This is the first order for the HEMTT A4 in Egypt and it will integrate with Egypt’s current HEMTT A2 fleet.

The Oshkosh M978 HEMTT A4 fuel-servicing truck, or tanker, is designed to transport 2,500 gallons of fuel to forward-arming and refueling points (FARP). The vehicle, which is part of the U.S. Army’s Family of Heavy Tactical Vehicles (FHTV), features a more powerful drivetrain, improved suspension and a fully air-conditioned and armor-ready cab.

“The HEMTT A4 is part of our full line of vehicles designed for international and off-road operations,” said Ron Ziebell, Oshkosh Corporation vice president and general manager of international programs, Defense. “In addition to offering severe-duty, medium- and heavy-payload vehicles, our global aftermarket network ensures our customers have ready access to parts and support services.”

In addition to supplying the vehicles, Oshkosh Defense will provide support and more than 25 spare engines to the Egyptian military. Aftermarket support includes a two-year fleet agreement, vehicle training and 12 months of Field Service Representative (FSR) support in Egypt.

Since 1990, Oshkosh has supplied Egyptian armed forces with tactical wheeled vehicles and aftermarket support. The HEMTT A4 is the latest Oshkosh vehicle in the Egyptian military fleet, which also includes the Heavy Equipment Transporter (HET) and the Medium Tactical Truck (MTT).

Oshkosh has produced more than 70,000 military-class vehicles at its facilities, including more than 30,000 FHTVs. The company has begun work on the Army’s Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles (FMTV) as well and is currently working on an initial FMTV delivery order valued at $280.9 million for the production and delivery of 2,568 trucks and trailers. Oshkosh has the available capacity, highly skilled workforce and proven manufacturing capability to deliver these and other vehicle orders for all Army and Defense programs, including the MRAP All Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV), as well as any surges in production.

Oshkosh Defense, a division of Oshkosh Corporation, is an industry-leading global designer and manufacturer of tactical military trucks and armored wheeled vehicles, delivering a full product line of conventional and hybrid vehicles, advanced armor options, proprietary suspensions and vehicles with payloads that can exceed 70 tons.

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The MOD is currently assessing a range of cutting-edge vehicles specifically designed to meet the requirements of both manoeuvrability and armoured protection. These will be world-beating British-built vehicles and will provide unprecedented levels of protection for their weight class.

The Defence Secretary, Bob Ainsworth, will make a fuller statement on this shortly.

Initially, the Government expects to buy in the region of 200 vehicles to be funded through the Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR) process.

There have been a number of reports that the announcement of 200 vehicles is half what the Government had previously agreed. As Armed Forces Minister Bill Rammell made clear in a statement on Sunday, 'there are no cuts to the Light Protected Patrol Vehicle programme'. The position on the overall requirement remains as set out in February 2009.

We have decided that in order to get vehicles out to theatre as soon as possible, once the design is ready, we will procure a first batch of 200 Light Protected Patrol Vehicles urgently under a UOR, funded by the Treasury Reserve. Buying in batches is standard practice as it allows us to learn from experience for the next batch and further procurement may take place in the future.

As with most military procurements, exactly how many we order and exactly when we order them will not be finalised until the last contract is signed.

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"It was my inaugural trip to come down here and get a visual, first hand look at all the amazing things that TRADOC is doing," he said. "Obviously wherever you are in the Army, your doctrine, your schooling, your entire perspective starts somewhere along this path."

The day's events included a tour of Fort Monroe, which has roots tracing back to 1609 as Fort Algernourne, built by Capt. John Smith. In 2011, Fort Monroe will close and TRADOC will move to Fort Eustis, Va., under Base Realignment and Closure.

"Fort Monroe itself is a marvelous part of history," said McHugh. "The Army has future plans in other places, but I would hope that the spirit that's been here for many, many years will in some way continue. There's a lot of Army heart and soul here."

McHugh also met with TRADOC senior leaders and visited the Joint Training Counter-IED Operations Integration Center. JTCOIC was established in April 2009 as a collaborative effort between the Joint IED Defeat Organization and TRADOC and provides training to Soldiers through simulation-based exercises. Creating a common framework, JTCOIC is designed to make "the scrimmage harder than the game."

