On April 18th between 9 am and noon, media representatives are welcome to observe the issue of equipment to Soldiers and speak to representatives from Program Executive Office Soldier, the Army proponent for RFI. Media interested in attending the event need to contact the 4th Infantry Division Public Affairs Office at (254) 287-5763.

Since its inception, RFI has issued equipment to more than 300,000 Soldiers, with an additional 85,000 Soldiers over the next three months.

RFI Program GOAL: To provide Soldiers the finest state-of-the-art individual and small-unit equipment in order to save lives, improve quality of life and increase combat effectiveness. It is designed to modernize Soldiers' equipment in a systematic and integrated manner in accordance with the principles of the "Soldier-as-a-System" philosophy.

Equipment Categories: The items will fall into one of four categories: force protection and mobility, individual weapons optics, lethality and Soldier mission-essential equipment. As a result of feedback from the Army's combat-veteran Soldiers, more than 40 pieces of equipment are currently available for issue in the program.

The 2nd Brigade Combat Team was the first unit at Fort Hood to draw the RFI Soldier kit, each Soldier receiving approximately $1,500 in new equipment.

The RFI began during Operation Enduring Freedom when several units, including the 82nd Airborne Division, 10th Mountain Division and the 101st Airborne Division were all successfully outfitted with the new gear.

Current fielding plans call for fielding to the total Army by December 2007.



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Major Desiree Wineland

OCPA, (703) 697-7592