you a decade to grow leave, it takes you a decade to get [that capability] back," he said.
The service put in place selective retention bonuses for captains and increased the selective re-enlistment bonuses for mid-level NCOs.
"I believe it gave a lot of those captains the ability to look at their spouses and say, 'We're going to be OK," he said.
But people were saying the Army already was hollow because of the readiness level of "next-to-deploy" forces. The service had to strip these forces of Soldiers for units already in the combat theater.
"We started thinking about generating readiness differently and enhancing the Army force-generating model that we had come up with in 2005 to make it more realistic," Casey said. Follow-on forces now are fully manned and fully trained as a unit before deploying.
Dwell time, which is the time troops spend at home between deployments, became an important measurement. The goal is for Soldiers to spend twice as much time at home as deployed. Casey said the differences are visible in the Soldiers themselves.
"I went out with a unit that was home for 18 months," he said, "and you could see the difference that time at home meant in their faces, and in the preparation they could do."
The Army also is changing to meet the demands of 21st century operations. Casey continued the process of changing to a modular brigade system. During World War II, the division was the basic unit for the Army. Today, it is the Brigade Combat Team.
"With everything we had going on, if I had made hard turns, it would have derailed the progress," he said. "I came in and said, 'Let's finish it,' and we kept on going."
By the end of the year, the Army will have converted all but a handful of the 300-plus brigades to these modular organizations, "and we will have rebalanced 300,000-plus Soldiers out of Cold War skills to those more necessary today," Casey said. "Together, it's the largest transformation of the Army since World War II."
The personal costs and effects of combat also pushed Casey.
"I'd been in Iraq," he said. "I'd seen the effects of combat on folks and what it did to folks, and I recognized that no matter who you are, everyone is affected by combat in one way or another. I set out to try to reduce the stigma associated with getting treatment for behavioral health issues."
Post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries are the signature wounds of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but there may be no outwardly visible signs of the injuries.
"I started getting the word out then to everyone we could that combat is hard. Everyone is affected by it. We're human beings," Casey said. "If you've got a problem, get some help."
The general said he wanted to encourage openness, and knew it was going to be a hard slog.
"We went from where 90 percent of the people wouldn't get help to now, where about half of the people won't get help," he said. "That's still a lot of people, but it's a start. We still have to crack the company and platoon levels. It's gradually getting more traction."
Concurrently, the Army's suicide rate began rising.
"It struck me how futile it is to be sitting around a company orderly room, like we've all done, with the first sergeant saying, 'Gosh, Smith was a wonderful guy. I should have seen something, I should have known something, I should have done something.' And you never can," Casey said. "It occurred to me that maybe we ought to come up with something that gives them skills on the front end before they get to that dark place that would lead them to suicide to begin with."
The Army introduced Comprehensive Soldier Fitness to unit operations to avoid some of the stigma that some people associate with a medical program.
"The whole idea was to bring mental fitness up to the same plane as physical fitness," the general said. "The thrust behind it is [that] part of being a good Soldier is knowing when you need a break and when you need to get some help. That doesn't mean you're a wimp."
All this is having results. Army surveys show that family satisfaction with the service has increased steadily since 2007, and this continues to trend upward.
But the Army is not out of the woods yet, Casey said. For the next several years, the United States will continue to send 50,000 to 100,000 Soldiers to combat. They are going to have to maintain their edge, but so will the thousands of Soldiers who won't be going to combat. At the same time, the Army has to reconstitute after a decade at war.
"What I worry about is you get these guys back in garrison and you go back to the same bull I went through in the 1970s, and these young guys are going to say, 'I'm outta here,'" Casey said.
The service also has to concentrate on building resilience in Soldiers and their families, Casey said. "We've just got to keep at it," he added.
The Army has learned from Iraq and Afghanistan that the next conflict probably won't look like anything it is fighting today.
"We changed our doctrine in 2008 and said that full-spectrum operations are offense, defense and stability operations," Casey said. "It's done simultaneously and in different proportions, depending where you are in the spectrum of conflict."
He said that when he commanded the 1st Armored Division in 2000 and 2001, he believed that if a unit could do conventional war, it could do anything.
