Each MERC will have a three-year shelf life, making it compatible not only with carriage in a rucksack but overseas pre-positioning requirements.
T-Rations/Fresh Food
Not everything a Special Forces soldier eats in the field is a “tactical” ration. At forward bases or training sites, there are frequently kitchen facilities that allow for cooking of “normal” meals. At such times, SF units tap into the Army supply system for what are called T-series rations—a decided step up from MREs. T-Rations are precooked meals packaged into aluminum trays, then sealed, irradiated, and shipped (usually refrigerated, though they can survive room temperature for days if necessary). Each T-Ration contains meat, starch, and vegetable selections, along with two large and treasured bottles of McIlhenny’s Tabasco sauce (SF soldiers never leave home without it!). The results are actually surprisingly tasty, especially the special meals laid out for holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving. All that’s needed to make T-Rations ready to eat is to heat them in buffet-style hot-water heaters, and then serve them up.
Another option is to procure and cook fresh food locally. Even in the Third World, most fresh foods are perfectly safe to eat. The trick is simply careful preparation, proper cooking, and care with the water (impure water is the source of most travelers’ nasty gastric problems). As an added bonus, eating local food gives SF soldiers a chance to shop at local stores and markets, and so develop friendships and build relationships that have real value when they are operating downrange.
Water and Hydration Systems
While most healthy people (depending on body fat and other factors) might last a month or more without food, none of us can survive more than a few days without fresh water. Since they tend to spend a lot of time where water is rare, Special Forces pay a lot of attention to making sure they have enough of it. In line with current physiological thinking, which maintains that a body under stress should be given as much water as it needs, current U.S. military thinking about water consumption is to provide soldiers with as much of it as they can drink. This helps maintain strength and energy levels, and avoids dehydration, digestive, and renal problems. The difficulty is that water is extremely heavy and bulky, with a gallon weighing around 8 lb./3.6 kg. When you consider that a soldier resting in shade in dry heat needs at least two gallons a day, the water supply problem makes itself obvious. Put that same soldier into the Persian Gulf heat and humidity during high summer, and you can actually quadruple that amount.
The Special Forces deal with this problem in several ways.
In parts of the world where water supplies are plentiful, but their purity is questionable, SF soldiers follow the rule of only drinking water that comes out of sealed bottles. In some areas, they use water filters and purification chemicals, and establish a regular water resupply schedule, so that every soldier always has at least two quarts/ liters available.
In places where water is scarce (deserts, high altitudes, etc.), Special Forces teams tend to bring in enough water to complete their entire mission, cache it around their operating area, and then make runs to retrieve the cached water (and other consumable supplies as required). Though doing this can be dangerous in areas patrolled by enemy forces, sometimes it’s the only way to survive.
Sometimes just getting fresh water into an area is dangerous. Because it’s about as subtle as a circus train, the least desirable water resupply method is by air, either from helicopters or parachute drop, and SF soldiers try to avoid it whenever possible. In their view, if aircraft are used on missions, they should only be used twice. Once on the way in, and then on the way out.
Three examples of Camelbak hydration systems. From left to right: the Storm is being issued to install in existing pack systems, the Thermobak for high-temperature/desert operations, while the Stealth is for aircrews and vehicle drivers.
JOHN D GRESHAM
Meanwhile, the carrying and delivering of potable liquids has recently been going through significant changes. For several hundred years, soldiers on the move have carried a day’s ration of water in canteens. Early models were carved from wood or made from gourds. Now, lightweight plastics and space-age engineering have made traditional canteens virtually obsolete.
Their replacement, known as hydration systems, were pioneered by the Camelbak Company, and were originally developed to deliver fluids to astronauts and aircrews sealed in space or full-pressure suits. The idea was to provide a ready supply of water, which a person could consume gradually. The Camelbak designers placed a canteen-sized plastic bladder inside a small nylon bag, which was hung on the back of the user. Water was fed through a small hose over the shoulder. This system allows the wearer to take fluids while moving. That is, he or she does not have to stop and open an unwieldy canteen.
Camelbak and other hydration systems have proved so popular with soldiers and sportsmen that there is now a hydration system industry. Though in the past, soldiers have had to buy their own hydration gear (or try to slip a commercial purchase through their local G7 shop), starting in 2000, the Army has selected the Camelbak Company to supply their hydration system gear (including the one scheduled to go into the MOLLE derivative system when it arrives).
That unit, known as a Storm Maximum Gear, is a 100 fl. oz./3.0 liter bladder with a ballistic nylon cover and feed tube. It is designed to be dropped into an existing backpack system (such as the MOLLE), and will be bought in large numbers in the coming years. By the middle of the next decade, every soldier in the U.S. Army will have one.
Another new design, known as the Stealth, is specifically designed for aircrews (who often suffer from dehydration and fatigue on long flights). This unit is built to fit between the wearer’s back and his or her aircraft seat (it’s actually very comfortable).
