There is a tremendous need to lighten the load carried by most Marine Infantrymen

MEOT addresses the need to assess Cost/Benefit tradeoffs of equipment depending upon mission requirements. New technologies for the Warfighter often do not consider mission-specific interactions between equipment, environment, and Warfighter performance. There is a Christmas Tree Effect: each new piece of equipment is often added to the load of the individual infantryman with little regard to functional interactions or mobility. Integration of all equipment with task performance requirements needs to be considered in light of load bearing capability, mobility, and overall mission objectives.

MEOT had several primary goals:

• Develop a realistic 3-D model of the Marine to assess cost/benefit tradeoffs of various equipment options
• Develop a toolkit based on the model which can be used in lieu of costly field testing to:
• Determine equipment cost/benefit tradeoffs for mission planning
• Develop new technologies and procedures (as a virtual test-bed)
• Determine optimal dispersion of equipment across a team
• Identify human performance optimization trade-offs for meeting specific mission objectives