![]() It also takes the longest, about 12 minutes per soldier. ![]() The most expensive machine, ranging between $50,000 and $100,000 has soldiers lie down for a scan. ![]() It's portable, but results can be impacted based on a soldier's water and food intake before testing. The Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis, or BIA, uses low-level electrical currents flowing throughout the body. That tool also costs about $15,000 to $20,000 per unit and takes two minutes to complete a scan. The other is a 3D body scanner, which requires soldiers to mostly undress and step into a private space to be scanned. That tool costs around $15,000, according to Army documents provided to. ![]() Troops can get data on their body fat and muscle mass in two minutes. The tools include a scale for soldiers to stand on, similar to equipment seen at some civilian gyms. Researchers say the three types of scanners aren't in competition, and the Army may still stick with the tape test as it takes the cost and practicality of the gear into account and whether the added accuracy is worth the bang for the buck. The machines used to scan soldiers' bodies would be a massive cost to the force if they were fielded to units, and logistics of access for Guard and Reserve units could quickly get complicated. Because of the expense of shipping all the body scanning equipment, Army officials are considering finding troops in these demographics and flying them out to a research site. The Army is also missing all age groups of Asian and Pacific Islander soldiers American Indian and Alaskan Native soldiers and troops over 50 years old, because of a small pool of volunteers from those groups. "There are certainly some hurt feelings here," one Army staff sergeant, who said their body fat on the tape test was 19% but the machine measurements showed them at 26%, told. The machines the Army is using in lieu of a measuring tape are far more accurate, and some soldiers interviewed said their body fat results were much higher - sometimes the difference between slightly overweight and obese. Some researchers interviewed by think that is mostly due to it being uncomfortable for young women to have their body fat measured in public. Right now, a massive gap in the data comes from a lack of participation from women between the ages of 17 and 25. Yet, it could be difficult for researchers to coordinate with Guard units, whose members are usually on duty for only one weekend a month. Army officials are considering a third study that is expected to focus on the Guard. Yet the service is lacking data from the National Guard and active-duty troops from certain age ranges and racial groups. So far, some 2,000 soldiers have been measured across Fort Bragg and Fort Lee. That's an area I'm very interested in," Kline added. What we're looking at is how one's body mass correlates with their ability to perform on the ACFT. obtained early Army data showing half of the service's women couldn't pass the test, and very few could perform well. The Three Dimensional Body Scan uses infrared lasers to collect over 2 million data points in less than two minutes. However, that test still faces huge hurdles, including logistical problems administering the test skepticism from the rank and file, along with Congress and comments made by Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth, who expressed concerns during her confirmation hearing that the test might hurt the recruitment and retention of women into the force. in general."Įfforts to fine-tune body fat measurements come as the Army Combat Fitness Test, or ACFT, is on the verge of becoming the service's official graded fitness test in April. ![]() "We're acknowledging the sentiment on social media and across the U.S. John Kline, commander for the Army's Center for Initial Military Training, told in an interview Thursday. "We're an evolving Army we're due to relook at this again," Brig. The study follows complaints from troops that the tape test is outdated, sometimes unfairly categorizing muscular soldiers, particularly women, as overweight. That data will be used to analyze whether the force needs to revamp how it measures a soldier's weight, which could mean adopting one of the body scanning tools, or changing how a tape measure is used to measure body fat. The Army's goal as part of its scanning research is to measure the body fat of 3,000 soldiers with a representative sample of ethnicities, ages and genders, along with a diversity of military occupations such as infantry and mechanics, with three different machines ranging in size and expense. ![]()
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