"But after 32 months in Iraq, I don't believe that any more," he said. "What we realized was its not going to be either conventional or counterinsurgency. The wars in the 21st century are going to be different than the wars I grew up trying to fight. We're not going to be fighting corps-on-corps operations, except maybe [in] Korea.
"So we're working scenarios where we have hybrid threats that are a mix of conventional, irregular, criminal [and] terrorist, and we've set up the training centers with these types of [opposing forces]. The 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, went through such a hybrid threat scenario.
"We're training them for full-spectrum operations, and that includes having to deal with uniformed militaries," he said.
More work needs to be done, Casey said.
"While we've talked about this and thought about it," he added, "until we start putting brigades out there on the ground and have them do it, we're not going to crack it."
Casey said he is worried about the Army's budget. He wants a balanced force in which the manning, training and equipping is in the right proportion.
"The kicker is the wheels are falling off the budget," he said. The Army will remain its current size through at least 2015.
"People are motivated and focused and trying to do the right thing," Casey said.
Casey commanded his first platoon in April 1971 in Mainz, West Germany. He had nine Soldiers in a 36-man mortar platoon, and five of them were pending discharge from the Army. Each company had a duty officer, he said, and that officer had to be armed.
"Drugs were pretty bad, and there were tensions," he said. "I remember the first time we went to the field it struck me like a ton of bricks that these guys depended on me, and I resolved at that point to never let my subordinates down. I always tried to make the unit I was in as good as it could be."
It was just the scale that changed.
"There's no catalyst for change like a war," said the architect of much of that change, Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey Jr.
Gen. Martin E. Dempsey will relieve Casey as Army chief of staff next month, when Casey ends four decades of service. During an interview in his Pentagon office, the outgoing chief of staff spoke about the changes that have happened in the Army since he became the service's highest-ranking officer in 2007.
"We will have done in seven years what normally would take us 20 years to do," Casey said. "We've done it in the middle of a war, and we are a fundamentally different force and a more versatile and experienced force than we were seven years ago. I'm very pleased with the way that turned out."
In the months before Casey took over, stories about the Army and its future were common in the media, centering on concern about the pace of operations and its effect on the service.
It was the height of the U.S. surge into Iraq, and Soldiers were deployed for 15-month tours and often spending less than a year at their homes before deploying again. Worries surfaced that departures of mid-level officers and noncommissioned officers would "hollow out" the service, and that families weary of the repeated deployments would get their Soldiers to vote with their feet and leave the Army.
When he first took office, the general and his wife traveled all over the Army to get their own sense of what was going on.
"When we got back we thought our way through it, and it was clear to us that the families were the most brittle part of the force," Casey said. "We needed to do something immediately to demonstrate to the families that we were going to take a load off."
An immediate move was to hire and pay family readiness advisers. The service put in place the Family Covenant Program, and doubled funding for family readiness programs.
Dealing with deployments was another priority, Casey said.
"The 15-month tours, on top of everything they had already done, that was choking people," Casey said. "We had to show them that there was daylight, and that daylight was going to come sooner, rather than later."
Then-President George W. Bush had authorized an increase in the size of the Army by 2012. Casey told about going into auditoriums full of troops in 2007 and telling them relief would come in 2012.
"And they would look at me like, "C'mon, General, get real,'" he said.
He met with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and told him that the Army growth had to be sped up to 2010, "and he agreed," the general said. The Army met its growth goals in 2009.
Casey also was worried about a hollow force, and instinctively concentrated on the mid-level officers and NCOs.
"They were the ones carrying the heaviest loads," he said.
Casey looked to the Army's Center of Military History for historical research, and the data showed it really was all about the midlevel leaders.
"When the people it takes you a decade to grow leave, it takes you a decade to get [that capability] back," he said.
The service put in place selective retention bonuses for captains and increased the selective re-enlistment bonuses for mid-level NCOs.
"I believe it gave a lot of those captains the ability to look at their spouses and say, 'We're going to be OK," he said.
But people were saying the Army already was hollow because of the readiness level of "next-to-deploy" forces. The service had to strip these forces of Soldiers for units already in the combat theater.
"We started thinking about generating readiness differently and enhancing the Army force-generating model that we had come up with in 2005 to make it more realistic," Casey said. Follow-on forces now are fully manned and fully trained as a unit before deploying.
