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# More nutrition to fuel Soldier lethality

By  Gary SheftickArmy News Service

                WASHINGTON  –              **Pizza MRE**Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support                              - cherry blueberry cobbler
                              - cheese spread with cheddar and jalapeno cheese
                              - Italian bread sticks
                              - cookies
                              - chocolate protein drink powder

**Enhanced performance bar**The chocolate Enhanced Performance Bar, or EPB, fortified with calcium and vitamin D, has been available to Army basic trainees at Fort Benning, Georgia, and Air Force basic trainees at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas, for the past year as part of a pilot program.Now, Moody said, availability of the EPB has been expanded to the remaining Army basic combat training locations at Fort Jackson, South Carolina; Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri; and Fort Sill, Oklahoma.The chocolate bar has been tested by the U.S. Army Research Institute for Environmental Medicine at Natick and evidence has shown that the bar can measurably increase bone density. The hope is that issuing the bar during basic combat training will help reduce stress fractures, Moody said, and reduce injury-related attrition.**New technology**The Close Combat Assault Rations are being developed with a new technology called vacuum microwave drying. "It brings to the table an ability to put fruits and vegetables into MREs," Moody said.The new vacuum microwave drying technology compresses food by about 50 percent while still leaving a little moisture in it to maintain some of the original flavor and texture."One of the benefits of the vacuum-microwave as opposed to freeze-drying is that with freeze-drying you have to put the water back in (before eating)," Moody said. "This you only remove enough water to get the shelf stability."The Close Combat Assault Ration or CCAR is designed to feed a Soldier in the field for an entire day, unlike MREs which require three per day, Moody said. In that regard, the CCAR is like the First Strike Ration, first fielded about 10 years ago. But the CCAR will be even smaller and lighter to carry than the FSR.The First Strike Rations were about half the weight and size of a day's worth of MREs. The CCAR prototypes are only one-third the weight of the same MREs and offer a 76 percent reduction in size. The new rations would reduce the weight an infantryman will need to carry on a 72-hour mission by almost 10 percent, according to Natick.CCAR items on display at the Pentagon included:
                              - tart cherry nut bar
                              - cheddar cheese bar
                              - mocha desert bar
                              - vacuum-dried strawberries
                              - trail mix of nuts and fruit
                              - Korean barbeque stir fry packet
                              - spinach quiche packet with four small quiches
                              - French toast packet
                              - a banana that was vacuum-microwave dried to about one-third of its original size

Field testing of the CCAR should take place in FY2020, Moody said, and the plan is to field the new ration Army-wide in 2023.*Editor's note: The original story can be viewed on the National Guard website.*

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MREMREsrationoperational rationsclose combat assault rationenhanced performance barSubsistencefirst strike ration