"I'm thankful that there are so many smart people in the world who are willing to come and work here," McHugh said.

"The most important thing is the training opportunity they produce here and the chance for every Soldier of every rank, out in harm's way, to better understand the lay of the battlefield and the environment which they find themselves, means they'll be safer. And that's a good thing and something we want to continue to nurture."

Along with training Soldiers for the future, TRADOC is also writing doctrine and plans for that identify key elements of the future battlefield. The U.S. Army Capabilities Integration Center released the 2009 Army Capstone Concept titled, "Operational Adaptability: Operating under conditions of uncertainty and complexity in an era of persistent conflict 2016-2028." The Capstone Concept aims to define the problem of future, armed conflict and describes how the Army will need to function in the future.

"I was reading it again on the way down in the helicopter and it's a critically important document. And it's probably a document we have to scramble operationally to catch up to, and that's the objective," said McHugh. "[Some] of the most difficult things an army faces [are] the battle today, trying to understand what the battle of tomorrow will be, and positioning yourself to be able to adapt to it and prevail."

However, McHugh recognizes that the road to achieving the objectives outlined in the Capstone Concept is as important as the ideas themselves.

"The reality is that it's also complicated by likely budget and resource decisions. We just went through the Quadrennial Defense Review, and part of that is to plot out the next four years, what the challenges are and what the threats will be and this Capstone Concept helps us implement that future-think into real world terms," he said. "But this is still something, I think the generating force ... and the operational force will need to partner up on to make that concept an actual reality."

Another area interlaced with the Capstone Concept is TRADOC's role in Army Modernization. McHugh believes that the command in charge of doctrine and leader development will play a critical role in designing Army Modernization.

"It will be a leader," he said. "We have to be an Army that has congruity and continuity, and how we go about becoming an Army of the future starts right here. This is a place and this is an activity that, seems to me, will become far more important, as important as it is today as we go into an unknown tomorrow."

McHugh ended his visit by recognizing the TRADOC and JTCOIC staff for their innovation and dedication to Soldiers.

"The other thing that really strikes me, and I don't mean to sound flippant about it, but the intellectual capital that we have in the Army," he said.

"And the good folks who are willing to come here and devote themselves to this defensive national effort who value the kinds of things that make an Army Soldier wake up everyday and go to work ... that's the important stuff."

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Russian and Italian media said on Tuesday that Russia was in negotiations to buy up to 1,000 IVECO M65 (LMV) Light Multirole Vehicles.

"The Defense Ministry has no plans to purchase foreign armored vehicles," ministry spokesman Col. Alexey Kuznetsov said.

The official said Russia had tested several models of foreign armored vehicles in 2009 to compare their performance and combat capabilities with domestic equivalents.

"We have sent our evaluation to Russian manufacturers," Kuznetsov said, without offering any further details.

Italian LMVs have been used in Iraq, Afghanistan and other NATO missions abroad, where they have performed admirably.

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"Right now it looks like we'll hit probably one million total hours sometime next month," said Col. Christopher Carlile, director, United States Army Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence. "But it'll take us to around September or October before we'll hit one million hours in support of combat operations."

The colonel said about 90 percent of the Army's unmanned flying hours are in support of combat. The Army aviation community will recognize the milestone in late May with displays at the Pentagon and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington.

Speaking to an audience of Soldiers and defense-industry professionals last week during the 2010 Association of the United States Army's Institute of Land Warfare Winter Symposium and Exposition in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Carlile said the Army is prepared for growth in use of unmanned aerial systems and for broadening their mission sets.

"Today we are probably 99 percent-plus for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance roles for UAS," he said. "Though in the future, there will be new roles."

The colonel said those new roles could include communications relays, sustainment and cargo, for instance.

Training is ramping up for more UAS support as well. Out at Fort Huachuca, Ariz., the Army runs a joint training installation for UAS operators and maintainers. There, they train Soldiers, Sailors and Marines. Carlile said the Army is expected to see an increase in Soldiers that need to be trained at the facility.

"Today we will train, in Fiscal Year 2010, about 800," he said. "By 2018, our requirement is over 3,000 operators."