Dwell time, which is the time troops spend at home between deployments, became an important measurement. The goal is for Soldiers to spend twice as much time at home as deployed. Casey said the differences are visible in the Soldiers themselves.
"I went out with a unit that was home for 18 months," he said, "and you could see the difference that time at home meant in their faces, and in the preparation they could do."
The Army also is changing to meet the demands of 21st century operations. Casey continued the process of changing to a modular brigade system. During World War II, the division was the basic unit for the Army. Today, it is the Brigade Combat Team.
"With everything we had going on, if I had made hard turns, it would have derailed the progress," he said. "I came in and said, 'Let's finish it,' and we kept on going."
By the end of the year, the Army will have converted all but a handful of the 300-plus brigades to these modular organizations, "and we will have rebalanced 300,000-plus Soldiers out of Cold War skills to those more necessary today," Casey said. "Together, it's the largest transformation of the Army since World War II."
The personal costs and effects of combat also pushed Casey.
"I'd been in Iraq," he said. "I'd seen the effects of combat on folks and what it did to folks, and I recognized that no matter who you are, everyone is affected by combat in one way or another. I set out to try to reduce the stigma associated with getting treatment for behavioral health issues."
Post-traumatic stress and traumatic brain injuries are the signature wounds of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, but there may be no outwardly visible signs of the injuries.
"I started getting the word out then to everyone we could that combat is hard. Everyone is affected by it. We're human beings," Casey said. "If you've got a problem, get some help."
The general said he wanted to encourage openness, and knew it was going to be a hard slog.
"We went from where 90 percent of the people wouldn't get help to now, where about half of the people won't get help," he said. "That's still a lot of people, but it's a start. We still have to crack the company and platoon levels. It's gradually getting more traction."
Concurrently, the Army's suicide rate began rising.
"It struck me how futile it is to be sitting around a company orderly room, like we've all done, with the first sergeant saying, 'Gosh, Smith was a wonderful guy. I should have seen something, I should have known something, I should have done something.' And you never can," Casey said. "It occurred to me that maybe we ought to come up with something that gives them skills on the front end before they get to that dark place that would lead them to suicide to begin with."
The Army introduced Comprehensive Soldier Fitness to unit operations to avoid some of the stigma that some people associate with a medical program.
"The whole idea was to bring mental fitness up to the same plane as physical fitness," the general said. "The thrust behind it is [that] part of being a good Soldier is knowing when you need a break and when you need to get some help. That doesn't mean you're a wimp."
All this is having results. Army surveys show that family satisfaction with the service has increased steadily since 2007, and this continues to trend upward.
But the Army is not out of the woods yet, Casey said. For the next several years, the United States will continue to send 50,000 to 100,000 Soldiers to combat. They are going to have to maintain their edge, but so will the thousands of Soldiers who won't be going to combat. At the same time, the Army has to reconstitute after a decade at war.
"What I worry about is you get these guys back in garrison and you go back to the same bull I went through in the 1970s, and these young guys are going to say, 'I'm outta here,'" Casey said.
The service also has to concentrate on building resilience in Soldiers and their families, Casey said. "We've just got to keep at it," he added.
The Army has learned from Iraq and Afghanistan that the next conflict probably won't look like anything it is fighting today.
"We changed our doctrine in 2008 and said that full-spectrum operations are offense, defense and stability operations," Casey said. "It's done simultaneously and in different proportions, depending where you are in the spectrum of conflict."
He said that when he commanded the 1st Armored Division in 2000 and 2001, he believed that if a unit could do conventional war, it could do anything.
"But after 32 months in Iraq, I don't believe that any more," he said. "What we realized was its not going to be either conventional or counterinsurgency. The wars in the 21st century are going to be different than the wars I grew up trying to fight. We're not going to be fighting corps-on-corps operations, except maybe [in] Korea.
"So we're working scenarios where we have hybrid threats that are a mix of conventional, irregular, criminal [and] terrorist, and we've set up the training centers with these types of [opposing forces]. The 2nd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, went through such a hybrid threat scenario.
"We're training them for full-spectrum operations, and that includes having to deal with uniformed militaries," he said.
