Soldier Innovations Sought

Soldier Innovations Sought

The U.S. Army, in this rapidly changing world full of conflicts, needs to change its weapons almost every month. The Soldier Innovations Initiative (SII) in theNatick Soldier Center (NSC) seeks ideas from soldiers that have served in Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom to make the changes of its weapons rapidly. The NSC began de effort in January2004 to capture soldier-modified equipment as well identify new equipment they have created.

The NSC project’s goal is to discover the best ideas, prototype the best ones to develop then and getthen into the field. The Ideas are review to determine which technical area can best assess the innovation to gather field feedback. The NSC employs three engineering psychologists who specialize insurvey development and interpreting field feedback. The psychologist have develop surveys designed to prompt soldiers to provide their innovations, creative modifications, field solutions and newlycreated items in the field. Soldiers are asked to provide information on their ideas and digital or hard-copy photographs to enhance understanding of their ideas or designs. Soldiers also summit contactinformation so they can be reached for further clarification. Project officers conduct a review to determine when ideas merit further pursuit. Soldiers are sometime invited to NSC to aid inprototyping and evaluating their ideas. An initial survey provided several interesting and practical soldier innovations, including a map pocket sewn into the inside of a patrol cap; modified sling that allowsan M-4 carbine rifle to hang in the ready position and a commercial earpiece for a soldier intercom that is better integrated with the Kevlar helmet.

In conclusion, I believe that the SIIfeatures important difference in the quick development of ideas and solutions to weapons development. In my personal opinion, the NSC play an important role in the Army weapons development program...