New protective gear saves Soldier’s life
New protective gear saves Soldier’s life
By Gary Sheftick, Army News Service
What did you say about the Integrated Head Protection System again?” “I said it has a 100 percent greater blunt impact protection over its predecessor the ECH!”
Less than a week after receiving his new Integrated Head Protective System, or IHPS, the neck mandible saved the Soldier’s life in Afghanistan.
The armor crewman was in the turret manning his weapon when a raucous broke out on the street below. Amidst the shouting, a brick came hurdling toward his turret. It struck the Soldier’s neck, but luckily he had his maxillofacial protection connected to his helmet.
The first issue of this mandible with the IHPS helmet went to an armored unit in Afghanistan a couple months ago, said Lt. Col. Ginger Whitehead, product manager for Soldier protective equipment at Program Executive Office Soldier.
The neck protection was designed specifically for turret gunners to protect them from objects thrown at them, she said. She added most Soldiers don’t need and are not issued the mandible that connects to the IHPS Generation I helmet.
A new Gen II helmet is also now being testing by Soldiers, said Col. Stephen Thomas, program manager for Soldier protection and individual equipment at PEO Soldier.
About 150 of the Gen II IHPS helmets were recently issued to Soldiers of the 2-1 Infantry for testing at Fort Riley, Kansas. The new helmet is lighter while providing a greater level of protection, Whitehead said. The universal helmet mount eliminates the need for drilling holes for straps and thus better preserves the integrity of the carbon fiber.
The new helmet is part of an upgraded Soldier Protection System that provides more agility and maneuver capability, is lighter weight, while still providing a higher level of ballistic protection, Thomas said.
The lighter equipment will “reduce the burden on Soldiers” and be a “game-changer” downrange, Thomas said at a PEO Soldier media roundtable Tuesday during the Association of the U.S. Army Annual Meeting and Exposition.
It will allow Soldiers flexibility to scale up or scale down their personal armor protection depending on the threat and the mission, he said.
The new Soldier Protection System, or SPS, is “an integrated suite of equipment,” Thomas said, that includes different-sized torso plates for a modular scalable vest that comes in eight sizes and a new ballistic combat shirt that has 12 sizes.
The idea is for the equipment to better fit all sizes of Soldiers, he said.
The ballistic combat shirt for women has a V-notch in the back to accommodate a hair bun, Whitehead said, which will make it more comfortable for many female Soldiers.
The modular scalable vest can be broken down to a sleeveless version with a shortened plate to give an increased range of motion to vehicle drivers and others, she said.
The new SPS also moves away from protective underwear that “Soldiers didn’t like at all” because of the heat and chafe, Whitehead said. Instead the new unisex design of outer armor protects the femoral arteries with less discomfort, she said.
PEO Soldier has also come out with a new integrated hot-weather clothing uniform, or IHWCU, made of advanced fibers, Thomas said. It’s quick-drying with a mix of 57% nylon and 43% cotton.
In hot temperatures, the uniform is “no melt, no drip,” he said.
Two sets of the IHWCU are now being issued to infantry and armor Soldiers during initial-entry training, he said, along with two sets of the regular combat uniform.
The new hot-weather uniform is also now available at clothing sales stores in Hawaii, along with those on Forts Benning, Hood and Bliss, he said. All clothing sales stores should have the new uniform available by February, he added.
Product Manager Ground Soldier Systems (PdM GSS)
Product Manager Ground Soldier Systems (PdM GSS) provides unprecedented situational awareness (SA) and battle command to dismounted Soldiers through the Nett Warrior (NW) system. It allows for faster and more accurate decisions in the tactical fight. With advanced navigation, SA and information-sharing capabilities, fratricide is reduced and lethality and accomplishment of the combat mission is increased. The NW program focuses on the fielding and continual improvements to this SA system, which can graphically display the locations and other information. NW connects through a secure radio to send and receive information from one NW to another and connecting dismounted Soldiers to the network. Connected to higher echelon data and information products assists in decision making, situational understanding, and allows engagement in the method that best suits the user and the particular mission. NW optimizes and integrates future Soldier capabilities while reducing the Soldier’s combat load and logistical footprint by carrying a single device with multiple applications.
Project Director Soldier Systems and Integration (PD SS&I)
Project Director SS&I provides cross-product Soldier hardware systems integration support to enable the PEO at the enterprise level to visualize, understand, and deliberately evolve the Soldier system into a mission-tailorable set of capability modules that function as a seamless, integrated suite and to memorialize the results of a deliberate, collaborative Systems Engineering process. Project Director SS&I oversees the Tactical Communication and Protective System (TCAPS) program, the Soldier Power program, the Warrior Integration Site (WinSite), and administers the Soldier Enhancement Program (SEP) on behalf of PEO Soldier.
Product Manager Air Warrior (PdM AW)
PM AW integrates all aviation life support and mission equipment into an ensemble that improves the combat effectiveness of the Army aircrew member. This system leverages several Joint service technology efforts to create a modular system that increases situational awareness and freedom of movement at the flight controls, enhances mobility to safely operate aircraft systems, reduces physiological stress, facilitates aircraft entry and exit, and provides survival gear in the event that an aircraft goes down over land or water.
Air Soldier System
MISSION
Reduce the bulk and weight of Army aircrew mission equipment, and improve their situational awareness and safety in Degraded Visual Environments.
Building on the legacy Air Warrior (AW) capabilities, the Air Soldier System improves aviator cockpit compatibility, improves aircrew mission effectiveness, and increases situational awareness to include when operating in a Degraded Visual Environment (DVE).
Air Soldier System reduces the bulk and weight borne by the aviation Soldier by combining individual equipment components and functions, and through redesigned protective mission equipment including body armor, chem/bio, and overwater protective garments. A modified aircrew flight helmet and a new day/night helmet-mounted display with enhanced symbology and head tracking will increase aviator situational awareness to reduce or prevent aircraft mishaps in a DVE.
Air Soldier System capabilities include:
- Aircraft integration — design, integrate, qualify aircraft space and power components.
- Common Helmet Mounted Display (CHMD) — a day/night, wide field of view color digital display for UH-60 and CH-47 aviators.
- Integrated Line-of-Sight Head Tracking — enhances aviator situational awareness and enables 3D conformal symbology.
- 3D conformal symbology — improve aviator situational awareness to reduce aircraft mishaps.
- Integrated Mission Display Module/Soldier Computer Module (MDM/SCM) — UH-60L cockpit display replaces current AW Electronic Data Manager (EDM).
- Layered Clothing Ensemble — integrates with current AW gear carrier, and reduces bulk and weight.
- Environmental Control Vest — reduces bulk/weight of current cooling vest.
- Lightweight Joint Protective Air Crew Ensemble (L-JPACE) — reduces chemical / biological protective garment bulk.
- Lightweight Immersion Suit for Aviation (LISA) — improves cold water immersion protection and reduces bulk.
- Soft Armor Ballistic Insert — reduces current AW armor bulk, maintains equivalent protection of the Improved Outer Tactical Vest (IOTV) body armor.
- Optimized 72-hour survival items — standardized, integrated aircrew survival equipment.
Pre-Planned Product Improvement (P3I) provides:
- Aircrew Combat Ensemble (ACE) replaces the legacy AW Personal Survival Gear Carrier. This will reduce weight and bulk, integrate the Soldier Protection System (SPS) modular ballistic protection system, and enhance compatibility and stowage/interface provisions for current and future clothing and individual equipment. The objective is to reduce the bulk and weight by 35 percent as compared to the equivalent components and capabilities of the legacy AW ensemble.
- Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) replaces paper DoD Flight Information Publications for aircrews.