By Army News Service on Wednesday, June 19th, 2013
Putting new boots at the ground
What all of it comes all the way down to is keeping Soldiers’ minds on their missions in Afghanistan, instead of on their feet.
That’s how Ben Cooper views the event of the new Weather Mountain Combat Boot, or HWMCB, at Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, which began in spring 2011. Cooper thought it was so important that he got permission to continue engaged on the boot after leaving the Footwear Performance Laboratory at NSRDEC to become a senior materials engineer for the Air Force, still situated at Natick.
“Ben was so interested by the early phases of this and have been really running this project superbly, i assumed that it was a good suggestion that he was ready to continue in this project,” said Bob Hall, the present Army footwear engineer.
“Obviously, in these fiscal times, having the ability to join together and work toward a standard goal for the warfighter and for our country, i suspect, is the largest thing,” Cooper said. “My supervisors had been very supportive about me taking time to aid out and support the military with this effort, and we’re all happy to do it.
“The Air Force have been a team player on this,” he continued. “It’s a sister service — one team, one fight.”
Cooper and Hall are working with Program Executive Office Soldier and Product Manager Soldier Clothing and Individual Equipment to unveil phase two of the boot. Phase one — a lighter, more breathable version of the favored Mountain Combat Boot — was issued to each Soldier deploying to Afghanistan for the past year. As many as 200,000 pairs of the boots were fielded with great success.
“(For) the quantity of trainers which can be obtainable, we’ve had very, only a few complaints,” Hall said.
“Soldiers provides you with honest feedback,” Cooper said. “We haven’t heard bad things. On this business, silence is a good thing.”
Cooper talked about that nothing just like the HWMCB existed before Soldiers in Afghanistan began soliciting for it two years ago.
“We were attempting to develop and identify the salient characteristics of a Hot Weather Mountain Combat Boot,” Cooper said. “Since it was a brand new item, it’s not commercially available. We evaluated three different material solutions at the moment from three different manufacturers.”
Using Soldier feedback from phase one, which included requests for more breathability, Cooper and Hall confidently strode into phase two.
“We cherry-picked the best features on all of the boots, and we on condition that feedback to industry,” Cooper said. “They responded and provided new solutions, updated solutions.”
Three new styles are actually being evaluated on the National Training Center, Fort Irwin, Calif., by units from the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division, based at Fort Carson, Colo. Each boot is sort of a half-pound lighter than the unique mountain boot.
“Due to Afghanistan’s unique climate and environment, they needed a boot that not just would supply them ankle stability and traction and sturdiness, but additionally they needed greater breathability,” Cooper said. “It’s a balancing act. We were constantly walking that fine line. i suspect that we have got worked with industry tirelessly on looking to make certain we accomplish exactly what the warfighter want and desires.”
Industry made the boots more breathable by including moisture-wicking linings, perforating the leather, and inserting textiles wherever possible between the leather and rubber, without compromising stability.
“It took some creative approaches with a view to do this,” Cooper said. “If you’re kicking rocks, and you’re crawling, and you’re within the prone position, you ought to be ready to not have this thing rip.”
Cooper will travel to Fort Irwin on the end of June with Chris King, of the Operational Forces Interface Group at Natick, to gather data from Soldiers at the 285 pairs of trainers that have been issued to them.
“We’re going to head meet them once they get out of the box at NTC,” Cooper said. “I think the phase one boots were fairly well received. We’d look forward to finding more positive feedback. We’re hopeful that we’re getting into the perfect direction.”
The goal is a technical specification for a boot that may be supplied by any manufacturer. When it’s achieved, said Cooper, it is going to be as a result of “collaborative atmosphere” at Natick.
“I can walk down the hall and speak with the key expert in (fire-resistant) clothing and apparel,” Cooper said. “I can walk down the alternative end of the hall and seek advice from the most important expert in cold-weather equipment, in mountaineering gear, in footwear.
“I think that’s just a part of the culture that’s here, and I’m proud to be part of that,” he continued. “We were ready to leverage the entire resources that we’ve got available to us.”
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