Soldier Lethality Technology

Investigate a probiotic bacteria designed to mitigate fatigue and enhance Warfighter operational performance in a human study under simulated operational stress (sleep deprivation); investigate novel means (e.g., cognitive resistance training, neurostimulation, biofeedback, supplementation, physical augmentation systems) and guidelines…

Will complete artificial intelligence (AI) recommender model framework for Command decision support; continue to investigate and integrate new model inputs and outputs into the predictive performance model that are deemed operationally relevant; investigate mixed methods human-machine integration for additional task sets (e.g., robotic…

Information warfare and kinetic/non-kinetic cyber effects for Live/Virtual/Constructive environments will be developed for seamless application across CONUS and OCONUS Combat Training Center (CTC) locations. Will develop and validate architecture for Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) training that leverages established performance measures…

Will investigate the effects of food processing technologies and storage on ration protein quality and effects on intestinal health and function using ex vivo models; will determine updated barrier requirements for optimal shelf-life of the Meal Ready-to-Eat retort and non-retort ration components, minimizing packaging materials and…

Will mature modeling of paratrooper and cargo airdrop scenarios, validating simulations against collected data from aerial delivery operations, in support of airborne safety goals; Continue investigation of next-generation of high-performance gliding parachute systems with significant glide ratios, large wing loading ranges, and reduced…

Will continue research in the competency areas of advanced manufacturing processes; composite research in support of advanced manufacturing; additive manufacturing technologies; design for additive manufacturing and digital manufacturing and design innovation.

Will investigate novel electrolytes and cell components to improve energy density and rate capabilities at extreme temperatures and humidities and design preliminary domestic cells, integrating these new cell materials to support increased energy demand and sustainment of Soldier and Small Unit equipment and Intelligence, Surveillance…

Will investigate advanced materials and sensor modalities for digital low-light imagers capable of operation in overcast starlight, with an emphasis on high performance, low power, and low cost for future Soldier-borne and attritable systems; design and develop a front-end application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) for the next…

Will develop capability to quantify shared situational awareness of heterogenous human-autonomy teams using edge devices; integrate computational models of visual attention with computer vision to share target information between dismount Soldiers and autonomous systems; investigate algorithms for adapting autonomous systems based on…

Will investigate and mature advanced technologies to enhance Soldier survivability by integrating ballistic and non-ballistic protection, blast debris mitigation, flame resistance, vector protection, and environmental protection into textiles and protective equipment; design camouflage and concealment materials identified for extreme…

FY2027 planned work Will create advanced cartridge designs and develop advanced barrel technologies using lightweight materials and advanced propulsion for improved accuracy of future medium and heavy machine gun platforms and next-generation sniper systems.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding decrease reflects a reduction in research in the area of operational concepts associated with the heavy machine gun and medium machine gun strategy.

FY2026 plans — current year Will investigate accuracy improvement for infantry weapon systems leveraging unique instrumentation, such as the automated jump range; develop understanding and refine high pressure ballistic technology and associated performance and benefits; develop comprehensive understanding of emerging threat systems and develop ways to maintain or gain overmatch against said threat within the platoon formations; develop material and operational concepts to increase individual soldier lethality to include but not limited to the heavy machine gun (HMG) and medium machine gun (MMG) strategy.

FY2025 accomplishments Assess viability of candidate lethal mechanisms related to the mounted machine gun (MG) role to include defilade mission; mature understanding of threat growth implications to medium machine gun (MMG) and mounted MG capabilities; validate the fundamental explanations for the dispersion reductions in Next Generation Squad Weapons allowing for applications to other types of systems; conduct advanced diagnostic laboratory experiments of novel propellant charges; assess system applications and validate weapon technologies enabling high performance compact lightweight weapons; complete theoretical and computational analyses for prescribing near-field energy field parameters for biological…

FY2025 accomplishments Design concepts to study small arms characterization techniques and metrics; design and develop machine gun component technology for increased volume fire effectiveness; mature algorithms and models used for advanced ballistics and holistic weapon signature system analysis; investigate fire control components and methodologies to improve future small arms system performance and emission reduction.

FY2027 planned work Will determine the feasibility of the interoperability between U.S. and foreign systems. Will validate the new fin design and range extension.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding increased to determine the feasibility of the interoperability with foreign systems.

FY2026 plans — current year Will investigate the application of rocket motor technologies on 120mm Mortar Cartridges to increase range capabilities; mature energetic components for future application onto mortar cartridges while meeting Insensitive Munition requirements.

FY2027 planned work Will design concepts to study small arms characterization techniques and metrics; design and develop component technologies for increased volume fire effectiveness; mature algorithms and models used for advanced ballistics and holistic weapon signature system analysis; investigate fire control components and methodologies to improve future small arms system performance and emission reduction; conduct advance weapon operation experiments for increased lethality against advanced emerging target sets.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding increase reflects realignment from Program Element (PE) 0602184A (Soldier Applied Research) / Project DN2 (Joint Service Small Arms Enabling Tech).

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding decrease reflects the strategic reallocation of resources to support evolving priorities and objectives.

FY2026 plans — current year Will mature behind armor injury assessment tools and investigate new material solutions for improved Soldier protection concepts; explore and design new computational tools addressing protection solutions for emerging threats; mature computational tools to assess optimal protection solutions for Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) borne threats; explore and mature conformal armor concepts.

