ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

Improving small-unit training and giving soldiers more predictable, mission-tailored schedules are just two ways the Army is working to reduce accidents across the force, Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Joseph Martin told a House subcommittee.

“We can never, ever stop our relentless efforts to get after mitigating the risks in our formations,” Martin told the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee during a March 23 hearing on preventing training mishaps. “What we do is very, very difficult. We ask our soldiers in our formations to do a lot.”

The Army is setting the bar high for the next generation of weapons as it aims to improve soldiers’ lethality on the future battlefield.

“Teamwork is the sustaining function, and it’s the foundation of everything we’re achieving,” Maj. Gen. David Hodne, director of the Soldier Lethality Cross-Functional Team and the Army Infantry School commandant, said March 18.

The Army continues to build readiness across the total force—from the individual soldier to its brigade combat teams, the service’s top enlisted leader said.

“The Army has more units ready than at any time in recent history,” Sgt. Maj. of the Army Daniel A. Dailey told the Senate Armed Services Committee’s personnel subcommittee.

Because of funding support from Congress, the Army had 28 brigade combat teams at their highest state of readiness at the end of 2018, compared to 19 BCTs the year before, he added.

The Army is creating a new research institute solely focused on small-unit performance.

The Soldier Squad Performance Research Institute to be built at the Natick Soldier Systems Center, Mass., will be known as S2PRINT, and is part of a larger Army effort focused on the tools and training required to improve the fighting power of small units. It is expected to open in 2023.

Figuring out how to make autonomous unmanned aircraft systems increasingly available to small platoon- and squad-level tactical units could provide useful and potentially decisive combat advantages, according to a recent report.