To avoid that fate, armor brigades are receiving new equipment and experimenting with different formations as part of the service’s “Transforming in Contact” initiative, first launched in 2024 with infantry brigades.

The Army’s “Transforming in Contact,” or TIC, concept seeks to deliver new equipment — such as Infantry Squad Vehicles, drones, counter-drone equipment and increased electromagnetic warfare capabilities — to operational units as they prepare for major training events and deployments.

Under TIC 2.0, the Army is shifting its focus to Armor Brigade Combat Teams and division-level assets.

“Ukraine has us going back to first principles, such as, ”Why do we need armor?’” said Maj. Gen. Curtis Taylor, head of the 1st Armored Division.

Armor remains vital on the battlefield because it provides mobile protected firepower to penetrate prepared defenses, seize and hold ground, and dislocate enemy combined arms, Curtis said at September’s Maneuver Warfighter Conference at Fort Benning, Georgia.

New areas to adapt include robotics and drones.

That includes sensing and striking at the company level using first-person-view drones under armor, layered drone countermeasures, embedded electronic warfare and robotic breaching.

Maj. Gen. Thomas Feltey leads the 1st Cavalry Division, which has two brigades in the TIC initiative.

The 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team is scheduled to go to the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California, in November. There, soldiers will test the new equipment and formations they’ve been experimenting with, Feltey told Army Times in an interview.

Lessons from that rotation will fuel the development of another brigade, the 2nd ABCT, 3rd Infantry Division, which will then pass along its lessons learned to 1st ABCT, 1st Cavalry Division, for a rotation at the NTC in 2027.

Like the infantry units that previously underwent the “Transforming in Contact” process, each brigade will have a Multifunctional Reconnaissance Company and a Multipurpose Company added to the formation.

They’ll also change up formations, running a separate 12-tank company and a 14-tank company, as well as two different configurations of mechanized infantry companies, Feltey said.

The task is daunting. In training, the aim is to fight three enemy brigades, which translates to killing 224 tanks, 224 tracked vehicles, 168 wheeled vehicles, 56 mobile guns, 392 squads and 900 unmanned aerial systems in a 24- to 48-hour period, said Col. Alexis Perez, head of 2nd ABCT, 3rd ID, at the Maneuver Warfighter Conference.

To achieve those effects, the brigade will need to lean on its division assets.

Feltey sees division artillery as providing some of that firepower.

Division artillery now has a rocket battalion, three direct support battalions with two cannon artillery batteries each and a third, a composite High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARs.

They’ll also have the Air Cavalry Brigade at the division level to parse out to brigades when needed, according to Feltey.

All of these moves are to restore fires and maneuver, Feltey said.

“What we’re seeing in Ukraine and in World War I after the front froze, we lost our ability to conduct fires and maneuver. … It stalled our offense,” he said.

Officials have created a “wave-based approach” to accomplish fires and maneuver, Feltey said. The first wave is to detect, followed by suppressing enemy forces and bringing in finishing fires before maneuvering to close with and destroy the enemy.

New tools such as drones, one-way attack munitions and sensors are opening up new ways to accomplish this.

For example, Col. Brian Frizzelle, head of 1st ABCT, 1st Armored Division, noted how his team did the first live kamikaze first-person-view drone strikes at NTC. Soldiers used those and assets from the Multifunctional Reconnaissance Company, electronic warfare tools, small drones and mortars to create a point of penetration that allowed the armored formations to envelop, exploit and pursue, breaking the will of the simulated enemy forces.

This work has meant more time in the field. Perez noted that preparations included a 30-day stint in the field at a home station, followed by a 45-day field exercise to experiment with the fundamentals of the new formations, communications and other assets.

Feltey said they’ve built in an extended preparation period at NTC for the brigades to finalize their familiarization with equipment and new formations.

The 1st Cavalry Division is also bringing all the major assets of its division headquarters to NTC with the brigades to fully operate as part of the fight.

“We have a very important role to set the conditions of the brigades to get their battalions on the objective,” Feltey said.

That will mean pushing detect and strike functions all the way down to the company level, he said.

The sheer size of the ABCT presents both advantages and disadvantages. With all of its vehicles, the unit can generate a significant amount of electrical power to charge devices, which is becoming more important as more devices are added to the toolkit.

But more vehicles mean more maintenance and sustainment. And those maintenance and sustainment nodes are more vulnerable on the transparent battlefield than they have been in the past.

