RTO-MP-HFM-124 KN - 1
The United States Army Future Force Warrior – An Integrated
Human Centric System
Mr. Philip Brandler
US Army Natick Soldier Center
Kansas Street, Bldg. 78
Natick, MA 01760-5056
UNITED STATES
Philip.Brandler@us.army.mil
1.0 UNITED STATES ARMY APPLICATION OF HUMAN SYSTEMS INTEGRATION
The primary objective of Defense Acquisition in the United States is to acquire quality products that satisfy
user needs with measurable improvements to mission capability and operational support, in a timely manner,
and at a fair and reasonable price.
1
In the interest of achieving this goal, Materiel Developers are directed to
apply the principles of Human Systems Integration (HSI) to optimize total system performance (hardware,
software and human), operational effectiveness (the overall degree of mission accomplishment of a system),
and operational suitability (the degree to which a system can be placed satisfactorily in field use),
survivability, safety and affordability.
2
In short, Materiel Developers must ensure that systems are built to
accommodate the characteristics of the user population that will operate, maintain, and support the system.
This is achieved by ensuring the “human” is fully and continuously considered as part of the total system.
Human performance is a key factor in “total system performance” and enhancements to human performance
correlate directly to enhanced total system performance and reduce life cycle costs.
The Department of the Army developed and established a program entitled MANPRINT, which stands for
Manpower and Personnel Integration, that addressed and implemented the DoD Directive regarding Human
Systems Integration.
3
In fact, the importance and success achieved by the Army's early MANPRINT program
led the Office of the Secretary of Defense to adopt the concept for the entire Department of Defense.
4
The terms Human Systems Integration (HSI) and MANPRINT are synonymous. The difference between
them is simply that the term “HSI” is a term used by all the Services, whereas MANPRINT is typically only
used by the US Army. MANPRINT is a comprehensive management and technical program designed to
improve total system (Soldier and equipment) performance by ensuring that the human is fully and
continuously considered as part of the total system in the development and/or acquisition of systems. Similar
to HSI, MANPRINT is an umbrella term that refers to seven disciplines that are critical to optimizing the
man-machine, total-system approach. They are Manpower
, Personnel, Training, Human Factors Engineering,
System Safety
, Health Hazards, and Soldier Survivability.
5
1
DoD Directive Number 5000.1, dated May 12, 2003, Subject: The Defense Acquisition System.
2
DoD Directive Number 5000.1, dated May 12, 2003, Subject: The Defense Acquisition System, Enclosure 1, para E1.29.
3
Army Regulation, AR 602-2: MANPRINT in the System Acquisition Process.
4
www.manprint.army.mil – MANPRINT History.
5
Congressional Record, Speech given by Honorable lke Skelton to the House, dated October 1, 1997.
Brandler, P. (2005) The United States Army Future Force Warrior – An Integrated Human Centric System. In Strategies to Maintain Combat
Readiness during Extended Deployments – A Human Systems Approach (pp. KN-1 – KN-12). Meeting Proceedings RTO-MP-HFM-124,
Keynote. Neuilly-sur-Seine, France: RTO. Available from: http://www.rto.nato.int/abstracts.asp.
