Monday, October 22, 2007

First Strike Rations

First Strike Rations info discussion blog.

Info:
The First Strike Ration (FSR) is a compact, eat-on-the move ration concept from the United States Army, designed to be consumed during the first 72 hours of conflict, created by the United States Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts.[1] The FSR substantially reduces weight and load and is intended to enhance a consumer's physical performance, mental acuity and mobility.

Purpose
Future conflicts will require a new assault ration to provide highly mobile soldiers with a variety of foods that are lightweight, calorically dense, familiar, and easy to consume.


Technology
The FSR takes advantage of major advancements in food processing, preservation, nutrient delivery, and packaging technologies to include innovative methods in intermediate moisture foods, glucose optimization, and novel packaging materials and configurations.


Features
Enhanced mobility. All components of this lightweight ration are familiar, performance-enhancing, eat-out-of-hand foods that require little or no preparation by the soldier. Innovative packaging technologies enable the beverages to be reconstituted (CamelBak compatible) and consumed right out of the pouch.

Lightweight. When compared to three Meal, Ready-to-Eats, the FSR reduces the weight and volume of one day’s subsistence by approximately 50%.

Characteristics. The FSR has a minimum two year shelf life at 80°F and provides an average of 2,900 calories per day. The FSR has nine meals per shipping container consisting of three each of three different menus.

First Strike Ration Provides Fast Food for Initial Fight
Natick Soldier Center


Natick, Mass.-When ground troops want to lighten the field ration load they carry into battle it's referred to as "fieldstripping." The Natick Soldier Center's Combat Feeding Directorate is working to prevent the need for fieldstipping through the new First Strike Ration while boosting the nutrition they need for peak performance. Still in development, the FSR is a single package, high-energy, no-utensils-required ration that would be substituted for three packages of the Meals, Ready-to-Eat for forward-deployed troops in the first 72 hours of combat.

"About seven years ago, we said there has to be a better way to assess what items are being fieldstripped, ensure that these items contain the right nutrition level and condense the cube," said Betty Davis, Performance Enhancement and Food Safety Team leader and project officer for the FSR.

Three Meals, Ready-to-Eat, also called MREs, totaling 3,600 calories were being stripped to 2,200-2,500 calories after soldiers had tossed out unwanted contents. Each FSR hits the target with about 2,300 calories. The FSR is close to half the weight and volume of the MRE, which fits into the Army's goal of becoming lighter, leaner and more mobile as it transitions to the Objective Force. The FSR also cuts down packaging waste.

When the first concept was created two years ago, it was composed of breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack pack, but Davis said the downfall was that each pouch opened the path for fieldstripping.

"Probably when the final version is in the field, soldiers will want to strip it because it's human nature, but in field tests, it has never been stripped," Davis said. "We have a great prototype FSR, but it's definitely going to be changing."

The latest prototype has proven so popular in evaluation that the U.S. Army Special Operations Support Command requested as many of the rations as the Combat Feeding employees could make in their Food Engineering Lab for shipment to Rangers deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Every food was selected for its ability to be eaten out-of-hand for troops on the move. From lessons learned from early concepts, the FSR has evolved into a single shrink-wrapped bag packed with a combination of familiar and new ration components. It currently contains two shelf-stable pocket sandwiches but will soon contain three based on feedback, two flavors of miniature HooAH! nutritious booster bars, two servings of the Energy Rich Glucose Optimized beverage mix (known as ERGO), a dairy bar, crackers or bread, cheese spread, two sticks of beef jerky, a package of dried fruit, a modified version of applesauce named "Zapplesauce," a Ziploc bag and an accessory packet missing the tiny bottle of Tabasco sauce but including an extra wet napkin.

Barbecue chicken and barbecue beef are two varieties of pocket sandwiches now available, and Davis said that more varieties will be added as they are developed. The sandwiches are approved for the MRE and offer for the first time tidy sandwiches that don't require refrigeration.

The dairy bar, likely to be renamed "dessert" bar, is available in chocolate, peanut butter, mocha, banana nut, vanilla nut, vanilla and strawberry flavors. The extruded bar, without a home since it was created about a decade ago, has the consistency of fudge and provides milk protein.

"We took it off the shelf, revisited it and made it cheaper to produce," Davis said. "A number of people here are excited about it, and it could find its way into other rations, including the MRE."

Zapplesauce is one of the best-liked components, according to Davis. The product is made with extra maltodextrin, a complex carbohydrate, for sustained energy release. Maltodextrin is also the key ingredient in ERGO, which tastes similar to a sports drink. It's intended to increase endurance by conserving glycogen, which is energy stored in the liver and muscles. The ERGO drink packs will have a "fill-to" line so users easily know how much water to pour in. Straws were desired but are not feasible, so other options are being investigated for easier drinking and may be available as technology changes, Davis said.

HooAH!, which is similar to commercial performance bars, comes in chocolate, peanut butter, apple-cinnamon, raspberry and cranraspberry flavors. HooAH! may be fortified with tyrosine or extra caffeine for performance enhancement depending on testing results from the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine. Other possibilities for the FSR include breakfast-type pocket sandwiches, a protein drink or bar, high-performance energy gel and caffeinated sticks of gum.

The FSR has a shelf life of two years instead of three years at 80 degrees Fahrenheit because the rations don't have to be pre-positioned. They have to stay warmer than 20 degrees Fahrenheit to avoid freezing, and the warfighter will have to resort to another source to heat the food because no heater pack is included. Davis said she expects the FSR to be ready for fielding by 2007.

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