Which means maintainers and logisticians must be better trained and prepared for their part of the fight, Frizzelle said.

“Maintenance is training,” Frizzelle said. “How do we break less of our own stuff as we train, as we do gunnery and maneuver?”

To further shrink that footprint, leaders at the Maneuver Warfighter Conference repeatedly mentioned the need to scale back command posts, which can be easily detected and destroyed by the enemy.

That means both high-tech and low-tech solutions.

Maj. Gen. Charles Lombardo, head of the 2nd Infantry Division, said commanders need to be prepared to 3D-print hundreds, if not thousands, of drones to better protect their formations.

“I think we’ll start to see drone-on-drone battles before the indirect fight,” Frizzelle said.

Taylor noted that if a soldier could throw a football from one vehicle to the next, then they were too close together and needed to disperse farther apart.

With the proliferation of sensors and data, some worry about the overburdening of the cognitive load on soldiers in such formations.

Ways to reduce that load are critical, even something as simple as removing some of what an individual soldier at the tactical level might see on their screen could help, officials said.

“Young Americans are eager to serve,” Air Force Gen. Steve Nordhaus, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said in a release. “Today’s recruits are seeking long-term value, and the National Guard delivers through career training and hands-on, practical experience in more than 200 career specialties.

The Army National Guard started a new marketing campaign in March dubbed “Uncommon is Calling.” The campaign showcases the dual lives of Guardsmen who balance civilian careers with Guard duties during emergencies and national crises, according to the release.

That’s what attracted Spc. Bruno DaSilva of the 1060th Transportation Company to the Massachusetts National Guard.

“Outside of the National Guard, I have my own company. … I’m in the insurance business,” DaSilva said in the release. “In the National Guard, I can serve my country and run my business at the same time.”

The Army National Guard has hit 328,000 soldiers in end strength, officials said. Army Col. Timothy Smith, chief of the Army National Guard’s Strength Maintenance Division, credited dedicated recruiters and the Future Soldier Preparatory Course as initiatives that helped the Guard exceed their goal.

“Their hard work is the bedrock of our readiness. The organization has made recruiting and end strength priorities because if you can’t fill your end strength, you can’t be ready,” Smith said. “They’re tied together. Our readiness starts with our recruiters.”

The Future Soldier Preparatory Course serves as a bridge to basic training, helping recruits improve either academically or physically before starting basic training. Nearly 7,000 Army National Guard recruits have entered basic training through the course to date, according to the release.

Nordhaus and Senior Enlisted Advisor John Raines visited the course at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, in March to meet the cadre and trainees, officials said.

“We’re a team of teams,” Nordhaus said, “We need every committed American who wants to serve, even if they aren’t meeting the standards when they make that decision. This program helps them reach their potential and ensures we have high-quality Soldiers in our formations, because the standards won’t change.”

The Air National Guard also surpassed its recruiting goals and is on track to surpass 105,000 airmen by the end of the fiscal year, according to the release.

Air Force Col. Daniel Curtin, director of Air National Guard Recruiting and Retention, said the success is driven by several factors, including “19 consecutive months of year-over-year increases in new accessions.”

“The recruiting environment is strong,” Curtin said in the release. “We have worked diligently to establish a culture of excellence and opportunity that appeals to potential recruits.”

The Air Guard is working to centralize recruiting efforts within each state and territory. Previously, some recruiters operated under a wing or force support squadron, while others worked under a state’s joint force headquarters. However, Air Guard recruiting headquarters will now operate as separate flights or squadrons, solely dedicated to recruiting and retention, according to the release.

“The biggest thing we are trying to do is create a structure where you have a single officer that is responsible for the recruiting force in that state or territory,” Curtin said. “It is a formally appointed commander responsible for recruiting. That’s probably the most important thing that we’re driving out of this, because that allows us to do a lot of other things.”

Curtin also credited the funding of 150 temporary recruiting support positions and 210 temporary Unit Manning Document positions as vital in improving recruiting operations in fiscal 2025.

Nordhaus emphasized that the National Guard needs to maintain momentum on recruiting moving forward.

“The source of our strength is the fearsome deterrence of our warfighter talent — the men and women of the National Guard,” he said. “While we exceeded our goals with historic levels of recruiting this year, we cannot take our foot off the accelerator. We must continue recruiting the next generation of elite warfighters while retaining our most skilled and talented Soldiers and Airmen.”

The next iteration of Meals Ready-to-Eat is MRE 46, set to release in 2026.

Among the options — all of which are required to have shelf lives of six months in 100 degrees Fahrenheit and three years at 80 degrees Fahrenheit — troops will no longer see beef taco filling, a pork sausage patty and jalapeno pepper jack beef patty.

Instead, those items will be replaced with buffalo chicken, Cuban-style beef picadillo with vegetables and a Thai-style red curry with chicken and rice.

“Buffalo chicken is something that [soldiers] have requested. It’s a popular item … so we’re hoping that this item will be longstanding,” Julie Edwards, a Combat Feeding Division senior technologist and registered dietitian, said in a U.S. Army release.

The Soldier Center’s Combat Feeding Division in Natick Massachusetts, part of the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, is responsible for developing the MRE menu. Researchers there work with troops in the field to get feedback about the meals, and behavioral psychologists hold focus groups to dig into the data.

The feedback is analyzed and presented to the Joint Services Operational Rations Forum, which decides which new items to include.

The beef taco filling, pork sausage patty and jalapeno pepper jack beef patty were not rated highly among surveyed service members. The process to bring in new meals takes about four years, Edwards said.

“Any new item that we get that can help bring variety and increase acceptability is important,” Edwards said in the release. “We know that eating an MRE isn’t everyone’s No. 1 thing, but we want to make it safe to eat — that’s our No. 1 priority — and then to make it taste good as well.”

A s’mores recovery bar and freeze-dried chocolate peanut butter bites, both high in protein, are also among the new items that will be included in MRE 46.

Edwards said it’s been challenging to find protein-rich products, other than nuts, that can withstand the shelf-life requirements for MREs. Many options, such as beef jerky, experience a chemical reaction that gives them an unappetizing look, she said.

“I know in the commercial sector, you see lots of beef jerky that’s shelf stable. However, it has a very short commercial shelf life,” Edwards said.

Also included in the MRE 46 lineup are more caffeinated products offered as an alternative to coffee, which isn’t as popular among troops as it used to be. To replace coffee, researchers developed other caffeinated beverages, as well as energy chews, gels, caffeinated gum and caffeinated jellybeans.

“What we’ve noticed is caffeine is one of the least consumed items in the MRE,” Edwards said in the release. “Previous generations were big coffee drinkers, but the newer generation of soldiers are not.”

Troops also requested a larger, more durable towelette.

The next menu, MRE 47, is already in development and expected to come out in 2027.

One request from troops was to include more plant-based items. For 2027, the Combat Feeding Division is developing plant-based animal crackers, a new recovery bar, a protein bar and a fruit-flavored cereal, Edwards said. The four vegetarian meals currently in the MRE rotation will be replaced with other plant-based entrees, she said.

As part of the service’s initiative to rapidly deliver new capabilities to operational units, three brigades are already undergoing the MBCT transition and their leaders recently discussed some of the changes at the Maneuver Warfighter Conference at Fort Benning, Georgia, in September.

Key overhauls to the brigades include the addition of a multifunctional reconnaissance company and a multipurpose company to bring fires and strike capability down to lower tactical levels.

That’s in part because experimentation with loitering munitions and drones at lower echelons is paying off in destroying targets.

Col. Joshua Glonek, commander of 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, noted that 90% of fire missions during one training rotation at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center were viewed through drones. Users fired 50% fewer artillery rounds but were 300% more lethal due to the accuracy that using the platforms provided, he said.

Col. Trevor Voelkel, chief of staff for the 101st Airborne Division, said that his brigade had nearly 400 drones at its disposal.

But drones weren’t the only measure that changed the effectiveness of the newly reorganized brigades.

The Infantry Squad Vehicle, or ISV, enabled maneuvers for traditionally dismounted soldiers that they’d not experienced before adding the vehicles.

Fifty-mile movements were now feasible.

And pairing the ISVs with helicopter delivery means that soldiers can land vehicles outside the enemy’s defenses and penetrate from there, Voelkel noted.

But Col. David Lamborn, commander of 2nd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, said soldiers had to view the vehicle as a mobility platform and not a fighting vehicle. Troops must still include dismounted operational plans in their strategy.

“Do not become fixated on the ISV,” Lamborn said. “It’s not a fighting platform. It’s a tool, just a tool in the toolkit.”

The IBCTs transitioning to MBCTs will have ISVs and drones along with the new formations, the colonels said.

Each of the three colonels noted another key feature of the new formations and a necessary tactic: hiding in plain sight in the electromagnetic spectrum. The colonels advised new leaders to become familiar with the waveforms and communications plans they will need in order to be effective when commanding the brigades.

“Camouflage according to the terrain that you’re in,” Lamborn said.

For example, when his unit operated in Oahu, they were able to hide within the dense signals all around them but when they conducted operations on Luzon, Philippines, the rural area meant shutting down many devices to avoid being detected.

Col. Nicholas Dvonch, division artillery commander, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Trenton Huntsinger spoke with Army Times recently about the progress of the division’s experiment.

The soldiers have taken passive sensors — the size of a baseball home plate — and mounted them on armored vehicles to detect enemy drones and pass that information back to their air defense element.

That’s created an air picture 3.5 kilometers in front of them, giving the vehicles about a 45-second warning for their airspace, Huntsinger said.

“I see every implement you’re going to fly at me,” Huntsinger said. “Creating a 45-second buffer, directed energy, microwave, lead in the air — whatever we need to shoot those down.”

The move is restoring fires and maneuver on the offense, Dvonch said.

Now they’re figuring out the data transport problem, bringing the information into a command-and-control system not only to detect but to also engage any objects in the airspace as they move, Dvonch said.

“When you can see all enemy air tracks at the same time to create a common air picture, adjacent units can see what’s happening to your left and right,” Dvonch said.

The next steps will include linking kinetic and nonkinetic systems to the loop to strike those enemy drones.

Soldiers will test radio frequency detection to drive systems on the M1 Abrams to turn on other systems, activating sensors for 15 seconds at a time. But it will be autonomous, with no human needing to touch the system, according to Huntsinger.

“Once this is successful, we’ll do the same thing with a camera,” Huntsinger said. “An infrared camera on the move to lock on. If I can do that, then I can get a kinetic weapon system to lock on.”

The goal is to engage any threat up to one kilometer away.

“If you’re a tank crew and we’ve done our job, then you have a method to detect and defend against group I drones,” Dvonch said, referring to the military’s grouping of the smallest drones.

The M7 and M250, both of which fire a new 6.8mm-caliber round, are the Army’s replacements for the M4 and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, respectively, among the close combat force.

Col. Jason Bohannon, program manager for soldier lethality at Program Executive Office Soldier, told Army Times in a recent interview that in addition to ongoing fielding of the weapons systems, some are already having upgrades applied.

The platforms will soon field a new suppressor, for example, that comes equipped with a heat shield. Additionally, improved slings and a new buttstock are on the way, each item developed based on soldier feedback.

Also under development is a carbine version of the M7, which weighs about the same as its M4 predecessor — just over 6 pounds.

So far, more than 2,000 M7 rifles and over 900 M250 automatic rifles have been fielded to units.

One unit to recently field the new weapons was the Minnesota Army National Guard’s 34th Infantry Division, which received some of the first M250s ever issued to the Guard.

Col. John McRae, who oversees training statewide for the Guard, told Army Times that the fielding was a notable example of the total force working together.

“The squad is now a more lethal organization because they have the M250,” McRae said. “They can multiply the effects of the squad on the battlefield, engage high-value targets and at a greater range than before.”

The Army Marksmanship Unit’s Instructor Training Group conducted the new equipment training for soldiers, emphasizing fundamental marksmanship but also guiding users on the new optic.

“The optic ensures every soldier has the capability to make first-round hits at distance, whether in single shot or burst,” Sgt. 1st Class Chuck Riegel, ITG’s primary instructor said in a release. “And the cartridge’s terminal performance is incredible — it will defeat pretty much anything they come across.”

Program Manager Soldier Lethality also joined Guard personnel in the fielding.

Sgt. 1st Class Karl Nelson fired the weapon as part of the fielding and said it was a far superior system when comparing it to the M249.

“It just shows that the Minnesota Guard is at the forefront of the Army force, not just the Guard,” Nelson said.

Having the new M250 automatic rifle, meanwhile, helps soldiers continue to maintain overmatch at all levels, McRae said, adding that getting a new weapon such as the M250 ahead of even active duty units was a big shot in the arm for soldier morale.

The move shows that expectations meet reality for guardsmen who join to deploy and conduct real-world training and missions, he noted.

“Now more than ever, our adversaries absolutely have a full court press on us in both the cyber domain and physical domain,” said Brig. Gen. Sean Stinchon, head of Army Counterintelligence Command. “They’re coming after our people, networks and critical infrastructure.”

