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A year in review for the US Army

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  • A UH-60A Black Hawk helicopter flew for the first time entirely unmanned as part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System program. The helo flew for 30 minutes over Fort Campbell, Ky., on Feb. 5, 2022, and then again on a shorter flight Feb. 7. The aircraft responded autonomously to simulations and landed by itself. A leading cause of Army aviation mishaps is a combination of human error and degraded visual areas. The service wants to offload the burden on the pilot in these environments. (Lockheed Martin)
  • The Army’s Precision Strike Missile broke its distance record in a flight test at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., on Oct. 13, 2021, the weapon’s developer announced the following day. Lockheed Martin did not disclose the distance, but the goal of the test was to see how far the missile can travel beyond its previous set requirement of 499 kilometers. America’s withdrawal in 2019 from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia has allowed the Army to develop the missile to fly farther. (Anthony Mendez/U.S. Space Force)
  • In December 2021, Army Times reported on a cluster of Texas National Guard suicides that coincided with Gov. Greg Abbott rapidly mobilizing thousands of troops to patrol the state’s border with Mexico. The Texas Army Guard’s former top enlisted soldier and troops on the border described problems with the mission, including benefits cuts, poor living conditions and inadequate time to settle civilian affairs. Although suicide is an individual and complex phenomenon that can’t be attributed directly to the mission, this story sparked a wave of national scrutiny on Operation Lone Star’s hasty mobilization and living conditions. Four months later, three current or former two-star generals abruptly departed the Texas Military Department. (Maj. Randall Stillinger/U.S. Army)
  • The Army is moving forward with its long awaited Army Combat Fitness Test, but the service officially dropped the test’s attempt to set a gender- and age-neutral physical fitness standard — as well as any pretense that it’s formally tied to combat tasks, beyond having “combat” in its name. The shifts followed a congressionally ordered review of the test by the think tank Rand. Active duty and active Guard Reserve troops will begin taking the for-record test on Oct. 1, 2022, and will have six months to pass an ACFT before it is incorporated into promotion points and used as grounds for kicking soldiers out of the Army beginning April 1, 2023. If they fail during that period, soldiers will be flagged. For part-time soldiers, the record testing period will begin April 1, 2023, and troops will have a year to pass an ACFT. (Andrew D. Monath/U.S. Army)
  • A next-generation interceptor is set to replace Stinger missiles after the Army released a request for information to industry for a new surface-to-air weapon. The service requested $1.5 million for fiscal 2022 to issue the RFI and conduct an industry day ahead of a competitive shoot-off, according to budget documents. The plan is to award a contract in the second quarter of FY23, with design, development, prototyping and performance assessment ongoing through the fourth quarter of FY28. (Spc. Kyle Edwards/U.S. Army)
  • U.S. Army Sgt. Josue Hernandez, a paratrooper assigned to the 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 11th Airborne Division (Arctic Angels) collects wind speed readings in support of airborne operations at Malemute Drop Zone after exiting a U.S. Air Force C-17 GlobeMaster III, assigned to the 62nd Airlift Wing, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, August 24, 2022. The Arctic Angels stay proficient at their primary function of being a Joint Forcible Entry unit, able to respond and project power across the Pacific within 18 hours. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Patrick Sullivan)
  • The Army chose Sig Sauer to build and deliver its Next Generation Squad Weapon variants, the service announced April 19, 2022. The gun takes 6.8mm cartridges and will come in both rifle and automatic rifle variants. Sig Sauer had won a 10-year contract with an initial delivery order worth $20.4 million. The company will provide the individual rifle, light machine gun and handgun, having won the handgun contract in 2017. (Sig Sauer)
  • After postponing a systems changeover period in mid-August, Army officials internally announced Sept. 8 that its new human resources platform won’t launch as previously promised. The service had already delayed the Army-wide version of IPPS-A — or Integrated Personnel and Pay System-Army — from an original December 2021 launch date to Sept. 20, 2022, due to failed systems tests. That date is no longer on track. CACI International, which is overseeing the systems integration efforts, has received more than $557 million over seven years for the project thus far. (Staff Sgt. Frank O’Brien/U.S. Army)