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Soldiers get new winter glove

The Army has retooled its standard winter glove to wrap soldiers’ hands in ski-glove comfort.

The newly updated Intermediate Cold/Wet Glove is now foliage green instead of black to coordinate with the colors in the Army Combat Uniform’s universal camouflage pattern.

But beyond the obvious color difference, several subtle changes to the waterproof glove’s original mid-1980s design have been borrowed from the commercial glove industry, said Valeri Banville, project engineer for soldier gloves for Product Manager Clothing and Individual Equipment.

The palm and fingers are covered in goat skin, rather than cow hide, for better durability. The fingers are slightly curved, making the glove “more ergonomically correct,” she said.

The back of the hand features a four-way stretch nylon instead of leather for dexterity.

Quilted polyester insulation still provides the same protection as the current glove down to zero degrees Fahrenheit, but the new design features cozy fleece wrist cuffs.

There’s even a soft “nose-wipe feature” on the back of the thumbs.

In addition to comfort, the new glove includes an improvement designed specifically for soldiers.

“It has reduced-bulk insulation on the trigger finger so they can have more dexterity” when firing weapons,” Banville said.

The updated glove just became available for units to order at the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia at the end of November, Banville said.

This isn’t the only new glove soldiers may see coming their way in the near future.

The Army is also trying to create a new Winter Combat Glove to meet the changing needs of soldiers serving in the war zone.

This idea is to give soldiers a glove that resists burning and won’t melt when exposed to super-hot flames that often occur in homemade bomb attacks, and to keep the same waterproof warmth of the Intermediate Cold/Wet Glove, said Maj. Kathy Brown, assistant product manager for Clothing and Individual Equipment.

“First, it needs to protect against the temperature, or else the soldiers aren’t going to wear the gloves, and it doesn’t matter if they are flame resistant or not,” she said.

Since late 2002, the Army has issued the Intermediate Cold Weather Flyer’s Glove to soldiers headed to Iraq and Afghanistan. The Nomex-and-leather glove protects against flame hazards and cold temperatures, but not against wet weather. And soldiers have complained that the bulky design of the flyer’s glove makes it difficult to operate weapons and other combat equipment effectively.

If all goes well, the Army could begin fielding the Winter Combat Glove as a replacement for the flyer’s glove by spring 2009, Brown said.

The Army plans to have soldiers test two different prototypes in a user-evaluation scheduled for early next year.

“One design is leather with a wool lining. ... The second glove has more of a lighter weight, wind- and water-resistant sort of a laminate,” said Brown, who didn’t give further details about the two prototypes.

The user evaluation is slated to last at least 90 days, she said. After that, uniform officials will use soldier feedback to steer the effort in the right direction, Brown said.

“I would still say we are about 12 to 18 months out from getting a Winter Combat Glove on the street,” she said.