Association of Physical Domain Participation with POTFF Domains in Special Forces Operators.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the physical domain (PD) to improve performance in all the POTFF domains (physical, psychological, social/family, and spiritual) among Special Forces (SF) Operators. METHODS: This was a cross-sectional study of active SF Operators assigned to the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC). Recruitment began in October 2016. Testing began on 1 January 2017, and concluded on 28 February 2020. Participants completed physical testing, blood draws, and questionnaires to determine domain metrics. Means, medians, and proportions were compared by level of participation in the PD. RESULTS: A total of 231 Soldiers participated; n=63 in the control group, n=93 in the <4 days PD/week (PD <4) group, and n=66 in the >4 days PD/week (PD =4) group. The average age was 31 years (range 21-47 y). The average time in the Special Operations Forces (SOF) was 4 years (range 0-19 y). The PD =4 group showed significantly greater overall upper (p=.01) and lower (p=0) body strength, power (p=.01), and positive affect (p=.04). The PD =4 group also had significantly lower anxiety (p=.03), stress (p=.04), and depression (p=.02) than the control group. CONCLUSION: The PD and psychological domain metrics were most associated with PD participation. This finding is consistent with the goals of the PD, which are to increase physical and mental capabilities and decrease injury recovery time.

Does Mental and Visual Skills Training Improve High-Value Target Identification and Marksmanship Among Elite Soldiers?

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this preliminary investigation was to determine the impact of a mental and visual skills training (MVST) program on a high-value target identification and marksmanship (HVTM) task among Special Operations Forces (SOF) Soldiers. METHODS: Deidentified archival data for 52 male SOF Operators (age: 31.06 ± 4.10 years) were assessed to determine if differences in performance existed between MVST program users (n = 15) and nonusers (n = 37) on a HVTM task performed immediately after a Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat (SFAUC) stress shoot. Independent-samples t-tests were utilized to determine if significant mean score differences existed between groups on specific shooting elements within the HVTM task. Effect size calculations were also performed to assess the magnitude of differences between groups in each measure of performance. RESULTS: Statistically significant differences in performance were not discovered between MVST users and nonusers on overall score (Score) or any individual elements of the HVTM task. However, small to medium effect sizes (d = 0.305-0.493) were observed between groups in Score, Positive Identification Accuracy, Shot Accuracy, and Kill Shot Score. CONCLUSION: While inconclusive, these findings suggest the use of a MVST program administered by a trained cognitive performance specialist may have the potential to positively influence HVTM performance. More research using larger sample sizes is required to confirm this supposition.

Deep turbulence effects mitigation with coherent combining of 21 laser beams over 7 km.

We demonstrate coherent beam combining and adaptive mitigation of atmospheric turbulence effects over 7 km under strong scintillation conditions using a coherent fiber array laser transmitter operating in a target-in-the-loop setting. The transmitter system is composed of a densely packed array of 21 fiber collimators with integrated capabilities for piston, tip, and tilt control of the outgoing beams wavefront phases. A small cat's-eye retro reflector was used for evaluation of beam combining and turbulence compensation performance at the target plane, and to provide the feedback signal for control of piston and tip/tilt phases of the transmitted beams using the stochastic parallel gradient descent maximization of the power-in-the-bucket metric.