Foreign agents attend shows such as AUSA, trying to collect sensitive information and exploit people, Stinchon said.

Scott Grovatt, region special agent in charge for the Northeast Region, told Army Times that his team collaborates with all levels of law enforcement to track possible incursions by foreign agents and actors.

“The Army is going through one of the largest transformations in the past 40 years, AI, autonomy, drones. The more industry is developing those capabilities, the more we are seeing the adversary gather, copy and mimic,” Grovatt said.

That’s why Grovatt’s team contacts each industry participant and ensures they know to reach out if anyone is asking overly technical questions or trying to photograph items that are not supposed to be photographed.

“We let them know about the threat, what emerges and that it changes every day,” Grovatt said.

There’s a before and after aspect to the work that counterintelligence does, Stinchon said. His agents break down by adversary the gaps they’re seeking to fill and collect intelligence on. Then counterintelligence builds its network on the ground at the conference against what it believes the adversary is trying to collect.

After the conference, his team will publish reports on the trends they observed and lessons learned for the next conference or event.

While the efforts are mostly focused on educating and contacting industry vendors, Stinchon welcomed anyone to report suspicious activity that they might witness at the show, such as individuals asking detailed technical questions or requesting specifications, or people taking photographs of items that were explicitly noted not to be photographed, for example.

Special Agent in Charge James, who declined to provide her first name due to security concerns, said that AUSA is one of the biggest shows that Army counterintelligence covers.

“We start prepping for this almost a year in advance,” she said.

And the work isn’t expected to slow down.

“The more advancements we make, the more it’s going to increase,” James said. “There hasn’t been a decline in the amount of foreign registrants at AUSA.”

This past year, the office has lightened body armor, added blood coolers for lifesaving measures and put together new cold weather gear for soldier testing, among other equipment. Program officers met with Army Times before the Association of the U.S. Army Annual Meeting & Exposition to showcase some of its equipment.

High-tech headsets

The Integrated Visual Augmentation System is now known as the Soldier Borne Mission Command. The heads-up display device is set to see a glasses version, much slimmed down from the former goggle configuration.

In September, Rivet announced it executed a $195 million agreement for the project, which the company describes as the Army’s “next-generation situational awareness and mission command platform for dismounted units, company-level and below.” That same month Anduril announced it had been awarded a $159 million contract by the service for “an initial prototyping period to develop a night vision and mixed reality system” as part of program.

Anduril and Rivet are set to deliver 70 systems each with the new configuration by March for further evaluation. The schedule calls for putting the new architecture and hardware together in one package by the fourth quarter of fiscal 2027, according to Lt. Col. Mark May.

Loitering munitions

PEO-Soldier is also pursuing Purpose Built Attritable Systems, a loitering munition system that includes four five-inch and two 10-inch quadcopters. The system, which comes in a kit, can be used as a one-way attack drone or it can be configured to drop munitions or other items.

“I wouldn’t say you fly this, you shoot it,” said Lt. Col. Will Taylor. “It’s not your typical drone. It’s a munition.”

On the larger side of munitions is the Switchblade 600, a loitering munition that carries a Javelin warhead capable of decapitating a tank turret. It weighs 75 pounds with a length of approximately five feet, according to an Army release.

After being fired, the tube-launched, unmanned aircraft system flies like a drone while an operator uses onboard cameras to identify and engage targets.

So far, the service has fielded 138 devices across 12 units, with 1,600 on order for future fielding, Taylor said.

Keeping soldiers safe

On the soldier protection side, Lt. Col. Ken Elgort said the new Lightweight Small Arms Protective Inserts, or LSAPI, offer the same protection against ballistics as the Enhanced Small Arms Protective Inserts, or ESAPI, but without the need for soft armor. The new body armor plate is also 1.5 pounds lighter.

The soft armor previously needed weighed about 2 pounds. Together that’s 3.5 pounds in weight savings for the same protection, Elgort noted.

In September, the Army awarded $65.5 million in delivery orders to Hardwire LLC and Leading Technology Composites, Inc., for 72,179 LSAPI plates, marking the official start of production for the new body armor plate, according to a service release.

Officials have also approved two new versions of helmet pads for a more customizable fit and improved comfort for soldiers. The rails on the helmet’s sides have been reconfigured for more length to attach tactical communications and hearing protection.