Navigation Equipment
Despite their low-tech beginnings, the Special Forces have not been immune to the flow of high technology into their rucksacks. This means that SF soldiers are more frequently making use of electronics and advanced technology products to better accomplish their missions. Right now, a mix of old and cutting-edge equipment is being used in the field by SF units. But in ten years you may find the Special Forces as dependent as Wall Street stockbrokers on wireless phone, data, and information services.
Global Position System Receivers
In the few years since the NAVISTAR GPS system went online, its impact has been truly remarkable. This system of twenty-four satellites in Earth orbit sends signals to relatively inexpensive receivers that are translated into amazingly accurate three-dimensional position and timing data.
Even though the first practical use of GPS came only as recently as the 1991 Gulf War, millions of GPS receivers have been built and sold in the years since. Some civilian models can be bought for less than a hundred dollars; others will likely be standard equipment in the next new car you buy. Military models are certified as accurate to within 20 ft./6 m. (with the new Block IIR satellites), and can be made small enough to guide missiles and bombs.
The standard GPS receiver issued to the Special Forces is the Rockwell Collins AN/PSN-11 Portable Lightweight GPS Receiver (PLGR—called the “plugger”). The PLGR is a handheld device about the size of a brick, and weighs less than 3 lb./1.5 kg. Two are normally carried in each ODA, so that one will always be available during split-team operations. A number of the older Trimble Navigation Small Lightweight GPS Receivers (SLGR—“slugger”) are also still in use, frequently mounted on vehicles. Both provide absolutely accurate position and timing data.
Compasses
While GPS is the preferred means of navigation, sometimes technology fails. Batteries go dead; equipment gets dropped and breaks. In such circumstances, SF soldiers are still expected to reach their objectives, and if they have to do it the old-fashioned way, using their maps and compasses, they can do that.
The standard U.S. Army model of compass is little changed since the Second World War. Based upon a folding circular design (which compacts down to smaller tha
n a hockey puck), it has a luminescent bezel and needle, and is set up to take sightings along a bearing line. High-tech it is not, but it will always work as long as the Earth has a magnetic field.
Sensors and Communications Equipment
Many other electronic devices have found their way into SF rucksacks. You might find there, for instance, low-light goggles, palmtop computers, and digital cameras, and there will likely be more as we move further into the twenty-first century, saddling SF soldiers with an even greater load to tote.
Night Vision Goggles
American military forces own the night; they can fight round the clock.
A far remove from the primitive Starlight amplification scopes of the Vietnam War, Night Vision Goggles (NVGs) have now become so sensitive and accurate that pilots of helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft wear them at night to attack ground targets.
On the ground, the NVG being issued to the Special Forces is the PVS-7D—a marvelous little device that can be worn on a helmet or harness, or, if need be, used handheld like a pair of binoculars. By amplifying ambient light from stars and other available light millions of times, a clear (albeit monochrome green) picture is presented to the eyes of the user. Should there be no celestial lighting or if the user goes indoors, a small infrared light on the front of the NVGs can be activated to provide illumination. The PVS-7D has been procured in sufficient numbers to provide a set to every SF soldier on missions.
In the near future, the Special Forces will receive a new series of night sights known as the PVS-13 (a small thermal sight for weapons) and PVS-14 (a monocular helmet-mounted NVG unit). These will be evolutionary developments of the PVS- 7D, but with much higher resolution and a better depth of field.
Eventually these systems and their successors (which will include small, lightweight, forward-looking infrared—FLIP—thermal imagers, the first of which are now being used on M16A2s) will be integrated into the “Digital Soldier” ensembles being prepared for Army service in the early twenty-first century.47
The SFC G7 shop also has a number of programs in the works to develop their own family of sensors, and should begin to field these new systems sometime around 2005.
Radios
A traditional strong point of Special Forces units has been their ability to communicate reliably from anywhere in the world. For more than five decades, SF soldiers have stayed on the leading edge of communications technology. To that end, they will use in the field whatever works—old or new. And so the communications gear a team might take downrange will often be a mix of the tried-and-true and the advanced.
To provide short-range tactical communications, SF teams are equipped with the Motorola PRC-126 Saber-series radios, which are a marvel of clarity of transmission, and have become a favorite of military and police forces throughout the world. Built in a small “brick” configuration, the Saber is normally worn on a soldier’s LC-2 harness; a headset keeps hands free. Range is around 6 miles/10 km. under good conditions without repeaters.
However, technology is moving rapidly, and the Saber is about to be replaced by the Multiband, Intra-Team Radio (MBITR) systems. The advantage of MBITR is that it will communicate across a much wider band of frequencies, including VHF-FM, VHF-AM, and UHF-AM/FM. SF soldiers are also being equipped with the new PRQ-7 Combat Survivor Evader Locator System (CSEL), which combines a GPS receiver and remote tracking beacon. CSEL allows combat search-and-rescue units to remotely track a soldier or team with GPS precision and without the need for voice transmissions from the operator. Expect to see every SF unit get several of these “911” radio/navigating systems starting in 2001.
