MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
New types of war are forcing the military to field new types of meals. WUNC's Jay Price sits with soldiers as they try the latest approach to feeding troops in combat.
JAY PRICE, BYLINE: On the front lines of World War II, there were the famous canned C-rations with main courses like meat and vegetable stew and cans of dense crackers. In recent wars, there were the Meals Ready to Eat, or MREs, with components packed into a tough plastic pouch and years of shelf life. Those are still widely used. But now...
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER #1: That's actually really good.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER #2: Yeah.
PRICE: ...A new ration designed for modern battlefields is starting to reach some units.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER #3: Very good.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER #4: Have you tried this?
PRICE: That's a squad of special operations soldiers trying the new Close Combat Assault Ration, which, like all things military, has an acronym, CCAR. They're taking a break in the middle of a pine forest at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, after a humid eight-hour slog testing their land navigation skills. And they're happy to get time to eat before their next task.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER #5: That might be one of the best snacks I've had.
PRICE: The new rations are designed for conflicts in which getting supplies to small, widely dispersed units is made harder by tech-savvy opponents, like the current drone-infested front lines of the war in Ukraine or fighting China across island chains in the Pacific. That kind of combat could mean going days without a chance for resupply, so making food lighter and smaller is crucial. Erin Gaffney-Stomberg leads the Combat Feeding Division at DEVCOM Soldier Center in Natick, Massachusetts, which develops rations for all the services.
ERIN GAFFNEY-STOMBERG: The ration platforms that were available were too large to meet that need. So this development really came from that shift in defense strategy and the requirements that the user community had for the future.
PRICE: The CCAR is the replacement for what's called the First Strike Ration, which was designed for short missions. Five days worth takes up the same space as three days of the old rations. Gaffney-Stomberg said testing shows troops tend to take in more calories with the CCARs, which helps them perform better in missions that burn a lot of energy. That's partly because of the new ration's fat levels and partly about how they taste.
GAFFNEY-STOMBERG: The war fighters did prefer some of the components that were in the Close Combat Assault Ration compared to the First Strike Ration.
PRICE: The latest science on sports nutrition was a starting point, but she said the Army had to go deeper, looking at differences in dietary needs between athletes and troops in combat, who are more likely to have additional stressors like sleep deprivation and chaotic environments. And it all had to be done in a way that made the CCAR palatable. An informal sampling of the soldiers in the woods at Fort Bragg suggests it hits that goal.
NICK: I thought the burrito bowl was a lot better, better quality.
PRICE: That's Nick, a sergeant who, because of his unit, can only be identified by his first name. He especially likes that the new rations include a lot of small components like bars and packets of trail mix.
NICK: That way, when you're moving through the field or you're doing something where you're on the go, you can pull those out and kind of keep them in a pocket, so it's easier to get to, easier nutrition.
PRICE: Some in the group said they wished for less sugar, but a sergeant named Alexa said after her hard efforts that morning, the recipes seemed about right.
ALEXA: I needed the sugar, the calories. I like that has a lot of calories for days like this.
PRICE: And what did you eat so far?
ALEXA: I ate the trail mix and the almond coconut nut bar. I also ate the cookie.
PRICE: As small and light as the CCAR is, the Army experts aren't done with trying to improve future field rations. One thing now being tested - a rectangle of compressed vegetables infused with honey mustard dressing that's been dubbed the salad bar.
For NPR News, I'm Jay Price at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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