Apache Pilots Rescue Critically Wounded Soldier

Army, Sep 2007

According to Rice, as of the beginning of August, 273 guided MLRS rockets had been fired; approximately 83 percent of those were in an urban environment, and 69 percent of those missions were with troops in contact.

"MLRS and precision fires products typically operate in a 30 km- to 150-km-and-beyond range, and we engage targets in that range. Of course, the farther you go out the more error you induce. Thus we need more precision, particularly as we get into the urban environment, and especially when we have troops in contact. The guided MLRS uses GPS location and guides itself onto the target. It has thrusters in the back, and the fins guide it with pretty good precision. I think we're getting [within] one meter, if not right on the target."

Several of the briefers noted the popular designation for the weapon as "the 70 km sniper rifle." According to Leighton Duitsman, a representative from the Training and Doctrine Command Capability Manager for Rocket and Missile Systems at Fort Sill, OkIa., "[Guided MLRS unitary] is primarily being used in what we call complex and urban terrain. Many of the targets have been in built-up areas where it has shown its ability to precisely hit targets, regardless of how close they are to other buildings. That's where we get the 'sniper' designation."

The guided MLRS unitary program is currently finishing up low-rate production and is scheduled to go into full-rate production around the second quarter of fiscal year (FY) 2009, with full-rate production running through FY 2012.

Dole-Shalala Report. The Dole-Shalala commission report on military health care urges broad and rapid changes to improve care for U.S. soldiers and veterans.

The 29-page report of the President's Commission on Care for America's Returning Wounded Warriors, chaired by former Sen. Robert Dole and former Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, calls for an overhaul of military health care and the veterans disability system guided by six recommendations that entail 35 immediate action steps. Several of the action items require congressional legislation.

Although the report notes that many of the problems in the military health-care and veterans disability systems also exist in the nation's health-care delivery system, it calls for improvement in continuity and integration of medical and rehabilitation programming across DoD and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and emphasizes that fundamental changes in care management and the disability system are necessary.

To provide more personalized care, the report recommends that DoD and the VA develop a patient-centered recovery plan for each seriously injured servicemember and establish a cadre of recovery coordinators to administer the plans and be the contact for patients and families. The impetus for the report was the exposure of poor living conditions, bureaucratic hold-ups and neglect at the outpatient clinic of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., last spring. One in five injured servicemembers goes to Walter Reed for treatment, and until it closes in 2011, the report notes, the hospital must have the resources necessary to provide and maintain excellence in outpatient and inpatient care.