Future Army medics and doctors may obtain real-time vital signs from casualties in the field through wearable sensors, allowing them to provide better, more consistent care and potentially save more lives. 

Fort Carson soldiers tested the wearable sensors during a recent simulated mass casualty event as part of a larger exercise focused on building a new foundational IT system for the whole Army. 

“The soldiers become wounded, you see their vitals right there on the spot. Now the network is basically providing those vitals directly to a medic,” explained Lt. Col. Shawn Scott, commander of the 4th Squadron, 10th U.S. Cavalry Regiment within the 3rd Armored Brigade.

The software connected to the wearables can track the care the medic is providing, so its a seamless transition when the soldier reaches a doctor, he said. 

The system replaces paper casualty cards that can get wet, damaged or get filled out in illegible handwriting, he said. 

The status of all the wounded soldiers can also be widely shared to allow medical commanders to plan. 

“Real-time medical data provides medical commanders with an accurate common operating picture of patient flow, bed availability, and evacuation asset status,” said 2nd Lt. Victoria Hyten, a platoon leader with the 64th Brigade Support Battalion, in a news release.

The medical sensor testing was a small part of an expansive, 18-day exercise for Scott’s squadron, a reconnaissance group. 

His soldiers practiced force-on-force combat using blank ammunition and faced communications disruptions.

But through the Next Generations Command and Control prototype, the squadron was still able to use their electronics and communicate internally, he said. 

As part of the communications jamming, the squadron lost access to proliferated low-Earth orbit satellites. But the new communications system self-healed, so it took more work than expected to turn off the system, explained Maj. Gen. Patrick Ellis, who leads the 4th Infantry Division and Fort Carson.

He expects, in later stages of the development process, to further test the system’s cyber and electromagnetic vulnerabilities to prepare for modern threats. For example, signals coming from satellites to antennas can be disrupted with jammers carried on drones.

Ellis expects the whole division to test the communications prototype by the summer. 

Anduril is developing the prototype Fort Carson soldiers are testing as part of a $99 million contract. Lockheed Martin is developing a competing prototype as part of a $26 million contract that the company is testing with the 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii.