Daily Water Requirements when Wearing Body Armor

摘要

Water is essential for sustaining warfighter performance. The warfighters daily water requirements increase with work and climatic heat stress. Clothing which increases the energy cost of a specific task and/or increase sweat production will increase the daily water needs of the warfighter. This report presents the results of model simulations predicting the individual daily water requirements under a broad range of energy expenditures and weather conditions when wearing battle dress uniform alone or when wearing battle dress uniform with body armor. The addition of body armor increases the daily water requirement from 0.3 to 2.0 quarts per man per day, with the greatest additional need when work is performed in hot weather and energy expenditures are in excess of 4,000 kilocalories per day.