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Photo Information

Sergeants Garrett Ferris (left) and Paul Peacock, both Infantry Officers Course instructors at The Basic School on Marine Corps Base Quantico, Va., test their gear in the Gruntworks’ Immersive Trainer. Peacock is wearing gear from 2001 while Ferris is in current gear.

Photo by Bill Johnson-Miles

Newest combat equipment heads to war

12 May 2010 | Jim Katzaman, Corporate Communications Marine Corps Systems Command

The clock is ticking. With sufficient data already in hand, according to Lieutenant Colonel A.J. Pasagian, there is no reason to delay getting lifesaving equipment to Marines under fire.

The Colonel, Program Manager for Infantry Combat Equipment (PM ICE) at Marine Corps Systems Command (MCSC), minced no words as he described improvements to Marine combat gear in the years since the early days of the war on terrorism in 2001 compared to what’s available today.

Pasagian was one of many Marines and equipment experts on hand when MCSC presented Media Day at its Gruntworks Squad Integration Facility in Stafford, Va. The object was to show how far and fast combat equipment has progressed in only a few years.

Gruntworks experts analyze the equipment Marine riflemen carry in terms of human factors, combat effectiveness, logistics and load, with a view toward making changes that increase efficiency and survivability. At Gruntworks the Marine Corps evaluates the best industry, government, academia and foreign solutions offered through simulation and human systems integration and modeling.

Sergeants Paul Peacock and Garrett Farris portrayed Marines suited up in circa 2001 and today’s gear, respectively. Asked how he felt inside the new versus old gear, Ferris replied, “Protected.”

He was a rifleman with Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, during a 2004 deployment for Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). He has a lot of experience with items the Marines plan to phase out.

The equipment of eight years ago, Ferris explained, “left your lower back exposed. With the new gear there’s more protection with side SAPI plates [Small Arms Protective Inserts (body armor plates)]. The new helmets are also lighter than the old helmets.”

As Pasagian stated, the modern uniform provides increased areas of coverage and room to insert plates. This, he said, offers better protection against direct live fire.

Peacock was deployed for OIF during the last part of 2004 and the beginning of 2005 as an assistant team leader with a scout sniper platoon in 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment. He said the transition to the new equipment is easy.

“Once you put it on and get used to it,” he said, “your mindset becomes that gear. It all comes down to training.”

Other innovations on display at Gruntworks included improved load-bearing equipment, the integrated intra-squad radio, enhanced night vision optics and flame-resistant organizational gear (FROG). Some of the items were not yet in the hands of deployed Marines, but Pasagian said they would be on the way to the war zone without delay.

“In the last two and a half years,” he said, “we’ve gotten a lot of data about what Marines are looking for. We’ve got to get these to the field. Every Marine going to Afghanistan is going to get them.”

The emphasis, the Colonel said, is not to invent, test and tweak new equipment when industry partners already have items on the shelf that will meet warfighter needs.

“We know the technology is out there for outerwear,” Pasagian said. “We don’t want to waste time on development because our focus is on the war. We could do more analysis, but we’re confident we have sufficient data based on user evaluations.”

He said the goal is to issue bags with new equipment before Marines deploy next year.

“We’re making urgent purchases to satisfy warfighter requirements for our Marines in time for the 2010 rotation,” the Colonel said. “Our initial buy is right off the [General Services Administration] schedule. We will ship and direct the bags to the theater within the next few months.”

As an example, he noted that FROG production is ahead of schedule.

“We’ve picked up on performance issues for durability,” Pasagian said. “At the same time the wearer gets the flame-resistant characteristics. I think we hit the sweet spot on this.”