New Space Force uniforms and a cooling system you can drink | AFA Highlights

Hey everyone, I'm Mitch Holson. We're here at the Air and Space Forces Association Air, Space, and Cyber Conference in Washington, D.C

We're about to head down to the exhibition floor and see if we can find anything interesting. First up, we stopped by a booth to check out Space Force's new uniform designs

We're here at AFA at the Air Force Uniform Office booth to check out some of the newest additions in Space Force uniform design

Here with Lieutenant Colonel Tyler Mann. He is the Uniform Program Manager of Space Force

Tyler, do you want to tell us about kind of the new additions to Space Force's lineup

Yeah, sure. I'd be happy to. All right, what you're looking at here is the mess dress. We've got two different types here

You've got the men's mess dress and the women's mess dress, but we're testing a couple different types

When we talk about wear testing in the uniform, what we're talking about is we've developed a prototype uniform

and we're getting it out in the field for guardians to wear the uniform so that we can get their feedback

We've got about 50 guardians across the force testing it. We've tried to get a male and female guardian at every Space Force base

so that we can really have it visualized across the force. Those people will wear it into work so that they can see it

Other guards, we can get the feedback. We're also going to get feedback on fit. How does it fit? How does it look

Does this fit well? How is it when we put our metals on? This is the first Space Force mess dress uniform

so it is a prototype, and it is in development. We've got a couple unique design changes that we have here

that are specific to Space Force. You have six buttons, just like the service dress

which represent the six services. And then you've got a nice sleeve-a-plique here

that shows our Space Force-ness. We also have the women's uniform. We're testing a couple different types of women's uniform

This is a full ball gown that's worn with a coat. You also have a blouse and a skirt

And then, like traditionally, we would always have a shirt and pants option. Perfect

Do you want to touch on any more of the symbolism? Is there any more kind of unique aspects to the design

Yeah, we always try and incorporate this cross-Delta design in anything we do

You can see reflected in the opening of the jacket as well as this this Delta design that's

incorporated into the rink. We also a different design here for the enlisted rink. It's the same

shiny thread that we see on the rest of the uniform so it really helps the the rink to pop out instead of just being the plain white that we would have on the service dress Here we looking at the all coat The all coat is a uniform item that you wear outdoors in service dress So this is something I would wear outside outdoors when

it's raining. The Space Force doesn't have an all-weather coat yet, so this is our prototype

development of it. It's got a couple unique features and it's got really updated materials

So it's a lot softer, it's a lot more pliable, it's not as loud as some of the other uniform

items. It's got a great liner in it to keep you warm. And then it's got these matte black Space

Force buttons that are the same as the other buttons that we have. They're just matte black

So it presents a great look. It wears really well. It's very warm and it protects you from the weather

Oh, now compared to a Air Force weather ready suit, how does this differ or how is it similar

Yeah, this is different. I mean, you see the main visual differences in color. The Air Force one is

blue. This one is, of course, our darker black, but the material is much more updated. The Air Force

One was developed in the 90s. This one has updated uniform, updated fabric that just makes it feel a

lot better. We'll talk a little bit here about maternity uniforms because we talked a little bit

about wear testing uniform items with the mess dress. We just finished wear testing two different

maternity uniforms. We've got a coat that was worn, and a coat is worn with a shirt, pants, or skirt

underneath, and then this is the dress that doesn't have anything worn under it. We just finished

wear testing these at a couple different bases with about 20 guardians, and we're compiling all

that information. We'll push that back to leadership for decision on a way forward for

our maternity uniforms. This, and obviously what I'm wearing, is our current fielded uniform

This is our service coat, and this is our lightweight jacket. The lightweight jacket

of course, worn over this shirt when you're not wearing a coat. But this has our symbolic design

You've got the leading edge that represents the Delta, the six buttons for the six services

We also have our unique buttons that are the same as the other buttons on the other coats, matte black or chrome

And this design is just replicated through Air Force design across the other uniforms

The uniforms are available both online and at six different locations. Vandenberg, Peterson, our main Space Force locations, they can be bought online

We also have a sweater that's available as well. and the next coming item would be that all weather coat would be the last item that we have for the service dress