FY2025 accomplishments Augment and apply computational tools for ceramic-composite armor technology along with computational methods for critical tissue injury assessment for protection against current and emerging threats; implement conformal armor concepts into integrated protection system solutions; insert emerging material and fabrication solutions for robust protection systems.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding decrease reflects the strategic reallocation of resources to support evolving priorities and objectives.

FY2026 plans — current year Will develop computational tools for armor optimization; mature bonding and integration strategies for composites and ceramics to develop armor packages with improved ballistic response relative to state-of- the-art and emerging threats scenarios.

FY2025 accomplishments Refine and mature highly diamond-loaded composite ceramics for advanced ceramic plates; validate novel manufacturing approaches for achieving improved diamond packing and bulk density; optimize micro-scale to meso-scale designs to achieve ideal pre-stresses at material interfaces; conduct experiments on ceramic materials with geometries and structures for point-of-need protection; validate engineer bonding and integration strategies for composites and ceramics to create armor packages that incorporate improved ballistic response relative to state-of-the-art.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding realigned to Program Element (PE) 0602143A (Soldier Lethality Technology) Project BB4 (Dismounted Soldier Survivability Materials) to consolidate all soldier materials research into one Project in FY 2027.

FY2026 plans — current year Will design and develop camouflage and concealment materials identified by machine learning as providing extreme material performance opportunities for use in decoy and deception systems; assess reported properties and pathways for materials developed through second generation machine learning strategies for further material development; continue to design and develop materials providing novel camouflage and concealment to provide decoy and deception capabilities for autonomous assets with Aided Target Recognition (AiTR) capabilities focused in support of small dismounted Soldier teams and unit formations; investigate and develop processing and manufacturing science for integration of…

FY2025 accomplishments Research novel camouflage and concealment materials identified as providing extreme material performance opportunities for use in decoy and deception systems; assess reported properties and pathways for materials developed through first generation machine learning strategies for further material development; design and develop materials providing novel camouflage and concealment to provide decoy and deception capabilities for autonomous assets in support of small dismounted Soldier teams and unit formations; validate material performance for further maturation through manufacturing science.

FY2027 planned work Will conduct experimental tests of uncased detonations on blast gauges placed on mannequins as well as gold-standard pressure gauges to expand highly instrumented dataset; conduct mapping in-situ blast pressure fields from small and large caliber weapon platforms with high accuracy pressure gauges as well as candidate wearable sensors; synthesize experimental data into Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) software package to iterate experimental design and expand software capabilities; develop correlation to blast experiments and loading experienced by Soldiers (armored and unarmored) from computational fluid dynamic simulations; develop initial leader dashboard tool…

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding increase supports additional research in the area of computational fluid dynamic simulations.

Implement/integrate physical and software solutions for prolonged care in support of Multi-Domain Operations (MDO) training environment; validate consolidated physiology engine and updated haptic hardware against more dynamic prolonged care use cases that support Army medical training, such as extended austere environment, gender care…

Investigate novel educational, operational, and training applications of emergent artificial intelligence (AI) methods such as generative AI; develop military-relevant AI training methods to expand the utility of AI for generating educational-, training-, or operational-insights and recommendations; continue investigation of adaptive…

Validate physics- based algorithms for munitions effects in live range environment, develop wireless data compression architecture for live/virtual/constructive training environments; develop data models that enable high fidelity engagements in live environment; and develop and implement layered and scalable terrain architecture for live…

Design and develop hardware acceleration architecture; validate limited number of dynamic behavior algorithms for large scale training exercise use cases; validate configuration and authoring components in relevant planning pre-exercise use cases; and integrate component architectures into a single solution for implementation in…

Develop architecture design leveraging mature/reusable Measures of Performance/Effectiveness (MOPs/MOEs); develop and implement MDO profiles and authoring tools/user interfaces aligned to knowledge, skills, abilities and behaviors (KSABs) across identified MDO task structures; begin limited design architecture to simulate first order…

Will design and develop sensors and algorithms that will be used in next gen small arm weapon systems to estimate current posture of Soldiers during Live exercises. Will posture positions to be captured including static and dynamic (i.e. standing, sitting, lying, kneeling, jumping, walking running, lifting, etc) Will conduct initial…

Will investigate current capabilities for automated exercise generation, assessment, data collection, process, display and storing of relevant data methods. Will design and develop capability for initial data fusion in 2D/3D format using both government and commercial open-source sensors.

FY2026 to FY2027 change Funding decrease reflects transfer to Program Element (PE) 0602143A (Soldier Lethality Technology) / Project BB4 (Dismounted Soldier Survivability Materials) to streamline and optimize the Science and Technology (S&T) portfolio.

FY2026 plans — current year Will begin validation of relationship between processing parameters, microstructure, and ballistic performance of state-of-the-art ballistic materials; begin maturing component improvements to helmet preform processing methods and materials design concepts to achieve protection parity with vital torso armor; begin validation of novel head form concept for dynamic measurements of behind-helmet energy transfer during ballistic impact; validate electrowetting component technologies for low-powered antifogging solution for combat eyewear; design new protective garment architecture that mitigates threat from blast debris based upon requirements recommendations that emerge from the…

FY2025 accomplishments Characterize relationship between processing parameters, microstructure, and ballistic performance of state of the art ballistic materials; explore improvements to helmet preform processing methods to achieve desired microstructures; develop novel helmet materials and design concepts to achieve protection parity with vital torso armor; mature novel headform concept for dynamic measurements of behind-helmet energy transfer during ballistic impact; mature electrowetting component technologies for low-powered antifogging solution for combat eyewear; investigate new active laser eye protection technology concepts and assess sensory protection gaps against emerging directed energy threats…