FORT BENNING, Ga., (Feb. 19, 2014) -- The Maneuver Center of Excellence is officially home to one of the Army's top capability developers, as Harry Lubin was awarded the sixth annual Individual Capability Developer Capability Developer of the Year award.
Lubin, the chief of the Maneuver Battle Lab's Live Experiment Branch, was presented the award Jan. 16 during the Capability Integration Enterprise Forum at Fort Eustis, Va.
He said he became aware of the award shortly after returning from the holidays.
"We were knee-deep in getting ready to execute the Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment, and our director and our deputy chief came in and asked what I was doing Jan. 16," Lubin said. "They said, 'Congratulations, you've won the Capability Developer of the Year award.' I had no idea I was even submitted."
The award is for 2013, during which Lubin said the Live Experimentation Branch was involved in a number of important experiments.
Those experiments included the Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment campaign, which is TRADOC's flagship live experimentation campaign. The campaign identified emerging technologies that may save costs, enhance Soldier lethality and decrease Soldier load by integrating multiple functions, identifying opportunities to exchange hardware for software, and consolidating and replacing existing equipment.
Lubin also helped oversee a series of experiments focused on enhancing capabilities for Soldiers in a dismounted, non-networked environment.
"It seems that all the big assessments that are being done … are focused on a networked environment," Lubin said. "So, what happens in a forcible entry where you don't have that network for the first ones in? How do they function within that environment? That's what we looked at, and we had some pretty good findings there."
The branch is also part of the Soldier protection campaign, which is helping to develop several pieces of Soldier equipment, including new vests, headgear and eyewear. Lubin said the branch has also assisted with assessments for new camouflage patterns.
"We looked at the new camouflage patterns that the Army will transition to at some point, and we did the field assessment of those," he said. "We had actual Soldiers at Fort Bliss and a number of other locations and we put them in the field with other Soldiers behind weapon sights and binoculars to try and determine the field effectiveness of those patterns as opposed to computer-generated assessments."
While Lubin was presented with an individual award, he said it is a reflection of the efforts of the entire MBL.
"It absolutely is an honor, but it truly is more a reflection of the team effort than necessarily anything I've done personally," he said.
"We've just got a dynamic team not only here in the MBL, but in CDID and Fort Benning itself. The MCoE is what enables the level of experimentation that does take place here. That's a capability here at Fort Benning that not a lot of folks realize we have. In many ways, we lead the way in combat developments into the future."
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