FORT HOOD (Now designated Fort Cavazos), Texas — Engineer Soldiers here will conduct missions Tuesday while testing the Army’s newest route clearance vehicles.
Media are invited to attend testing of the Husky Mounted Detection System (HMDS) 2 and Explosive Hazard Pre-detonation (EHP) Roller in the field.
Both are designed to improve the ability of route clearance patrols to find and neutralize explosive hazards while decreasing risk to the Soldiers conducting their route clearance missions.
Soldiers from the 937th Engineer Company (Clearance), 20th Engineer Battalion, 36th Engineer Brigade have already been training with the systems prior to testing with the U.S. Army Operational Test Command (OTC).
Testing will determine whether or not the HDMS 2 and the EHP Roller are effective, suitable, and survivable, and is another step in the Army’s continual modernization of its equipment, using what Soldiers learn during combat, and translating it into improved battlefield capabilities through operational testing.
Improvements to both systems allow operators to more accurately detect and mark potential explosive hazards to be interrogated on the modern battlefield.
Working with OTC test officers, Engineer route clearance Soldiers are providing the human element necessary for training hard under realistic operational scenarios against threats they may face in the real world.
Soldiers and test units have the ability to impact development of systems through rigorous training while executing doctrinally-realistic missions, and then providing direct input to the combat developer of the system.
Media representatives interested in covering the event should contact Michael Novogradac, OTC’s public affairs officer, at 254-288-9110, or email: michael.m.novogradac.civ@mail.mil to be escorted to the testing event. Please do so by 4 p.m. Monday.
A public affairs escort will meet the media at the North side of the Clarke Road gate at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
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About the U.S. Army Operational Test Command:
Operational testing began Oct. 1, 1969, and as the Army’s only independent operational tester, OTC is celebrating “50 Years of Operational Testing.” The unit enlists the “Total Army” (Active, National Guard, and Reserve) when testing Army, joint, and multi-service warfighting systems in realistic operational environments, using typical Soldiers to determine whether the systems are effective, suitable, and survivable. OTC is required by public law to test major systems before they are fielded to its ultimate customer – the American Soldier.
OTC’s mission is about making sure that systems developed are effective in a Soldier’s hands and suitable for the environments in which Soldiers train and fight. Test units and their Soldiers offer their feedback, which influences the future by offering input to improve upon existing and future systems that Soldiers will ultimately use to train and fight with.
