Fielding Better Combat Helmets to Deploying Warfighters

Abstract

The development, testing, and fielding of combat helmets for United States (U.S.) Soldiers offers project management (PM) professionals an opportunity to analyze how programs begin, how they progress through development and testing, and finally, how new capability is fielded within the U.S. Defense Acquisition Institution. The case study centers on the U.S. Army's adoption of the Enhanced Combat Helmet (ECH) for Soldiers stationed in war zones around the world. The case study is applicable broadly to project managers, business managers, engineers, testers, and logicians involved in project management within the private sector, as well as specifically targeting acquisition professionals within the Government Defense Departments. The case study can develop critical thinking and analysis skills in the areas of project initiation, stakeholder management and decision-making with ambiguous and contradicting testing/field data. The ECH case is in two distinct parts: Part I allows PM professionals to analyze how to initiate a program with an increased chance of success of meeting desired objectives. Part II allows PM professionals to analyze how to determine a procurement and fielding recommendation without stakeholder consensus and with ambiguous data.