The DEVCOM Soldier Center is redefining the future of combat by developing new and innovative ways to protect the Soldier through advanced research that addresses and confronts ever-evolving threats. We play a vital role in maximizing the effectiveness of America’s military, developing new products that work, save money, and benefit Soldiers in the field.
Primarily made up of three Directorates, Soldier Effectiveness, Soldier Protection, and Soldier Sustainment, we deliver world-class research, development, and engineering services with a unique human-centric focus. Through advanced capabilities, science and technology generation and application, the DEVCOM Soldier Center ensures that Soldiers are the best equipped, best clothed, best fed, and best protected. Each of the three Directorates focuses on enhancing the Soldier’s performance and safety in the field, empowering the world’s most capable force.
The mission of the Soldier Effectiveness Directorate is to deliver unprecedented capability through innovation, research, development, and technical integration to maximize Soldier effectiveness and readiness.
It is the only S&T organization in the Army to bring a holistic concentration on realizing Soldier and Squad performance and effectiveness by integrating human performance, human-system teaming, and training and simulation technologies with an overarching focus on the Army’s multi-domain operations (MDO) concept and modernization strategy.
The directorate partners with numerous Department of Defense (DoD) agencies, industry organizations, academic institutions, and the international community to research and develop capabilities on the advancement human performance and systems integration sciences, technologies for training aids, devices, simulators and simulations, situational awareness for the sensored Soldier, use of robotics and unmanned aerial and ground systems, and enabling technologies including power and energy, anthropometry, human factors and biological sciences. Organizationally, this work is executed by scientists and engineers in the Systems Division, Performance Division, and Training and Simulation Division, and takes place in both controlled laboratory environments and in the field with operational forces. This comprehensive research maximizes the Soldier’s and squad’s effectiveness in the multi-domain environment, now and into the future.
The Soldier Protection Directorate (SPD) executes client-focused scientific research, development, engineering, and testing to provide integrated materiel technology solutions to enhance the survivability of Warfighters and Homeland Defenders for today and tomorrow.
SPD empowers and protects Soldiers and enables small unit dominance through revolutionary customer-focused research, development, engineering, and analysis. SPD provides science and technology, research, development, and engineering to the Army and other services for the following mission areas and materiel:
- Textile prototyping and material testing
- Individual and collective ballistic and blast protection
- Organizational clothing to include uniform dress and combat clothing
- Individual equipment, load carriage systems, and sensory protection
- Camouflage, concealment, and signature management for individuals and high-value assets
- Chemical/biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) materials sciences, ensemble development, and collective protection
- Mobile and survivable command posts in support of Multi Domain Operations (MDO); and Low-cost, man-portable ballistic protection for critical high-value assets
The Soldier Center’s Sustainment Directorate executes customer focused research, development, engineering, and testing to ensure Warfighters are equipped with state-of-the-art equipment capabilities. The Directorate is focused on developing novel capabilities and providing engineering support in three focus areas: Aerial Delivery; Combat Feeding; and Expeditionary Maneuver disciplines.
The Aerial Delivery Division conducts research and engineering in military parachuting and aerial delivery systems. Our products allow the Department of Defense (DoD) to conduct global operations at a moment’s notice as well as sustain the mission with the supplies necessary to support either ground maneuvers or garrison activities. This is accomplished with a fleet of advanced personnel and cargo parachute systems that are maintained, improved and often reinvented to meet new mission requirements, improve accuracy, increase safety and lower costs. We’re also at the forefront of developing non-traditional, highly technical systems to meet the future aerial delivery needs of the DoD and our Allies.
The Combat Feeding Division’s mission is to ensure that America’s Warfighters are the world’s most capable fighting force by providing an operationally relevant research and development base to deliver solutions for evolving field feeding challenges. The CFD executes a Joint-Service program, which takes maximum advantage of the scientific and technological capacity of industry, academia, and other Federal Government Agencies and serves as the interface between these entities and the Joint Warfighter to ensure relevant and timely capability delivery. The program includes research and engineering for combat rations, food packaging, quality, safety, performance nutrition, Class 1 logistics optimization, and field food service equipment to develop or improve general and specialized combat feeding systems in response to changing modes of warfare and industry capabilities. This research culminates in the continuous delivery of capabilities that ensure Soldier lethality and optimized human performance on the battlefield.
The Engineered Systems Division is charged with providing the science and technology (S&T) of mission command platforms and deception for the U.S. Army. The Division also holds the Executive Secretary position for the Joint Standardization Board for Expeditionary Shelters and Basing Equipment a DOD Standardization Board that is charged with the standardization of Shelters and Base Camp Life Support equipment.