“[T]he Army initiated a program, the Rapid Fielding Initiative (RFI), to provide soldiers and units with required items of field equipment which were not issued through normal supply procedures,” the committee report stated. “The committee understands that the Army has fielded this equipment to elements of the 82nd Airborne Division and 101st Air Assault Division by reallocating funds within the Army. The committee further understands that the Army has identified an initial cost of approximately [$]11 million to equip a brigade with soldier mission essential equipment, including: specialized cold-weather clothing and hydration systems; military operations on urbanized terrain (MOUT) specialized equipment sets, including assault ladders and fiber-optic viewers; individual weapons optics; force mobility and mobility equipment, such as the advanced combat helmet and knee and elbow pads; and lethality improvements such as the M249 squad automatic weapons rails and multiband inter/intra team radios. The committee supports this initiative and recommends an increase of $14.9 million for this initiative …”

The initial Army fielding referenced by the Senate report had resulted from an October 2002 directive from the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army (VCSA) to PEO Soldier to develop an RFI from lessons learned during 2002 deployment of combat units to Afghanistan. One month later, the PEO fielded 15 items to the 1st Brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division. Over the following month, the RFI list of equipment was refined using soldier feedback from across the Army and results from the Soldier as a System Integrated Product Team at Fort Benning, Ga.

The remainder of the 82nd Airborne and all of the 101st Air Assault and 10th Mountain Divisions would receive RFI in FY 03.

Early success with the RFI fielding to the 82nd also prompted the VCSA to direct RFI for additional brigades deploying to Afghanistan and to Iraq in January 2003 (President George W. Bush had approved the deployment of 200,000 troops to the Gulf region in December 2002).

Reflecting the realities of two-theater combat operations, FY 04 plans called for PEO Soldier to execute RFI to all OIF and OEF deploying units (16 Brigade Combat Teams [BCTs] and 16 Echelon Above Brigade [EAB] units).

Examples of equipment added to the RFI for all soldiers in FY 04 included: the Advanced Combat Helmet (ACH) and accessories; lightweight GPS; M4/M16 magazines; black fleece bibs; silkweight underwear; hydration system; goggles; glove system; cold weather cap; Infantry Combat Boot Type II (AF Desert); Improved Hot Weather Desert Boot;
COTS socks; moisture wicking T-shirts; combat belt; and M68 Close Combat Optic.

Along with the items provided to all soldiers, additional force protection/mobility, soldier mission essential equipment, lethality, and individual weapons optics were also provided to soldiers serving in BCTs.

The logistics of the two-theater FY 04 fielding challenge began with the 70 Air Force 463L pallets required to transport the RFI equipment for a single BCT. The pallets were normally flown by commercial 747 cargo aircraft to Kuwait, where they were transloaded for contracted flights – in some cases by Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft– to Camp Victory (Baghdad International Airport) and Camp Anaconda (Balad Air Base).

Not surprisingly, program representatives at the time acknowledged the challenges of a directive to equip all deploying soldiers when that quantity had quadrupled from the original FY 04 production and fielding requirements. In many cases, the volume of soldiers who deployed to the Gulf during the second quarter of FY 04 simply exceeded industry’s ability to ramp up production. One result was certain adjustments in basis of issue plans, with an eye toward a more equitable distribution of capabilities across the entire force.

Reflective of the dynamic nature of the program, the RFI list was further expanded in FY 05 to include additional lethality, weapons optics, force protection, and soldier mission-essential equipment programs.

FY 05 lethality additions, for example, included M9 magazines, the Modular M9 Holster, forward grip bipod, three-point sling, Modular Weapon System (MWS) Kit (including M16 Mil-Std-1913 mounting rails), Improved Cleaning Kit, M249 Short Barrel, M249 Collapsible Buttstock, M249 Spare Barrel Bag, M240 Spare Barrel Bag, M4 Improved Buttstock, and M4/M16 “Accu Wedge.”

Examples of soldier mission-essential equipment added in FY 05 included a foreign language translation capability (through a PDA-type device), one-handed tourniquet, emergency bandage (“Israeli Pressure/Trauma Dressing”), and Modular Sleeping Bag.

The RFI program continued to build over the next few years and at the conclusion of its first half-decade, in September 2007, the Army provided an RFI kit to its one-millionth customer. Contents of the ’07 kit reflected 58 individual and small-unit equipment items, including ballistic eye wear, combat ear protection, a strap cutter for emergency egress from vehicles, cold-weather clothing, an equipment vest, and the ACH.