![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/HydrationTest5-RESIZED.jpg.jpg\")
The system also sends your results to an app on your smartphone to help you keep track of your hydration over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Using saliva to determine hydration isn\u2019t new, but doing it quickly and outside of a lab with a meter the size of your palm is, Luther said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Hydration Testing System is $750 and is currently in use by college-level and professional sports teams, including the Swedish men\u2019s national soccer team. It\u2019s also being tested by airmen in the 711th Human Performance Wing at Wright-Pat. Eventually, Luther said, the company plans to introduce a smaller, more affordable device for individual consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAthletes all around the world are constantly trying to stay on top of their hydration because hydration affects physical performance and cognitive performance. Obviously, our warfighters are also great athletes, and they care about it as well \u2014 especially cognitive aspects\u201d such as decision making, Luther said. \u201cWhether it\u2019s infantry, whether it\u2019s pilots \u2014 whatever. It\u2019s relevant for all these guys.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Strang has been running his own experiments with the MX3 system with active-duty airmen before and after workouts for the past year, independently verifying MX3\u2019s studies to see if the device does, indeed, measure saliva as accurately as a lab-grade osmometer. He\u2019s collected about 400 samples so far.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If the tests pan out, he sees it being most useful as a point-of-care device, allowing for more accurate prescriptions of how much Gatorade or water a service member needs. Already existing recommendations, online and elsewhere, are more generic and don\u2019t account for the high levels of training and stress that airmen, especially special operators, undergo, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He currently plans to test it on controlled mission exercises with Air Force Academy cadets, then take a tiered approach to rolling it out from there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe\u2019re always looking for an edge to make sure our guys are staying on top,\u201d he said. \u201cThe more that we can keep them optimized and recovered, maybe the longer we can preserve their careers. Our airmen are expensive to train and they\u2019re valuable, and we want to make sure that they\u2019re performing at elite levels for as long as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Air Force researchers are testing new technology they believe can help airmen maintain and improve their overall wellness and performance on the job.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":50281,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":67,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":{"2":{"categories":["news","your-military","middle-column","home"],"primary_category":"your-military"}}},"categories":[101,24,89,16,26,67],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3346],"class_list":["post-24389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-home","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-air-force"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"KG333CSCFRFYPMFNWEQCVF4RL4","arc_canonical_url":"\/news\/your-air-force\/2019\/06\/26\/are-you-drinking-enough-water-the-air-force-is-testing-a-new-device-that-could-tell-you\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Adam-Strang-RESIZED.jpg.jpg\")