New Soldier Lethality Technologies on the Way.

• Author: Tadjdeh, Yasmin

The Army is investing in a slew of new capabilities to make soldiers more effective.

"At the end of the day, the Army's people, they are our most important asset," said Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville. "We are going to give our soldiers leap ahead technology that is going to make them much more capable and lethal on the battlefield as we move forward."

Soldier lethality is the service's sixth most important modernization priority going forward, he noted during remarks at the National Defense Industrial Association's Army Science and Technology Conference in Washington, D.C.

"What we've done is we've invested a tremendous amount of organizational and intellectual energy on this effort as we go forward," he said. "Our resources are aligned with our priorities and if you're out there in industry, you ought to check those priorities because that's where our resources are going, that's where we're spending money."

Soldier lethality encompasses a wide range of technologies that will enable troops to shoot, move, communicate, protect and sustain themselves better, according to Army documents.

Thomas Russell, deputy assistant secretary of the Army for research and technology, said that while soldier lethality is the last on the service's list of major modernization efforts, that doesn't mean it isn't as important.

"If I'm looking at trying to engage with a near-peer adversary, the first problem is really the long-range precision fires," he told National Defense in an interview. "If they're outshooting your distance, then my dismounted soldier may not get into the fight, right? So I wouldn't say that it's less of an importance, I would just say that you have to... think about some of the sequencing of an operation."

The service's focus on soldier lethality ties in closely with work being done by the Defense Department's Close Combat Lethality Task Force, he said.

"We are linked in... [and] we are working hand in hand," Russell said.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis announced the initiative earlier this year with a goal to develop, evaluate, recommend and implement improvements to U.S. squad-level infantry combat formations in order to ensure close combat overmatch against high-tech adversaries.

"I am committed to improving the combat preparedness, lethality, survivability and resiliency of our nation's ground close-combat formations," Mattis said in a memo. "These formations have historically accounted for almost 90 percent of our...