Long-range communications are normally based around one of several lightweight satellite communications (SATCOM) systems. Most often used is the PRC-5, though the new PRC-137F Special Mission Radio (SMRS) is rapidly being introduced. Unlike the PRC-5, the PRC-137 SMRS has a built-in encryption device (the PRC-5 needs a separate encryption system, like the KY-99A, to send secure messages). It can also be easily hooked up to a Morse keypad, a microphone, or a laptop/palmtop computer (for e-mail messages). This last can also take advantage of commercially available software to send along other files such as digital photos and text messages.
The major problem with SATCOM systems is that they are not always available (i.e., when there is no available satellite transponder overhead—a situation that will gradually improve as more satellites are lofted into place). Until that day, SF teams will have to work within SATCOM access “windows” scheduled to the minute by the U.S. Space Command. Atmospheric conditions and solar activity will also occasionally “blank” out SATCOM channels. To protect against these possibilities, extra radio gear has to be carried.
When everything else fails, the communications sergeants (18E) turn to old reliable—their TRQ-43 High Frequency radio sets, which bounce their HF signals on the upper atmosphere (like skipping a stone on a pond). When equipped with a KL- 43 encryption device, the “Turkey-43” (as it is called) can reliably fire off secure HF radio ”shots“ to just about anywhere in the world. The trick is the skill of the 18E communications sergeants in cutting and stringing the special wire antennas that optimize the ”bounce“ off the upper atmosphere—an arcane science.
Finally, there are cellular phones. On training missions, SF teams will rent cell phones from local utilities, and use them as a backup system for the encrypted radio systems. They are also useful for talking with locals who have their own cell phones.
A Special Forces soldier using a lightweight satellite communications terminal. Mounted on an HMMWV, the antenna is the small cross-shaped object just to the left of the soldier.
OFFICIAL U.S. ARMY PHOTO
Ground Laser Target Designator
A key SF wartime mission is known as Terminal Guidance (TG). TG missions require SF teams to locate specific targets as part of a Special Reconnaissance (SR) mission, then designate it for attack by supporting aircraft, artillery, or missiles. Because TG targets are most often high-payoff enemy assets, like headquarters units or SCUD missile launchers, SFC is willing to risk placing an ODA within range of a heavily defended target site.
For many years, SF soldiers have lugged a lot of gear around to help them plot and designate their TG targets (never with completely satisfactory results). There was a particular need for a lightweight means of pointing out to aircraft exactly where to place their weapons. That need has recently been met in the form of the Litton PAQ- 10 Ground Laser Target Designator (GLTD).
The GLTD is a moderate-sized system, about the size of two shoeboxes taped together, weighing in at just under 12 lb./5.5 kg. It is equipped with a set of 10X sighting optics and a laser rangefinder/designator, with which it can sight, range, and designate targets up to 6.1 miles/10 km. away for aircraft equipped with laser spot trackers. An aircraft or helicopter that’s so equipped can track in on the laser spot and use it to aim unguided ordnance with amazing accuracy. GLTD also provides guidance for laser-guided weapons like Paveway-guided bombs and AGM-114 Hellfire antitank missiles. Finally, interface ports can be used to connect the GLTD with other systems like the PLGR GPS receiver and various radio systems. When so configured, accurate target coordinates can be passed automatically to other systems, like the Army’s Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System (a component of the “Digital Battlefield” fire systems that are coming online).
A PAQ-10 Ground Laser Target Designator. The PAQ-10 is a combination thermal imager, rangefinder, and laser designator that can be attached to a GPS receiver and radio to provide precision targeting coordinates for attacking aircraft.
JOHN D. GRESHAM
Lightweight Video Reconnaissance System (LVRS)
Special Reconnaissance/Terminal Guidance missions are among the riskiest of SF tasks. All too often SF ODAs have found more excitement than they wished when they had to be extracted from a “blown” SR hide site under enemy fire. During Desert Storm, several ODAs were very nearly destroyed while on SR missions deep inside I
raqi territory.
To take some of the risk and confusion out of the SR process, SFC has developed the Lightweight Video Reconnaissance System (LVRS). LVRS consists of small still-frame video cameras, which are networked via wireless radio links to a small portable “out” PHV-1 workstation assigned to a deployed ODA.
The base station can be located up to 6 miles/10 km. from the cameras, and except to site and retrieve the units, no men are needed to handle them. The cameras can be augmented by adding NVG or thermal imaging equipment, giving the LVRS a day and night capability. Should a camera “see” a target of interest, the imagery can be rapidly sent from the “out” station to a PVH-2 base station back at a mission support center or forward operating base. The imagery can also be transmitted via SATCOM or other radio link, providing nearly real-time monitoring of critical road junctions, buildings, or other sites.
An improved version, LVRS II, with improved cameras and smaller packaging, should be fielded in 2001. There are also plans to field a fully automated, remotely controlled robot surveillance station, as well as small unmanned aerial vehicles. SF planners hope to “seed” these robot sensor stations around an area, and then feed the surveillance data through the ODA’s “out” workstation back to higher headquarters.