Unlike other services, the Army finds placing enlisted servicemembers at the controls of a UAS to be most effective, and Carlile said that is not likely to change.

"Army enlisted UAS operators are fully capable and well trained to do anything you give them to do, and it'll shock you when you hear how many hours of operation they have," he said.

Carlile said the Army puts aircraft like the RQ-7 Shadow and the Raven in the lowest units, keeping their ISR capability close to the commanders who will need it.

"One of the greatest things we did was place the Shadow platoon in the brigade combat team in the early days," he said. "It allowed our infantry and our armor officers to realize the potential and know they owned it and know they were going to get it when they asked for it."

Aviation is a complex business, prone to mishap, Carlile said, and the Army has found ways to minimize that by allowing technology in the UAS to do "what it does best."

"What we found is that when the Army adapted that methodology to go toward an automated method to let the equipment do what it does best -- let it come up with automated take off and landing strategy -- what we have seen, it would shock you."

The colonel said that human error accidents and incidents are now nearing the single- digit mark now.

Despite successes of UAS in Iraq and Afghanistan, late in 2009 it was reported in the press that the Defense Department had confirmed that insurgents could intercept unencrypted video feeds from UAS.

On Capitol Hill, March 10, Secretary of the Army John McHugh was queried about UAS security by Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama. McHugh said he felt confident about the current status of Army systems.

"The Army greatly values, and commanders feel very strongly, about the Army's need to have these capabilities particularly at a strategic level," the secretary said. "All the services recognized that potential vulnerability early on and have reacted aggressively to it, and we feel comfortable with the systems in place."

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Industry was challenged to improve the M-24 sniper rifle, a weapon that has been in service since the 1980s, to make it more accurate and to make it more adjustable to the Soldier's needs, said Col. Douglas A. Tamilio, project manager, Soldier Weapons.

"So the Soldier, the sniper, can conform it to his body -- we'll have an adjustable stock, adjustable cheek welds," Tamilio said. "This weapons system has a five-round internal magazine. We're asking industry to do something better -- five-to-ten round external magazines."

The Army has also asked industry to improve the scope for the M-24, and that means zoom from 3x to 25x magnification, with a reticle that adjusts when the user changes magnification. Also, he said, add Picatinny rails for mounting sensors and optics.

The M-24 now is chambered for a 7.62mm round with a range to about 800 meters, Tamilio said. But he added that when the Army designed the weapon, it also accommodated a larger round, the .300 Win Mag. He said the improved M-24 will take advantage of that capability in order to realize greater accuracy.

It's expected the four industry competitors will supply their four improved M-24 candidates by March 11. Those will go into competitive tests in the spring. The Army will down select to a producer in the summer, and start fielding the improved M-24 to Army snipers in the fall.

Improving the M-24 will involve turning existing weapons over to a contractor and modifying that weapon. It's expected that turnaround time for that process will be 30 days.

The M-24 is not the only weapon PEO Soldier is looking to improve. In fact, the Army is taking a dual approach to getting a better carbine in the hands of Soldiers. The Army is looking to improve upon the M-4 Carbine currently fielded to Soldiers, through the M-4 Carbine Improvement Program. The Army is also asking industry to consider making a better, follow-on carbine, through the Individual Carbine Competition.

Tamilio said the Army is asking industry to find a way to make the M-4 Carbine easier for Soldiers to maintain, and to also improve its durability, accuracy and reliability.

The M-4 is already enjoying an improvement fielded to Soldiers now in Iraq and Afghanistan: a less jam-prone magazine.

"It's a significant improvement over the other magazines we've fielded," Tamilio said. "What that means to our Soldiers is, it's more reliable every time the weapon feeds into the chamber -- it's going to present itself in the same manner, consistently."

The new magazine is already fielded to Soldiers in combat overseas, and it features an improved spring and follower in the magazine that doesn't allow the magazine to jam. The Army will now field the magazine to Soldiers stateside as they prepare to deploy.

"The Army's goal is to issue every Soldier seven of these," he said, saying the service is producing more than a quarter million a month.

Army-driven improvements aside, the Army is in the final process of releasing to the field instructions to show Soldiers how best to camouflage their weapons using spray paint.

