Pentagon creates advisory council on human performance, health – Military Times

Pentagon creates advisory council on human performance, health  Military Times

After creating a new directorate on warfighter optimization within the Department of Defense, the Pentagon announced it will form a federal advisory committee to weigh in on issues affecting troop performance and health. According to a Federal Register notice Tuesday, the $1.4 million committee will focus “exclusively on human performance,” providing guidance and insight on improving function, combating the physical, mental and emotional tolls of military service known collectively as “operator syndrome,” and preventing physical injuries and operational stress. “The Council will serve as a high-impact, low-cost mechanism for the [DoD] to secure the expertise of the nation’s foremost leaders at the nexus of warrior health and performance,” the announcement stated.

The Pentagon established a Warfighter Performance Optimization division earlier this year within Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness Anthony Tata’s office. It is intended to oversee and coordinate the individual services’ efforts to improve troops’ readiness and performance. In May, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth directed Tata to report on existing optimization initiatives across the services to create a department-wide performance optimization plan. Hegseth said he wanted to accelerate fielding technologies that will improve performance — such as wearable devices and other analytics tools — and focus on elevating “cognitive performance as a key to readiness.” “By building on and modernizing the principles of Total Force Fitness (TFF),