WASHINGTON, Dec. 12 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army has been holding a crowd-sourcing event this week to develop a mobile command post mounted on a lightweight tactical all-terrain vehicle.
The online "Make-A-Thon" event involves more than 800 invited soldiers and civilians who are examining, discussing and making recommendations to modify the Kawasake Teryx 750cc LTATV to serve as a command post for platoon and company-sized units.
The challenge is part of the Army's Rapid Equipping Force's proof-of-concept ArmyCoCreate program and is focused on mobility, weight, payload and transportability.
"The proof of concept is the process that could help the REF continue to innovate," said Gary Frost, the deputy director for futures at REF. "For the REF, the hardest thing we have is time. There are a lot of solutions out there, and there are a lot of people we could get to, if we had a year to go find a solution.
"For the REF, we have to figure out how in a very short period of time to get the most users and the most material solution providers together, so we can do a rapid prototype."
The "Make-A-Thon" now being held at Fort Benning, Ga., is the first of two such events and involves soldiers with the Maneuvers Center of Excellence Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate working with members of the online community to see what needs to be modified on the all-terrain vehicle to carry heavy equipment.
"What we'd expect at the end is a locked-down design," Frost said. "The design could be a cardboard cutout -- like this is how we will fit everything -- that you could turn into (computer aided design) drawings, for the engineers to start building and measuring and cutting. And it will turn into 'this is the size and shape of the power and the batteries we need.' And then over the next couple weeks we are going to go procure whatever we need to modify it -- if it's batteries, a communications package, etc. -- and we will figure out online how to put this together."
By having soldiers on the ground at Fort Benning participating in the design, he said, the effort will get much-needed feedback to ensure that what is being designed is actually usable.
"You get a user feedback; we call it a 'user jury,'" Frost said. "It's hands-on for that week that will kind of vet what we talked about online."
Later, at a second "Make-A-Thon" event, participants on the ground will actually build the mobile command post. Soldiers participating will look at the more finalized design to see if the idea is working the right way.
"The intent is, if we can build what we think, and we are successful in it, it is a candidate to deploy to a unit," Frost said, "especially a unit in Afghanistan."
