The cold wind blew across the test range stirring up clouds of dirt, debris and snow. Eighteen soldiers, garbed in bunny boots and balaclavas, lay on their stomachs facing silhouette targets. Part of the 172nd Infantry Brigade, these 18 soldiers were called to test the Army's prototype XM8 assault rifle. The weapon is on the fast track for fielding with some unofficial estimates putting it in unit arms rooms as early as next year.

Soldiers from the 172nd Infantry Brigade test fire the XM8 rifle to determine the technical adequacy of the weapon under cold and extreme cold environmental conditions. (U.S. Army photo by Mike Kingston, CRTC Photographer.)

But before it can get to those arms rooms, the XM8 must undergo stringent testing. While most weapon systems can take decades to transition from design to fielding, the XM8 is benefiting from spiral development, a model where functionality and quality are improved incrementally to be more cost-effective. In October 2002, for example, the Army agreed to pay $5 million for rapid development of XM8 prototypes that could be tested and tweaked before a commitment is made to produce them en mass.

The U.S. Army’s Cold Regions Test Center (CRTC), located at Fort Greely, AK, is playing a key role in the spiral development process. Earlier this year, it received 18 XM8 prototypes to test in Alaska's harsh winter environment. Before the weapons arrived in Alaska, however, CRTC representatives, Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier personnel, Tropic Regions Test Center (TRTC) employees and Developmental Test Command (DTC) members created a test plan that would take the Army's newest weapon through a series of exercises designed to assess its capabilities and performance.

The XM8 is a family of weapons including a baseline carbine, sharpshooter, ultra-small compact carbine and automatic rifle. CRTC, however, did not test all variants. Only the compact, the carbine and the sharpshooter were shipped to Alaska. The automatic rifle was not shipped because, at the time, a prototype was not ready for testing, said Test Officer 1ST SGT Kevin Coulter.

The Army became interested in the XM8 after initial reports from the manufacturer extolled the weapon’s performance, lightweight design and accuracy. Nonetheless, CRTC was not tasked with proving the manufacturer’s claims. Rather, it was tasked with testing the weapon against a specific set of test requirements agreed upon by DTC and PEO Soldier. The test objective was simple: determine the technical adequacy of the weapon under cold and extreme cold environmental conditions. Actually accomplishing the test objective proved quite challenging.

The first challenge CRTC faced was to secure test participants prepared to brave the harsh Alaska tundra to fire the weapon and offer insight into its performance characteristics. That's when LTC David Wisecarver, Second Battalion First Regiment Commander, stepped in, volunteering 18 soldiers from the 172nd Infantry Brigade to be the first soldiers to test the XM8. These test participants traveled more than 100 miles from Fort Wainwright to the Fort Greely range facilities to carry out the test mission. It was at Fort Greely that these soldiers fired, carried, zeroed, disassembled and reassembled the XM8 to help determine its capabilities and shortcomings.

It is notable that these test participants were not weapons experts. The XM8 is being designed, in part, to allow less experienced infantry Soldiers to immediately be more effective when firing the weapon. Consequently, CRTC needed to ensure the test participants had varying weapons experience. “We had Soldiers with as few as 18 months of service and as much as 6 years of service,” Coulter explained.

And, just like soldiers receiving a weapon in the field, each test participant was required to complete New Equipment Training (NET) as part of the test process. This training, conducted by instructors from the U.S. Army Infantry School, provided an opportunity to review and revise NET procedures so that if and when the XM8 is fielded, Soldier training is as efficient as possible. NET was hands-on to ensure maximum familiarity with the operation of both the XM8 and the M4 assault rifle, which the prototype is being designed to replace.

Once trained, the Soldiers headed to the test ranges for accuracy and dispersion testing, perhaps the most important element of the weapons test. Accuracy and dispersion testing took place over a 2-week period, where the Soldiers discovered that cold weather and strong winds can wreak havoc on any test. With temperatures at -15 degrees Fahrenheit and winds at 52 knots, the XM8, as well as the test participants, were expected to perform in grueling conditions.

In these climatic conditions, the baseline carbine was test fired at distances of 300 and 500 meters; the sharpshooter was test fired at distances of 300 and 600 meters; and the compact was test fired at a distance of 150 meters. Soldiers fired at E-type silhouette targets, and Oehler Acoustic scoring data results were used to mathematically calculate hits and misses.

The accuracy and dispersion testing provided objective measurements for the XM8's performance. But human nature, which is inherently subjective, also plays a role in weapons development and testing. How a Soldier actually carries and uses a weapon can provide manufacturers with insights that will ultimately affect design. It is specifically these types of human factors that CRTC personnel were tasked with recording during the cold-weather testing. They too had to brave the weather to measure everything from the height and weight of each test participant to whether they were right or left handed — data critical for final weapon design.

A Soldier from the 172nd Infantry Brigade, Fort Wainwright, AK, test fires the prototype XM8 rifle at a Fort Greely, AK, CRTC weapons range. (U.S. Army photo by Mike Kingston, CRTC Photographer.)

The most relevant design data TRTC employees collected came during the field test, where soldiers carried the XM8, along with a 40-pound rucksack, on a 1-hour hike in the Alaska wilderness. It was at this juncture that the specific nuances of day-to-day Soldier behavior became important. Questions such as how the soldiers actually carried the weapon, and whether the XM8 was compatible with combat clothing, needed to be answered. Also, it was necessary for CRTC to measure whether there was any degradation in system effectiveness during and after patrols through rugged, snow-covered terrain.

By the end of the 2-week test period, CRTC had collected sufficient data, both on accuracy and dispersion, as well as human factors, to adequately assess prototype weapon performance. This data has been documented in a test report and submitted to the program manager for review. PEO Soldier will use the test information to decide if design modifications are required and to refine production schedules accordingly.

XM8 testing will continue in future months at TRTC in the Republic of Panama and at Yuma Proving Ground in southwest Arizona. CRTC has been tasked with conducting a second round of XM8 cold weather testing during the 2004-2005 winter season.