More work needs to be done, Casey said.
"While we've talked about this and thought about it," he added, "until we start putting brigades out there on the ground and have them do it, we're not going to crack it."
Casey said he is worried about the Army's budget. He wants a balanced force in which the manning, training and equipping is in the right proportion.
"The kicker is the wheels are falling off the budget," he said. The Army will remain its current size through at least 2015.
"People are motivated and focused and trying to do the right thing," Casey said.
Casey commanded his first platoon in April 1971 in Mainz, West Germany. He had nine Soldiers in a 36-man mortar platoon, and five of them were pending discharge from the Army. Each company had a duty officer, he said, and that officer had to be armed.
"Drugs were pretty bad, and there were tensions," he said. "I remember the first time we went to the field it struck me like a ton of bricks that these guys depended on me, and I resolved at that point to never let my subordinates down. I always tried to make the unit I was in as good as it could be."
It was just the scale that changed.
Labels
Military Stories
Mar 26, 2011
BAE Systems Celebrates One Millionth Hard Body Armor Insert Milestone
PHOENIX, Arizona – BAE Systems has completed the production of more than one million hard armor inserts under Department of Defense (DoD) contracts primarily in support of the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marine Corps and the Defense Logistics Agency. A ceremony to commemorate this milestone was held today at BAE Systems’ Protection Systems business in Phoenix, Arizona where the inserts are manufactured.
“A hard armor insert helps protect a warfighter’s vital organs and has been proven as a critical lifesaver on the battlefield. Our employees come to work each day knowing that the work they do could save a life and bring a loved one home to their family,” said Joe Coltman, vice president of BAE Systems’ Protection Systems. “Manufacturing one million of these plates is a significant milestone for BAE Systems and its employees to achieve. It brings into perspective the number of lives we are protecting.”
Attending the celebration were U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Arizona), COL William Cole, program manager for Soldier Protection and Individual Equipment, LTC(P) Jon Rickey, product manager for Soldier Protective Equipment and COL John Womack, Commander for the Defense Contract Management Agency in Phoenix.
“Last year, Phoenix and Tucson were ranked among the top ten U.S. metro areas with Aerospace and Defense manufacturing facilities,” said Congressman Pastor. “Arizona is proud to have as an Aerospace and Defense representative BAE Systems and its employees, who diligently create protective products, like the SAPI plate, for our troops worldwide.”
BAE Systems first introduced the Small Arms Protective Insert (SAPI) plate in 1998 to meet the demanding requirements of the DoD Interceptor program. SAPI plates, as they are often called, are hard armor inserts worn on the front, back and side torso to aid in protection against fragmentation and small arms. The protective plates offer greater ballistic protection over soft armor alone and are worn within a warfighter’s vest.
As the original equipment manufacturer of the SAPI plate, BAE Systems’ capabilities have expanded to include other SAPI derivatives and Next Generation (X) plates, including the Enhanced Small Arms Protective Inserts, Side SAPI, XSBI and XSAPI. These plates are designed to provide a wide range of ballistic protection to troops in a variety of combat conditions. BAE Systems continually strives to advance their designs to protect against emerging threats.
BAE Systems expanded its hard armor insert line in 2007 to include the ECLiPSE® Performance Gear SOLAR™ series. The SOLAR™ series of inserts meet specifications set forth by the Special Operations Forces Equipment Advanced Requirements (SPEAR) under its Body Armor and Load Carrying System program.
BAE Systems is a leading provider of Soldier protective and load carrying equipment in the United States, producing a significant portion of the nation’s body armor, tactical vests, combat helmets and load carrying systems. Not only is the company focused on the design, development and production of leading edge survivability products, its integration of advanced materials into manufacturing, rigorous product testing, and field trials support the company’s focus on the men and women who serve in the Armed Forces.
Attending the celebration were U.S. Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Arizona), COL William Cole, program manager for Soldier Protection and Individual Equipment, LTC(P) Jon Rickey, product manager for Soldier Protective Equipment and COL John Womack, Commander for the Defense Contract Management Agency in Phoenix.
“Last year, Phoenix and Tucson were ranked among the top ten U.S. metro areas with Aerospace and Defense manufacturing facilities,” said Congressman Pastor. “Arizona is proud to have as an Aerospace and Defense representative BAE Systems and its employees, who diligently create protective products, like the SAPI plate, for our troops worldwide.”
 |
| From L-R: COL William Cole of PEO Soldier, Margy Bons of Operation Homefront Arizona, and COL Shannon Womack of Defense Contract Management Agency |
As the original equipment manufacturer of the SAPI plate, BAE Systems’ capabilities have expanded to include other SAPI derivatives and Next Generation (X) plates, including the Enhanced Small Arms Protective Inserts, Side SAPI, XSBI and XSAPI. These plates are designed to provide a wide range of ballistic protection to troops in a variety of combat conditions. BAE Systems continually strives to advance their designs to protect against emerging threats.
BAE Systems expanded its hard armor insert line in 2007 to include the ECLiPSE® Performance Gear SOLAR™ series. The SOLAR™ series of inserts meet specifications set forth by the Special Operations Forces Equipment Advanced Requirements (SPEAR) under its Body Armor and Load Carrying System program.
BAE Systems is a leading provider of Soldier protective and load carrying equipment in the United States, producing a significant portion of the nation’s body armor, tactical vests, combat helmets and load carrying systems. Not only is the company focused on the design, development and production of leading edge survivability products, its integration of advanced materials into manufacturing, rigorous product testing, and field trials support the company’s focus on the men and women who serve in the Armed Forces.
Labels
Ballistic Protection
Mar 24, 2011
Surefire tweaks High Capacity Mag; new ship date 6/30
Surefire shared some hot footage of a 100 round High Capacity Magazine function test with us. They ran 5 100-round mags back-to-back turning an M4 gas tube into a light bulb in the process. Don’t try this with your own, stock AR, though. They used a heavy-barrel, select-fire milspec Colt with a beefed up gas tube to deal with the extreme heat produced by 500 rounds of continuous fire. Watch it glow. Try this with your AR and you’ll watch the gas tube melt.
As far as the ship date of the new mags, Surefire representative Ron Canfield tells us the company has delayed both models if the HCM to make minor changes to the mags to guarantee they function in the broadest number of AR platforms possible. The new ship date is June 30, 2011.
Mar 22, 2011
U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle malfunctions over Libya, pilots safe.
Two crew members ejected from their U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle when the aircraft experienced equipment malfunction over northeast, Libya, March 21, at approximately 10:30 p.m. CET.
Both crew members ejected and are safe.
The aircraft, based out of Royal Air Force Lakenheath, England, was flying out of Aviano Air Base in support of Operation Odyssey Dawn at the time of the incident.
The cause of the incident is under investigation.
The identities will be released after the next of kin have been notified.
Joint Task Force Odyssey Dawn is the U.S. Africa Command task force established to provide operational and tactical command and control of U.S. military forces supporting the international response to the unrest in Libya and enforcement of United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1973. UNSCR 1973 authorizes all necessary measures to protect civilians in Libya under threat of attack by Qadhafi regime forces.
Source: AF.mil.
Labels
Military Stories
Mar 19, 2011
Machinist creates universal MRAP key
KHOWST PROVINCE, Afghanistan (Mar. 2011) - Innovations in military equipment and tools are often the result of many hours of research and development, along with the expenditure of significant amounts of taxpayer dollars.
However, this need not be the case, as Cpl. Scott Mayer, a machinist of the 6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Task Force Duke, has shown by developing a universal key that will unlock all varieties of lock used to secure the doors on the Mine-Resistant, Ambush Protected family of military vehicles.
The key is the result of Mayer's ability to identify a potential issue and come up with a simple, inexpensive solution that took him less than an hour to make in his welding shop.
"I'm a machinist," said the Lubbock, Texas, native, "and from day one we are taught to think outside the box to solve problems."
MRAP vehicles come in several different variants, each of which uses a different type of lock. Some variants even have as many as three different types of door locks on the same vehicle, all with a unique outer access point designed to allow them to be unlocked from the outside using the proper tool.
Creating a universal key that fits all locks could make a huge difference in responding to emergency situations when every second counts.
Mayer is currently working on more keys, intending build enough to supply each vehicle in 6-4 Cav.
"I just hope that, in urgent situations, we won't have to worry whether or not we have the right key," said Mayer, "and we can rely on one key to get us out of any vehicle.
However, this need not be the case, as Cpl. Scott Mayer, a machinist of the 6th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Task Force Duke, has shown by developing a universal key that will unlock all varieties of lock used to secure the doors on the Mine-Resistant, Ambush Protected family of military vehicles.
The key is the result of Mayer's ability to identify a potential issue and come up with a simple, inexpensive solution that took him less than an hour to make in his welding shop.
"I'm a machinist," said the Lubbock, Texas, native, "and from day one we are taught to think outside the box to solve problems."
MRAP vehicles come in several different variants, each of which uses a different type of lock. Some variants even have as many as three different types of door locks on the same vehicle, all with a unique outer access point designed to allow them to be unlocked from the outside using the proper tool.
Creating a universal key that fits all locks could make a huge difference in responding to emergency situations when every second counts.
Mayer is currently working on more keys, intending build enough to supply each vehicle in 6-4 Cav.
"I just hope that, in urgent situations, we won't have to worry whether or not we have the right key," said Mayer, "and we can rely on one key to get us out of any vehicle.
Labels
Military Vehicles
Heavy body armor result of over-engineering
 |
| IOTV components |
WASHINGTON (Army News Service, March 18, 2011) -- The armor plates used in the plate carriers and IOTV Soldiers wear in combat are safe -- maybe too safe.
The ceramic enhanced small arms protective inserts worn in the improved outer tactical vests and lighter plate carriers are designed to provide ballistic protection to Soldiers in combat. But they are heavy, and industry is at an impasse when it comes to developing new armor technology that is as safe, yet lighter, said Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, Program Executive Officer Soldier.
"We don't see anything that is game-changing or anything in the near term that is going to change our ability to provide increased protection at a lighter weight," Fuller said of the plates. "I think the next (thing) we need to look at is what is our requirement and is it a validated requirement?"
Fuller spoke March 17 before the House Armed Services Committee subcommittee on tactical air and land forces to discuss, among other things, the amount of weight Soldiers now carry on their bodies, as part of armor, gear, power and weapons, when they go into battle. That weight can sometimes be more than 120 pounds.
The general told lawmakers that perhaps the plates themselves could be made lighter because today, they are really over-engineered. He said a "holistic," head-to-toe review of body armor has shown the Army could provide a lighter plate to Soldiers because, Fuller said, "we have technically overbuilt our plates right now. We overbuilt them because of our testing process."
Fuller said the Army simply set the bar for protective capability of the plates too high.
"The way I say it is, we wanted to ensure you could go in the ring with Mike Tyson and if you could take two hits from Mike Tyson, then when Fuller climbs in the ring you knew you would be able to survive those rounds," he said.
Today, he said, body armor worn by Soldiers in the field may be unnecessarily heavy because it has been designed to protect against "a round that is not on any battlefield in the world," Fuller said. "We set that bar for a reason. Now we are trying to evaluate -- if that bar causes us to have increased weight, do we want to adjust the bar? "
Fuller also said as an effort to reduce weight on Soldiers, the Army is "trying to do a better job of systems engineering at the Soldier level." He said while the Army does a good job of systems engineering for large platforms "we've treated the Soldier as ... a Christmas tree -- we just hang things on Soldiers."
Fuller told lawmakers the Army must pay more attention to the amount of weight Soldiers carry on their back, and must do a better job of understanding "the physiological challenges of adding more kit regardless of its capability and the impact it will have on our Soldiers ability."
The general explained that a Soldier's cognitive skills diminish when they get tired from carrying so much weight, and "that's not what you want in a combat environment."
Fuller also said distributing loads across a combat unit might be one way to reduce the weight burden on the individual Soldiers.
"Can we distribute some of this capability across a unit? What's the risk and the advantages so we don't weigh down everybody with the same capability but distribute capability across the unit?" he asked.
Body armor for female Soldiers and for smaller Soldiers is also an issue Fuller said PEO Soldier has tackled. The latest version of the IOTV provides adjustments to allow smaller stature Soldiers to ensure their vests are cinched tight enough, while at the same time keeping the side plates where they belong -- at a Soldier's side.