"We should issue out in the next couple of months an advisory message, I'll put it in PS Magazine, and we'll get it to the field and say hey it's okay to spray paint your weapon and here's how to do it," Tamilio said.

The instructions, he said, would include tips on paint choice to avoid generating toxic fumes from an overheated barrel, and tips to avoid paint in areas that could hamper the weapon's performance, or that could damage components like optics.

While an instruction on how to spray paint weapons for camouflage purposes is being released, authority to do so still comes from a Soldier's command, Tamilio said.

Weapons aren't the only systems the Army is improving. By the end of the month, three defense contractors are expected to deliver 60-each Ground Soldier System packages to the Army for testing.

The GSS is an integrated dismounted Soldier situational awareness system for use during combat operations. The system is currently in development and is based on lessons learned from development of the Ground Warrior system, said Col. Will Riggins, program manager, Soldier Warrior.

With the release of the testing equipment from contractors, the Army will, in a few months, go into developmental testing and limited user operational testing with the systems.

Ultimately one contractor will be chosen to build the system. To date, Riggins said contractors have developed their competing versions of the GSS with input from both the Army and from Soldiers with combat experience.

"All three have taken that Soldier feedback to heart and we have seen the changes during this development period," he said. "The light bulb started to come on when they heard it from a young Soldier who just got back from Afghanistan or from Iraq."

Soldiers who used earlier demonstration versions of the GSS complained of bulk and weight. Now, Riggins said, the contractors have responded, "they are going to cut down on that bulk."

Riggins also said the Army is "in the final phase right now of being able to drop that cable" that connects a helicopter pilot's head gear to an aircraft's intercom system.

The Aircraft Wireless Intercom System allows pilots to attach to the helicopter's intercom system without cables that can be cumbersome and potentially dangerous.

"That's going to be a very much improved capability and it's going to improve safety for us," Riggins said.

The AWIS is now actually being installed on UH-60 Black Hawks at Fort Belvoir, Va. for evaluation purposes. Riggins said eventually, the wireless systems would incorporate NSA-grade voice encryption to let voice data pass into Army networks in theater.

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"The M-model Black Hawks were in Afghanistan for 12 months. The aircraft performed exceptionally well," said Lt. Col. Jerry Davis, product manager for UH-60 Modernization. "We got great reaction from pilots. They experienced a higher than average operational readiness rate with those aircraft in theater and they loved the technologies on-board."

The year-long deployment was the first for the M-model Black Hawks, which entered full-rate production in June, 2007. So far, 154 M-models have been delivered, Davis said.

The M-model Black Hawk's digital cockpit display made a large difference with pilots, the AAR found.

"We went from analogue type displays on the dash to multifunction digital displays. Now, the aircraft has a moving map capability with digital situational awareness on the dash integrated with the flight plan. It gave pilots a greater awareness of where their units were, where their supportive units were and where the enemy locations were," Davis said. "It has an integrated Blue Force Tracker which automatically displays situational awareness on the moving map display, giving greater awareness to the pilot conducting the missions."

The M-model aircraft is also interoperable with the latest Army Aviation Mission Planning Systems - enabling pilots to plan a mission in their pilot ready room on laptop computers, store data onto a small card and plug it into the aircraft, allowing them to pull up maps, graphic displays and other mission-essential information, Davis said.

"The aircraft has a data-transfer system. Once they plug that card in they can pull that data up on those maps and it will display graphics as well as program their radios. You get routes, landing locations, radio frequencies that you need to be on as well as locations of refuel and re-arm points. All of the normal mission planning data that a pilot has can now be done on the Aviation Mission Planning System and transferred electronically to the aircraft itself," Davis added.

Also, the combination of wide-chord composite rotor blades and a more powerful engine give the M-model Black Hawk about 500 pounds of additional lift capability compared to previous models, he said.

"The UH-60M comes off the line with the latest GE engine that we are using, the 701D model which has more shaft horsepower. It is a more powerful engine," Davis said. "It is a common engine between the Black Hawk and Apache fleets which is something very good for the aviation logistical community."

The existing 701C --commonly used as the standard engine for Black Hawks and Apaches for the last 15 years -- has a 1,900 shaft horsepower engine, said Mac Dinning, aircraft survivability team lead, Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center.

