SEPTEMBER 17, 2025 – War Department experts constantly research and implement new technologies to improve the food that supports service members’ ever-changing nutritional needs. A few new creations are helping to optimize warfighter performance during combat and recovery.
The future of expeditionary warfare is currently focused on small, self-sustained units who can operate for extended periods of time in combat areas where food supplies may not be established. One new product supporting that concept is the Close Combat Assault Ration, which was made available for the services to procure through the Defense Logistics Agency Troop Support in July.
The CCAR replaces the First Strike Ration that provided 72 hours of nutrition and was first fielded a decade ago. Since then, experts determined the FSR was too bulky for those longer missions.
“The Close Combat Assault Ration is 17% lighter and 39% smaller,” explained Dr. Erin Gaffney-Stomberg, division chief of the Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center’s Combat Feeding Division in Natick, Massachusetts, that created the ration. “From a nutrition standpoint, they’re pretty much equivalent.”
Because the CCAR is more nutrient-dense, however, it includes five days of nutrition instead of three, meaning more sustenance for longer missions and more space in service members’ rucksacks for other combat necessities.
The Science Behind Smaller, Nutrient-Richer Rations
To make a smaller, lighter ration, developers increased fat content, which raises energy density, according to food scientists at the Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine’s Military Nutrition Division.
During the CCAR’s development, MND researchers studied special operators in training who were given a prototype CCAR to determine if its higher fat content would adversely affect their performance.
“High fat eating … can bring on gastrointestinal distress, or sometimes it can just impact the amount you want to eat,” explained Julie McNiff, chief of the Combat Feeding Division’s Functional Food and Nutrition Intervention Branch.
Half of the participants received the CCAR, while the other half were given the older FSR. Researchers then measured their performance at the beginning and end of the study.
“We were able to validate that having the regular 30% fat [in the first strike] versus the 40% fat in the CCAR had no impact on their performance,” McNiff said, meaning the higher fat content in the CCAR did not negatively affect their work. It was one of many successful steps toward fielding the CCAR.
Updates Based on Input
By working with Marines and soldiers on the CCAR development, researchers determined combat troops really wanted an entrée, something the First Strike Ration — made up of only on-the-go, snackable items — was lacking.
“We looked at the MRE — the meals ready–to–eat — entrees,” Gaffney-Stomberg said of the research. “We reformulated a couple of those to be even more energy dense, then changed the packaging so it’s in a spout pouch, meaning warfighters can tear off the top and eat it on the go.”
During a blind study comparing the CCAR to the FSR, researchers said the newer ration was well-received by service members.
“The soldiers actually preferred the Close Combat Assault Ration. They consumed more of [it],” Gaffney-Stomberg said. “Their energy intake was greater, and they really were well-liked.”
Surveyed service members also told researchers they wanted more than just dried and dehydrated goods in their ration packages, despite the added bulk. So, experts made all the entrees and side items in the CCAR ready to eat as-is.
“You don’t need to rehydrate with water,” Gaffney-Stomberg said. “Also, the entrees are acceptable without heating.”
Vacuum Microwave Drying
One new food processing technique that’s helped create new, intermediate-moisture side components is called vacuum microwave drying.
While conventional dehydration methods, such as freeze-drying or air-drying, require a lot of time, the vacuum microwave drying process lowers the boiling point of water, leading to quicker evaporation, experts said. It also retains more nutrients, costs less than conventional methods and it doesn’t require chemical additives for preservation like many air- and freeze-dried products do.
“The product is more durable and less likely to spoil, and it helps reduce the weight and volume of the ration,” explained Gil Cohen, food technologist at the CFD’s Food Engineering and Analysis Branch. And while vacuum microwaved dried foods are partially dehydrated, service members wouldn’t need to take in more fluids to offset them.
Some vacuum microwave dried products will be fielded to service members in the near future, including a lemon cheesecake that will be available in some MRE menus.
New Group Rations and Lighter Packaging
Another new ration for small, self-sustained units is the Unitized Group Ration Express. It’s packaged in a cardboard box, complete with a flameless heater and cutlery, and contains everything needed for a hot meal for 18 warfighters.
“You don’t need any refrigeration capability. You don’t need a big field feeding kitchen. You have an entree, a starch, a side and a dessert,” Gaffney-Stomberg said.
“You pull a handle, and basically it peels back a water activated heater. We have a saline solution that drops in and will heat up one of those whole trays,” explained Wes Long, CFD equipment specialist and the packaging lab manager. “Forty minutes later, has a box full of chow for all.”
The Combat Feeding Division engineers who created the packaging for the new CCAR and other rations have also been working to make those components smaller.
“When you’re thinking of just a single pouch, it’s really not all that much. It’s just maybe a gram or two of material. But when you look at the annual procurement of how many MREs the Army purchases, it actually ends up [being] tons of packaging waste that we’re able to reduce,” explained Danielle Froio-Blumsack, CFD materials engineer.
After all, smaller, lighter rations are also more efficient from a logistical standpoint.
“In future operating environments, we’re expecting it to be harder to move things from point A to point B,” explained Dr. Michael Wiederoder, Combat Feeding Division’s strategic integrator. “So, when we think about supply chains, it’s also less pallets — less boxes you have to ship.”
Both divisions said they will continue to try to further reduce the CCAR’s size in the future.
By Katie Lange, Pentagon News