"One size does not fit all within the Army," Fuller said, saying some 14 percent of the Army is women. The general said the Army is still having difficulties trying to make conforming body armor plates for Soldiers. "The physics associated with trying to have the body armor work in a complex shape is a bridge too far right now."
Another lawmaker questioned Fuller about the Army's individual carbine competition, to find a follow-on to the M4 Carbine weapon Soldiers are using now in Afghanistan. Fuller told the lawmaker the competition was not about meeting a specific need but about seeing if there was something better for Soldiers.
"We want to continue to improve the M4 -- not necessarily associated with a complaint or challenge the field might be having -- but we want to refresh that technology," Fuller said. He told legislators there's been 63 improvements to the M4 since it was first fielded in 1991
"This (competition) is another iteration of improvements," he said. "We want to see through a full and open competition is there something better? That's what this competition will be doing for our individual carbine."
After competition, he said, the Army would evaluate what comes out of that and measure it against the current M4 to build a business case for making the investment to replace it.
Currently, the Army has 500,000 M4s in its inventory, and right now the Army is working to upgrade some 140,000 of those to the M4A1 model, which is fully automatic, and includes a heavier barrel to allow for an increased sustained rate of fire without overheating and ambidextrous controls.
The ceramic enhanced small arms protective inserts worn in the improved outer tactical vests and lighter plate carriers are designed to provide ballistic protection to Soldiers in combat. But they are heavy, and industry is at an impasse when it comes to developing new armor technology that is as safe, yet lighter, said Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, Program Executive Officer Soldier.
"We don't see anything that is game-changing or anything in the near term that is going to change our ability to provide increased protection at a lighter weight," Fuller said of the plates. "I think the next (thing) we need to look at is what is our requirement and is it a validated requirement?"
Fuller spoke March 17 before the House Armed Services Committee subcommittee on tactical air and land forces to discuss, among other things, the amount of weight Soldiers now carry on their bodies, as part of armor, gear, power and weapons, when they go into battle. That weight can sometimes be more than 120 pounds.
The general told lawmakers that perhaps the plates themselves could be made lighter because today, they are really over-engineered. He said a "holistic," head-to-toe review of body armor has shown the Army could provide a lighter plate to Soldiers because, Fuller said, "we have technically overbuilt our plates right now. We overbuilt them because of our testing process."
Fuller said the Army simply set the bar for protective capability of the plates too high.
"The way I say it is, we wanted to ensure you could go in the ring with Mike Tyson and if you could take two hits from Mike Tyson, then when Fuller climbs in the ring you knew you would be able to survive those rounds," he said.
Today, he said, body armor worn by Soldiers in the field may be unnecessarily heavy because it has been designed to protect against "a round that is not on any battlefield in the world," Fuller said. "We set that bar for a reason. Now we are trying to evaluate -- if that bar causes us to have increased weight, do we want to adjust the bar? "
Fuller also said as an effort to reduce weight on Soldiers, the Army is "trying to do a better job of systems engineering at the Soldier level." He said while the Army does a good job of systems engineering for large platforms "we've treated the Soldier as ... a Christmas tree -- we just hang things on Soldiers."
Fuller told lawmakers the Army must pay more attention to the amount of weight Soldiers carry on their back, and must do a better job of understanding "the physiological challenges of adding more kit regardless of its capability and the impact it will have on our Soldiers ability."
The general explained that a Soldier's cognitive skills diminish when they get tired from carrying so much weight, and "that's not what you want in a combat environment."
Fuller also said distributing loads across a combat unit might be one way to reduce the weight burden on the individual Soldiers.
"Can we distribute some of this capability across a unit? What's the risk and the advantages so we don't weigh down everybody with the same capability but distribute capability across the unit?" he asked.
Body armor for female Soldiers and for smaller Soldiers is also an issue Fuller said PEO Soldier has tackled. The latest version of the IOTV provides adjustments to allow smaller stature Soldiers to ensure their vests are cinched tight enough, while at the same time keeping the side plates where they belong -- at a Soldier's side.
"One size does not fit all within the Army," Fuller said, saying some 14 percent of the Army is women. The general said the Army is still having difficulties trying to make conforming body armor plates for Soldiers. "The physics associated with trying to have the body armor work in a complex shape is a bridge too far right now."
