Improving the Health and Safety of Our Troops

Our Warfighters must be prepared for anything, which generally translates to heavy packs with lots of equipment. Those heavy packs contained loads of up to 130 lbs and were almost entirely suspended from their shoulders for long combat patrols. This was having impacts on joints from the neck down both in the short- and long-term. During the 2010-2011 timeframe, while supporting the development of acquisition and lifecycle management approaches for PdM ICE, Kalman staff started considering the impacts of USMC IPE gear on the Warfighter. Those staff envisioned a flexible support system that allowed transfer of some/most of the load to the hips/pelvis all the avoidable damage could be minimized (since walking requires all of the bodies weight to be transferred through the pelvis to the legs).

Patent 9,700,122 B2 was granted 11 July 2017 for the Central Osteoarticular Relief and Performance Structured Load System Device (CORPS-LDS) and Modular Scalable Vest System to the Department of the Navy (DoN), via the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC). Kalman’s SMEis listed as one of the inventors of the system on the patent. The load distribution system will be comprised of a frame that allows weight to be substantially shifted from the user’s shoulders to their hips while not overly inhibiting the user’s range of motion. The CORPS-LDS will distribute the weight in a manner that reduces the strain on the spine and back while lessening the metabolic expenditure of the user. The Modular Scalable Vest System will also be integrated with the CORPS-LDS as a protective vest system. The integration into load and armor carriage is ongoing. Kalman provides experience and highly qualified SMEs across the breadth of our portfolio. We encourage innovative thinking at every level to provide the highest quality of support and best value to our clients and to the Warfighter.