The US Army intends to abandon the old methods of assessing the physical parameters of military personnel in favor of more accurate and high-tech. Four new techniques are being tested at Fort Bragg on a group of volunteers.
The tests began on October 18 at the Army Center for Initial Military Training, advanced developments for them were provided by the Military Research Institute of Environmental Medicine. One of the techniques, DXA came from fitness. This is a full-body scan with the collection of information about muscle mass and fat, as well as bone mineral density.
- DXA is considered the "gold standard" in the fitness and beauty industry, because it is very accurate and minimizes the human factor, - project manager Matt Bartlett told Task&Purpose.
Another method uses an infrared scanner that collects data from more than two million points of the body in 13 seconds. Also, the volunteers will go through an impedance analysis, in which a weak electrical signal is passed through the body to measure muscle and fat mass. Finally, the fourth method will be the well-known American military magnetic tape. This method is considered the most inaccurate, since the result of measurements depends both on the behavior of the soldier - he can, for example, pull in his stomach - and on the attentiveness of the operator when evaluating the test.
The current regulation includes a table taking into account the gender of the serviceman, his age, height and weight. For example, a 22-year-old soldier with a height of 182 cm can weigh no more than 88 kilograms. And the weight of a 19-year-old military lady with a height of 152 centimeters is limited to 58 kilograms. However, the military complain that this method was introduced more than 200 years ago, outdated and inaccurate.
The tests at Fort Bragg will last 6-9 months.
Anton Valagin