"The 701D engine brings that up to 2,000 shaft horsepower, giving you and extra 100 horsepower. That is a five percent increase," he said.

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This is up from 97.2 per cent a year ago and shows a continued upward trend in both recruitment and retention. 24,010 new recruits have joined the UK Regular Forces in the 12 months to 31 December 2009, an increase of 10.1 per cent (2,200 people) compared to the previous 12 months.

The statistics also show that the number of people leaving the Trained Strength of the UK Regular Forces in the 12 months to 31 December 2009 has fallen by 16.7 per cent compared with the same period a year ago. Overall, the number of people leaving is at its lowest in five years.

As at 1 January 2010, the full time Trained Strength of the UK Armed Forces was 176,330 against a target of 178,740. This comprises 171,630 UK Regular Forces, 1,080 Full Time Reserve Service personnel and 3,610 Gurkhas.

Defence Minister Kevan Jones said:

“It is great news that once again the Armed Forces have seen overall gains to trained strength. We have worked hard to implement measures to ensure we recruit and retain the best quality personnel.

“I have no doubt that life in the Armed Forces is one of the most challenging careers available, but one which rewards recruits with a sense of real purpose, teamwork, and service. It is now more important than ever that we have the best personnel who know the reasons we are in Afghanistan and can see the effect they are having for the security of our country.”

Since 1 January 2009, the proportion of females in the UK Regular Forces has risen from 12.0 per cent to 12.2 per cent for officers and from 8.9 per cent to 9.0 per cent for other ranks.

The percentage of UK Regular Forces from ethnic minority backgrounds continues to rise; at 1 January 2010 ethnic minorities accounted for 6.6 per cent of UK Regular Forces compared to 6.4 per cent at the same point last year.

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The Reconfigurable Vehicle Tactical Trainer, or RVTT, officially opened during a ribbon-cutting ceremony on the training area's Camp Aachen, Feb. 18.

The RVTT is unlike traditional computer simulators or engagement skills trainers because it surrounds Soldiers in a realistic, 360-degree virtual world, said David W. Darnall, Soldier Program Manager for the 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command (JMTC).

"In any other computer simulations you're constrained by a 14, 18 or 19-inch monitor that you view your world through," said Darnall.

"All of the RVTT simulators that we have are 360 degrees," said Darnall. "There's no such thing as moving your mouse to glance right. In here, you glance right and you see the terrain moving. It becomes much more immersive."

The RVTT system consists of a series of four to five trailers, said Darnall. Two of the trailers are equipped with life-size replica HMMWVs surrounded by floor-to-ceiling movie screens. A third trailer provides command and control capabilities. A fourth trailer provide power to the whole system.

The fifth trailer contains spare parts - such as extra weapons or vehicle pieces - that allow units to reconfigure the simulators to meet their training needs, said Darnall.

The system can accommodate a whole platoon training simultaneously on the same mission, said Darnall.

"The last (simulator) we did was not this advanced," said Spec. Selah Hadi, who went through the RVTT as part of the JMTC's Theater Specific Individual Readiness Training (TSIRT) course.

"This was more realistic, fun, I mean. I always enjoy doing stuff like this," said Hadi.

The RVTT simulators can save commanders immense time, particularly when the unit is conducting complex training missions, said Darnall.

"For example, say a commander wanted to go out to (Grafenwoehr's) Range 118 and do convoy training with IEDs," said Darnall. "If he has a really good day and his Soldiers are motivated, maybe he can do three iterations with his platoon. Here in the virtual simulator, you could easily do ten to 12 repetitions a day."

Virtual mission training is also cheaper for the unit because they don't have to worry about the cost of fuel or ammunition, said Darnall.

"We're just spending electrons here," said Darnall.

Each RVTT scenario is fully-customizable by the training unit, said Darnall. Currently, the RVTT has access to eight terrain databases, which include northern California, the National Training Center, and the ranges and training sites of the JMTC's Grafenwoehr and Hohenfels Training Areas.

Even though it looks like a giant arcade game, the Army has made all the scenarios and the simulator equipment as realistic as possible, said Darnall.

