Jun 28, 2023 Army adds new wearable tool to health & fitness arsenal
The United States Army has unveiled a new tool to help soldiers measure their health, fitness and tactical readiness as well as a slew of other performance indicators.
The tool is called MASTR-E, which stands for Measuring and Advancing Soldier Tactical Readiness and Effectiveness, and was created by program manager George Matook and his team of researchers at the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center.
It combines wearable technology and data servers with years of analysis that dives deep into previous Army performance programs.
A recent story from the Army Times featured an interview with Matook about the MASTR-E health and fitness tool. Below is an excerpt from the Army Times.
The outcome, Matook told an audience of nearly 800 officers and senior enlisted on April 26 at the annual Holistic Health and Fitness Symposium at Fort Eustis, Virginia, is a type of “performance dashboard” for soldiers, small units and, most importantly, their commanders.
“We’re tying this not just to health but to lethality,” Matook said.
Army Times has previously reported on MASTR-E, a five-year Army science program that concludes in 2024. The Army started the program as part of the larger Department of Defense Close Combat Lethality Task Force, which aims to improve how soldiers shoot, move, communicate, rest and recover in tactical training and on deployments.
It is the largest known defense department human performance science and technology program. The department has budgeted $100 million for the program, Matook said.
While debate continues over protecting soldier personal data when using wearable technology, Matook and others emphasized that the performance data would be aggregated for officials to review performance at the unit level. Meaning that commanders could see a snapshot of unit performance from the individual to squad level and higher. Personal identifiers can be removed at the front end of that data collection.
» ALSO SEE: Using A.I. to implement training programs
In 2018 the defense department banned fitness-tracking devices for deployed troops over concerns that adversaries could access the geolocation and other data to learn more about the U.S. footprint and activities overseas, Military Times previously reported.
Two critical efforts in the program include creating quantified human performance measures and small unit performance forecasting.
To read the full story from ArmyTimes.com, click here.