All right And being in Space Force yourself how does it feel kind of being at the forefront of designing uniforms you ultimately going to encounter yourself Yeah it a great it a great question a great point because what we really doing is we helping to define the Space Force culture

And that's what we're focused on is how do we look? How do we appear? Because we are really visible when we wear the uniform

Everyone knows who we are. They know that we're Space Force. So we have to really represent well

So it is exciting to be on the forefront to designing uniforms, which is the main way that we integrate or are visible to the public in our culture

Cool. Next up, if you're a service member who's ever pulled duty out in the hot sun and are looking for a way to cool down, we stop by a booth that might have a possible solution to that problem

I'm here at AFA at the Core Performance booth with CEO Justin Lee to learn about their ice plate, which is a heat injury prevention system

Justin, do you mind telling us a little bit about the system? Yeah, absolutely. Ice Plate is a very simple hard cell hydration solution

that is shaped like a medium E-sappy armor plate so that it can be frozen or filled with hot water

and then it will provide cooling or heating with the drinking water you already hear

Very simple. And can you tell us a little bit about the types of individuals in the military

that this would be specifically targeted towards? Sure. Almost anybody in the military who works outside can benefit from Ice Plate

It started with special operations guys, and now we have a lot of security forces buying ice plates because heat has become an increasingly challenging problem for commands to solve

And, you know, as we've seen more situations, the firing kit with hotter temperatures, more intense weather, we have seen and also more intense workloads

We've seen the need for ice plate really increase dramatically over the last couple of years. Ice plate will keep you cool for roughly two to four hours and keep you warm for roughly three to five hours

Perfect. do you mind if i try on the plate or try it in a carrier not at all so we can go ahead um

and this is what it'll feel like so imagine if you were running uh body armor right so you're

wearing a plate carrier on the field this is what it would feel like oh yeah underneath your kit

wow so you'd be wearing this plate and just imagine yourself walking around right 100 degree

weather sun beat down on you uh you got this body armor trapping all this heat but then you've got

Geez Yeah Yeah What kind of what the transfer system Is it this material or yeah Or is it is this straight up against my skin No it straight up against your uniform So you have a single layer

As your body melts the ice, it creates cold water to drink. Very, very simple

So it doesn't add any weight. Ice plate's actually about 75% thinner than a traditional Legacy bladder

So you are reducing your bulk, and you are increasing the efficiency of the drinking water you're already carrying

Pretty dramatic. 50 ounces of water weighs about 3.84, 3.85 pounds. We obviously can't change the weight of water

but we can change the form factor in how you carry that water

of the container that carries the water, so that we can make it more efficient for you, the user

Ice Blade is applicable to almost anybody that works outside, whether you're a maintainer, you're loading weapons systems

you're taking care of aircraft, you're a special operations cool guy, your security forces, any and all of those applications

It can be used for PT. It can be used for instructor cadre. Anybody that's working outside can benefit physiologically from ice plate

Ice plate itself is about nine years old. We're on the third generation

So it is extremely, it has been well vetted and tested tens of thousands, probably now hundreds of thousands of times

Now, what is this skinnier unit here? Is this meant for the side of a plate

Absolutely. This is called ice flask. Ice flask is a water bottle that is shaped like a PRC-152 radio by design

so that it can fit in any PRC-152 radio couch across NATO and U.S. Allied Forces

So it's intentionally universal. It makes for a very, very easy way

to carry water on your plate carrier, right? Which is traditionally a challenge

Like legacy water bottles, they're very durable, right? They're very easy to use, but cylinders are not great

Like they're not super compact. They're not super thin. They're a tough way to carry water on a plate carrier

But ice flasks will fit anywhere where you can fit a radio. right you can carry it down here in a dangler

carry it off to the sides right and you still carry a radio right you can carry it on the back

you can see what it feels like right imagine that's your uniform shirt right and now you've got that

underneath your arm and so it augments ice plate but you can use them

in conjunction with you know interchangeably complimentary really their only limit is your imagination

cool well good luck to you yeah thank you very much yeah thanks for your time yeah