"You're going to have the same rate of acceleration in (RVTT's) HMMWV. You're going to have the same rate of fire on that weapon as you would in real life," said Darnall. "You have to do the things you would normally do to be successful."

The entire RVTT system is transportable, said Darnall, but the goal is to make it a permanent piece of what will eventually become U.S. Army Europe's first Virtual Device Training Facility.

In addition to RVTT, the JMTC's Virtual Device Training Facility(VDTF) will eventually also incorporate the current armored vehicle simulators (Mobile Close Combat Tactical Trainers) and the Virtual Battle Space 2 desktop mission simulators with the future Dismounted Soldier Virtual Trainer, a system that will allow up to 12 Soldiers to physically maneuver through a three-dimensional virtual world with the use of goggles and body sensors, said Darnall.

When it's fully operational, the VDTF will be able to simultaneously train up to a battalion of soldiers in one location on virtual missions, said Darnall.

"Right now we don't have the capability to plug everything together," said Darnall. "When we get the other simulators that are coming in, they will arrive being able to be plugged into each other."

"Beyond that, the only limitation is what the unit commander's imagination is," said Darnall.

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At mobilization sites throughout the U.S., the uniform will be issued to deploying troops as part of the Rapid Fielding Initiative process, and Soldiers already in Afghanistan are scheduled to receive the MultiCam this fall.

"Anything we can do to give our Soldiers an edge, we want to do," said Col. William E. Cole, project manager for Soldier protection and individual equipment at the Program Executive Office, or PEO, Soldier on Fort Belvoir.

The decision to field and develop an alternative camouflage for uniforms in Afghanistan came out of the realization that the Army's current Universal Camouflage Pattern, or UCP, did not meet all of the concealment needs for Afghanistan's multiple regions.

"Afghanistan is a unique camouflage challenge because it's such a terrain-diverse country," Cole explained. He also confirmed that the uniforms and gear in MultiCam will for now only be used in Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan, Soldiers on a single patrol can potentially go from desert conditions, to wooded areas, villages, and rocky mountain environments. When coming up with a new camouflage color palette, PEO Soldier wanted to be sure the uniforms gave Soldiers a combat edge in each possible terrain situation.

Similar to the Battle Dress Uniform woodland print, the new MultiCam is a combination of seven different shades which "takes in surrounding colors." A jumble of greens, browns and beige, the MultiCam camouflage presents a solution to Afghanistan's multiple-region problem.

"Troops like the fact that it helps them blend in to different terrain types," Cole said of the new pattern.

Beginning in September 2009, four phases of developing and testing new camouflage options were initiated: deciding on alternative uniform patterns, conducting testing and Soldier feedback, choosing a final pattern to produce, and evaluating a long-term plan for the Army Combat Uniform.

First, a unit field-tested the ACU in MultiCam alongside their standard-issue ACUs, while another tested the UCP-Delta, a digital pattern with the added color 'coyote brown' for better concealment. When polled, the MultiCam and the UCP-D ended up as the top two choices by Soldiers.

Then, a team representing the U.S. Army Infantry Center, PEO Soldier, Natick Labs, the Asymmetric Warfare Group, Army Special Operations Command, and the U.S. Naval Research Center traveled throughout Afghanistan to gather data on six different patterns including the UCP, UCP-D and MultiCam. They took photos of Soldiers in the six different uniforms against eight terrain conditions. From those pictures, photo simulation was created comparing the uniforms at different distances and settings.

About 750 Soldiers who had recently deployed to Afghanistan were then asked to judge the uniforms in the photos based on their detectability, blend-ability, and rank them from best to worst-the MultiCam was chosen as the best performer in all categories.

The MultiCam, while cut in the same style as the ACU, will have several upgrades including a reinforced seat, buttons on the trouser cargo pockets, be constructed of flame-resistant fabric (like the newer ACUs), and treated with permethrin. New Mountain Combat Boots will also be issued to deploying Soldiers, which feature a tougher, more durable sole for gripping the mountainous Afghan terrain.

So far, three of the four phases of exploring camouflage alternatives have been completed, while the process of making a long-term decision about the ACU, and how big a role the MultiCam camouflage will play is still up for debate.

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