Another lawmaker questioned Fuller about the Army's individual carbine competition, to find a follow-on to the M4 Carbine weapon Soldiers are using now in Afghanistan. Fuller told the lawmaker the competition was not about meeting a specific need but about seeing if there was something better for Soldiers.
"We want to continue to improve the M4 -- not necessarily associated with a complaint or challenge the field might be having -- but we want to refresh that technology," Fuller said. He told legislators there's been 63 improvements to the M4 since it was first fielded in 1991
"This (competition) is another iteration of improvements," he said. "We want to see through a full and open competition is there something better? That's what this competition will be doing for our individual carbine."
After competition, he said, the Army would evaluate what comes out of that and measure it against the current M4 to build a business case for making the investment to replace it.
Currently, the Army has 500,000 M4s in its inventory, and right now the Army is working to upgrade some 140,000 of those to the M4A1 model, which is fully automatic, and includes a heavier barrel to allow for an increased sustained rate of fire without overheating and ambidextrous controls.
Labels
Ballistic Protection
Mar 16, 2011
Army deploying 'Individual Gunshot Detector'
 |
| Photo credit PEO Soldier A Soldier demonstrates how the Individual Gunshot Detector is worn. The first of 13,000 of these systems will be sent to Afghanistan later this month. |
ARLINGTON, Va. (Army News Service, March 14, 2011) -- U.S. Army forces in Afghanistan will begin receiving the first of more than 13,000 gunshot detection systems for the individual dismounted Soldier later this month, service officials said.
"We're really trying to ensure that every Soldier is protected," said Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, Program Executive Officer Soldier.
The Individual Gunshot Detector, or IGD - made by QinetiQ North America - consists of four small acoustic sensors worn by the individual Soldier and a small display screen attached to body armor that shows the distance and direction of incoming fire.
The small sensor, about the size of a deck of cards, detects the supersonic sound waves generated by enemy gunfire and instantaneously alerts Soldiers to the location and distance toward the hostile fire, said Lt. Col. Chris Schneider, product manager for Soldier Maneuver Sensors.
"When you get fired on, instead of trying to figure everything out, you will have technology to assist you in knowing what happened and where the shot was coming from," Fuller said.
The entire IGD system, procured by PEO Soldier and the Army's Rapid Equipping Force, weighs less than two pounds, Schneider said.
The idea is to strategically disperse the systems throughout small, dismounted units to get maximum protective coverage for platoons, squads and other units on the move, Schneider explained.
"We're really trying to ensure that every Soldier is protected," said Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, Program Executive Officer Soldier.
The Individual Gunshot Detector, or IGD - made by QinetiQ North America - consists of four small acoustic sensors worn by the individual Soldier and a small display screen attached to body armor that shows the distance and direction of incoming fire.
The small sensor, about the size of a deck of cards, detects the supersonic sound waves generated by enemy gunfire and instantaneously alerts Soldiers to the location and distance toward the hostile fire, said Lt. Col. Chris Schneider, product manager for Soldier Maneuver Sensors.
"When you get fired on, instead of trying to figure everything out, you will have technology to assist you in knowing what happened and where the shot was coming from," Fuller said.
The entire IGD system, procured by PEO Soldier and the Army's Rapid Equipping Force, weighs less than two pounds, Schneider said.
The idea is to strategically disperse the systems throughout small, dismounted units to get maximum protective coverage for platoons, squads and other units on the move, Schneider explained.
Over the next 12 months, the Army plans to field up to 1,500 IGDs per month, he said.
In the future, the Army plans to integrate this technology with its Land Warrior and Nett Warrior systems. These are network-situational-awareness systems for dismounted units, complete with a helmet-mounted display screen that uses GPS digital-mapping-display technology, Fuller said.
"The next thing we want to do is try to integrate this capability with other capabilities; for example, we have Land Warrior deployed in Afghanistan and we're going to have Nett Warrior coming into the force. How about, if you get shot at, not only do I know where that came from, but others know where it came from because I can network that capability," said Fuller.
"It's about how to leverage technology to improve your survivability and situational awareness."
Labels
Military Tools
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