Conquering the cold

For soldiers fighting in the cold, tactical clothing, snowshoes, skis, cleats and other items are due for testing this winter, with the possibility of a unit being equipped with all new gear by fiscal 2028, said Lt. Col. Austin Banford.

Separately, soldiers in 3rd Brigade, 25th Infantry Division, and 3rd Brigade, 82nd Airborne Division, are evaluating a poncho that shields soldiers from electromagnetic detection.

Medical care in the field

Soldier medical devices, which represent the newest addition to PEO-Soldier, include the Sparrow ventilator, which automatically pumps respiration, saving a soldier or medic from the task. Officials have also delivered blood coolers and freezers to the tactical level, allowing medics to make ice packs for blood delivery in the field.

A blast overpressure system is in the works, too. The monitor will measure how much blast exposure a soldier has accumulated and record the data throughout their Army service. Lastly, a medical trauma sensor in development reads key data, such as a soldier’s blood oxygen saturation and pulse, to help medical personnel more quickly identify problems using objective data and algorithms.

“The first shots will be fired in the cyber domain,” said Maj. Gen. Jake Kwon, director of strategic operations for the Army’s Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff. “The Army has to think differently, and we have to fight faster.”

Kwon spoke Tuesday alongside Lt. Gen. Jeth Rey, deputy chief of staff G-6, and Brandon Pugh, principal cyber advisor to the secretary of the Army, at the annual Association of the U.S. Army conference in Washington.

To move faster on cyber, Kwon said several initiatives must be met. First on the list is artificial intelligence-driven mission command, with the top goal to achieve decision dominance.

Using AI will be critical to operate at the speed needed to react to cyber threats, Kwon said.

Next is pushing commanders to see a data-centric Army, treating data as a strategic asset. Kwon likened data to the new ammunition, both critical pieces of the larger warfighting puzzle.

Third is that training must evolve beyond linear scenarios and move into a contested environment, and leaders must push units to outpace the enemy in their battlefield actions.

Lastly, Kwon noted that with the division as the new unit of action in the Army’s plans for large-scale combat operations, much experimenting will happen at that level. As a division goes into the dirt at one of the combat training centers, cyber work will feature prominently in what leaders will learn from each rotation.

Pugh warned that commanders can’t see cyber as an isolated capability performed by certain cyber commands or units. Division and corps commanders have access to these tools and must use them in conjunction with other assets, such as electronic warfare, he said.

Rey tied together the non-kinetic nature of the fight, noting that units must be able to fight from their forts to their ports, all of which will require resilient cyber capabilities and practices.

Casualty numbers in the Russia-Ukraine war point to what would likely be large-scale casualty events in future conflicts that will far eclipse the numbers seen by U.S. troops in recent campaigns like those in the Global War on Terror, a panel of command sergeants major said this week at the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual meeting in the nation’s capital.

The three senior leaders agreed that one problem currently vexing units is the concerning inability to transport large numbers of casualties across the battlefield.

“Everything that has wheels or tracks has a casualty on it, unless it has a main gun on it,” said Command Sgt. Maj. James Light, the top enlisted leader for the Army’s 1st Armored Division.

And that, he added, would be the scenario for a division with armored combat brigades, which carry many more vehicles across their formations than the numbers traditionally equipped among lighter Army units like Infantry Brigade Combat Teams.

Command Sgt. Maj. Oracio Pena, the top enlisted leader for the Joint Readiness Training Center, noted that in such casualty events, those infantry brigades must rely on Humvees and infantry squad vehicles, which are only able to carry one casualty at a time.

But even with the addition of more vehicles capable of moving casualties, leaders also see a lack of platoon- and company-level casualty evacuation plans being put to the test during training, said Command Sgt. Maj. Jesus Gonzalez, the top enlisted leader at the U.S. Army Medical Center of Excellence.

Across the medical field, meanwhile, the Army is taking steps to improve gear and training for both medical and non-medical personnel.

Medical personnel are modernizing Warrior Aid and Litter Kits, which are first aid kits for soldiers, and assigning combat paramedics in the Mobile Maneuver Battalion to mitigate casualty evacuation challenges.

Officials are also implementing aerial drones and unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs, to look for casualties and scout routes for evacuation. These assets can also drop medical supplies forward from battalion aid stations to medics and combat lifesavers at the front.

Additionally, the service is working to increase the number of combat lifesavers per squad, team, vehicle or crew, and is updating lifesaver training to include tourniquet conversion, freeze-dried plasma and rapid blood typing.