OTC certifies new gear for Soldiers
By James David

Fighting a war on two fronts puts lots of stress on soldiers and their equipment. Modifications and new weapons and equipment are always being tested and fielded. To that end, the soldiers and civilians assigned to West Fort Hood's Operational Test Command are hard at work testing new vehicles and systems for the soldiers and Marines in the field in the war on terror.

The OTC is the Army's independent operational tester, and answers only to its customers – American soldiers.

Brig. Gen. Christopher Tucker, the OTC commander, explained the relationship that the OTC has with the Army at its annual OTC Civic Leaders' Day Thursday at West Fort Hood.

"Our independence means that we answer directly to the Army's senior leadership," Tucker said. "The soldiers in the field rely on us to make an accurate assessment of new systems. In order to do that we have to go where the soldiers go.

"Right now, we have 23 soldiers and six civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"I've got folks from Baghdad to Balad" in Iraq, Tucker said.

The Operational Test Command is one of three units that comprise the Army Test and Evaluation Command. The other two commands are Developmental Test Command, based out of Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland and the U.S. Army Evaluation Center, which is based in Alexandria, Va.

The soldiers and civilians who go to the war front are known as Forward Operational Assessment teams.

Their mission as defined by the OTC is to collect data on critical systems used by the war fighter.

"The people here care about the soldiers," Tucker said at Thursday morning's briefing. I don't know another organization in the Army quite like ours."

Some of the systems being analyzed by the FOA teams include the new Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicles. On Thursday, the Army announced plans to seek funding for 18,000 MRAPS, the same number of Humvees currently in use in Iraq. Roadside bombs are the largest killer of soldiers and Marines in Iraq. The Marine Corps has ordered 3,700 of the vehicles.

In a USA Today story published on April 19, the Marine Corps reported that there have been more than 300 attacks on their MRAPS in Iraq, but that no Marines had been killed as a result. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in Wednesday's Pentagon press conference that he will phase out the use of all Humvees in Iraq and Afghanistan for the newer vehicles.

"The safety of our soldiers is OTC's top priority," Tucker said. "The MRAP program is our highest priority at this juncture, because 70 percent of all our casualties in Iraq are (roadside bomb) related."

The FOA teams rotate to Iraq and Afghanistan every six months and have a two-part mission. The first is to test new equipment at the operational level; the second is to be a liaison between the soldiers in the field and the institutional side of the Army. They also advise the soldiers in the field on how to best maintain and employ their equipment.

Other projects being assessed by the teams include the command post of the future, Countering Rockets, Artillery and Mortars, the Cougar fighting vehicle, the Mechanical Anti-Personnel Mine Clearing System, The Body Ventilation System and the Warlock system, which is designed to jam mobile phone signals used to detonate bombs.

"What the soldiers have is the very best we can develop," Tucker said. "It's a continuous process which never stops. The battlefield is changing daily, and as our enemy changes, we need to continue to make improvements."

One example of how the test command reacts rapidly to changing threats is the armor kits to upgrade the Humvees in Iraq. Maj. Mike Fitzgerald is a testing officer at the command. He showed the leaders in attendance the developments being made in fragmentation protection kits from the war's inception to now.

"From the time we were made aware of the higher lethality of the Roadside bombs being produced, it took us 54 days to develop and get 1,000 of the newer armored kits into Iraq." Fitzgerald said. "Now, every vehicle that rolls out of the FOB (forward operating bases) has the highest level of protection available," he said.

The added protection has a price. The newer kits add so much weight to the Humvees that it affects their speed and performance. Fitzgerald said that you can never have enough armor on the Humvees, but the MRAP vehicle will greatly improve soldier survivability.

Enhancements also are being made in indirect fire weapons such as field artillery. Lt. Col. Courtney Blackwell works for the Test command as the chief of Fort Sill's Fire Support Test Directorate and was on hand Thursday to brief leaders on the newest enhancements to artillery, including the Excalibur artillery round and Multiple Launched Rocket Systems improvements.

The Excalibur replaces the Copperhead, which was a laser-guided shell. Excalibur relies on the technology of the satellite based global positioning system (GPS) and is more accurate than its predescessor.

"We were able to get it into Iraq after only two months of testing," Blackwell said. "In fact, it was used in a fire mission for the first time in Iraq just last week."

The Stryker units are getting a new version of the Mobile Gun System (MGS). It consists of a 105-millimeter cannon mounted on a Stryker chassis. Designed for close direct-fire support to the Stryker units, it has a three-man crew and will complement the other nine variations of the Stryker family of vehicles. Tucker said he has sent 29 of the vehicles to Iraq and they are being evaluated by their test command teams.

Improvements are also being made in communication devices. The voice response translator and the IBM automatic speech translator allow the soldier to communicate to foreign nationals without the use of an interpreter. The IBM version is a laptop allowing two-way speech interpretation.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Speakes, The Army's deputy chief for programs, spoke at the culmination of Thursday's events, a dinner and awards presentation at Fort Hood's Catering and Conference Center. He addressed the changing face of the battlefield and the future of the Army engaged in the war on terror.

Speakes was the primary crafter of the Army's new model of deploying to war in modular brigade combat teams.

"OTC is now a mobile command," Speakes said. "We can't conduct business like we used to, taking 20 years to get new equipment to the soldiers."

Speakes said the Army is going through a hard time. The war in Iraq is highly unpopular and public opinion drives the funding of the war and the Army, he said.

"Unfortunately, there is not a commitment among many in our country to source the military," he said. "That's where I come in. I don't believe we are where we need to be right now." Speakes said, referring to the level of funding or equipment in the total force, active duty, National Guard and Reserve.

"Soldiers will always be occupied doing something in the world, even after we leave Iraq, so I have to ensure we get an adequate level of funding," Speakes said.

With regard to the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle program, Speakes said that both he and the Defense Secretary Robert Gates are committed to bringing the vehicles to the soldiers in record time.

"The timetable is this summer or early fall," Speakes said. "Walter Reed was a wake-up call for the Army.

"Our soldiers deserve only the best. Getting the MRAP out there to the battlefield is a soldier care issue as much as health care is."

Speakes said innovations such as utilizing robots to check out an area rather than exposing soldiers to the hazards of roadside bombs and snipers are being looked at for immediate implementation.

"The days of a squad being stacked on the side of a building are going to come to an end," he said, referring to robotics. "We have robotics now to assess the situation."