AUGUST 15, 2024 – Last week, the Defense Department released requirements meant to help manage the risks to brain health from blast overpressure, which can be generated by weapons systems such as howitzers, mortars and shoulder-mounted weapons.
The policy memorandum, signed by Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, aligns squarely with the department’s warfighter brain health initiative and the secretary of defense’s priority of Taking Care of Our People.
Among other things, the memorandum spells out requirements related to standoff distances for specific weapons systems; proposed limits on expending excess rounds once training requirements are met; tracking personnel exposed to blast overpressure, also called BOP; and consideration of BOP risks to brain health when developing new weapons systems.
“The department is committed to advancing combat readiness while reducing risks associated with blast overpressure,” Hicks wrote in her memorandum.
While the effort directs commanders to take reasonable steps to preserve the brain health of DOD personnel, it is not intended to undermine training efforts or combat effectiveness, Hicks said.
“This policy is not meant to preclude or unreasonably restrict commanders from conducting mission-essential weapons training,” she said. “Rather, this policy establishes requirements for practical risk management actions to mitigate and track BOP exposures across the DOD.”
Key elements of the new policy include requirements for the DOD components to:
- Implement procedures and standards for training and operations that incorporate blast overpressure risk management, including weapon specific standoff distances;
- Enhance training and education for civilian and military leaders and service members, to include procedures to seek medical evaluation when experiencing symptoms;
- Identify and track all DOD personnel who are at the highest risk for exposures to hazardous BOP using the DOD’s Defense Occupational and Environmental Health Readiness System-Industrial Hygiene, or DOEHRS-IH;
- Integrate simulations into training strategies to reduce BOP exposure, when appropriate, and not expend excess rounds once training standards are achieved;
- Consider BOP hazards within the acquisition life cycle of weapons systems; and
- Establish procedures to track and maintain oversight of BOP exposure risk management actions, including processes to request, and provide justification in writing for any exceptions to the policy requirements.
“Blast overpressure is the wave that’s experienced after firing a weapon or munition,” said Kathy Lee, director of the Department of Defense policy for warfighter brain health. “When this wave occurs, there can be impacts that affect cognition, balance changes and other potential brain health issues.”
The memorandum includes examples of systems commonly in use across the department that can cause BOP. Such systems include the shoulder-mounted M72 light anti-armor weapon and M136 light antitank weapon; indirect fire systems, including all platforms of both howitzers and mortars; and .50-caliber rifles such as the M107 sniper rifle, the M2A1 machine gun, and the MK15 sniper rifle.
Lee said the weapons named in the memorandum were identified after consultation with the military services.
“Symptoms that have been reported after use of these munitions in a low-level blast exposure environment have included complaints of headache, concentration problems, dizziness and irritability, memory problems and slower reaction time,” Lee said. “So, these are some of the manifestations, some of the health and performance effects that were found while we performed some in-depth studies looking at those particular weapon systems.”
For such systems, one example of BOP mitigation includes defining an appropriate standoff distance from the blast source — how far away an individual such as instructors or range safety officers must stand in order to minimize their exposures to BOP. For the M120 and M121 120 mm mortars, the recommended standoff distance is 13 feet, for instance, while for the M107 sniper rifle, the standoff is seven feet.
The DOD Blast Overpressure Reference and Information Guide is a tool the department is using to better understand the level of BOP produced from high-risk weapons and operations, and the appropriate standoff distances, said Laura Macaluso, the director for force safety and occupational health.
“This is a great tool for personnel in the field to use and we have already received positive feedback. It has easily understood illustrations about the blast overpressure generated from specific weapons, such as where to stand and body positioning,” Macaluso said.
The memorandum also directs that the services identify and track within DOEHRS-IH all personnel who are potentially exposed to BOP. A special emphasis should also be placed on occupational specialties that, by nature of operational activities, regularly place those personnel at increased risk of BOP exposure, the memorandum says.
“The DOEHRS-IH system is expected to be used to enter information for tracking exposures … identifying those personnel who are potentially exposed and then tracking those exposures … so that we can link individual personnel to their level of exposure while performing their duties,” said Macaluso.
This memorandum also directs the acceleration of service members obtaining their first baseline cognitive assessment to support monitoring brain health throughout their time in service. In keeping with that, the memorandum requires DOD components to ensure all new active and reserve accessions undergo cognitive assessments as part of the entry process.
The department already conducts cognitive assessments on military personnel in advance of deployments and has been doing so since 2008. The new policy expands this to the newly accessioned, and creates a requirement that service members in career fields at high risk for exposure to BOP are given cognitive assessments at regular intervals throughout their careers.
“Monitoring will be regular and ongoing to identify and address any cognitive changes as soon as they are known,” Lee said. “Expansion will include the entire force through phased implementation after conducting the first baseline test. Then follow-up testing will allow opportunities for cognitive enhancements or cognitive restoration if necessary.”
Also required under the policy is for BOP risk management to be integrated into weapons system acquisition life cycles, to include leveraging technology to reassess and manage risks from BOP hazards for legacy weapons systems.
“We call it key performance parameters,” said Lee. “There is a policy that mandates that future weapon development must consider brain health as a key performance parameter in weapon development and acquisition. Through the Warfighter Brain Health Initiative, there has been a new provision in the [Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System] manual that says there is now a key performance parameter which weapon developers and acquisition program managers will be looking at to ensure that effects on brain health were considered as you move through the stages of developing and acquiring weapons.”
While the new direction from the department aims to protect service member brain health by identifying BOP as a hazard, educating the force about the issue, and taking steps to mitigate exposure, it is not intended to prevent warfighters from doing their job, said Macaluso.
“The policy establishes requirements for practical risk management actions to mitigate and track blast overpressure exposures across the department. In the safety community, everything we do is focused on risk management. We want to keep our personnel as safe as possible in every environment that we can control.”
Lee said that the new policy may actually improve combat readiness because it will ensure fewer service members are taken out of action due to the adverse health impacts from BOP exposure.
“It will enhance training because you will have healthier warriors who know that they’re being taken care of, and they’re being protected from unnecessary blast exposures, which may put more people on the line in training scenarios to help them be ready to train as they fight and maximize our national defense strategy goals,” Lee said.
By C. Todd Lopez, DOD News