On the front lines of World War II, troops ate canned C-rations, with main courses like meat and vegetable stew, and cans of dense crackers. In more recent conflicts, there was the Meal Ready-to-Eat, or MRE, with components packed into a tough plastic pouch for years of shelf life.
The MRE is still widely used, but new types of battlefields have prompted the military to introduce something lighter and smaller: the Close Combat Assault Ration, or CCAR.
It's designed for conflicts in which getting supplies to small, widely dispersed units would be harder, such as the current drone-infested front lines of the war in Ukraine or fighting China across island chains in the Pacific.
That kind of combat could mean going days without a chance for resupply, so the goal is to allow troops to carry more meals with them, said Erin Gaffney-Stomberg, who leads the Combat Feeding Division at DEVCOM Soldier Center in Natick, Massachusetts. A team of scientists, engineers, and food technology experts there develops rations for all the services.
The older forms of rations were too bulky to meet the need, she said.
"And so this development of the ration platform really came from that shift in defense strategy and the requirements that the user community had for the future."
The CCAR is the replacement for what's called the First Strike Ration, which was designed for short missions lasting no more than 72 hours and doesn't feature entrees. Like the First Strike, the CCAR doesn't offer complete nutrition, but was aimed at somewhat longer-duration missions, with testing that focused on five days of use.
And it has not only entrees, but also a clear advantage in size and weight compared to the First Strike.
"What that means from an individual warfighter standpoint is they can actually now carry five days' worth of nutrition in what was a three-day footprint," said Gaffney-Stomberg.
Testing showed troops take in more calories with the CCARs, which helps them perform better in missions that burn a lot of energy, she said, noting that's partly because the CCARs' fat levels are slightly higher and partly because of their taste.
"I think that the warfighters did prefer some of the individual food items that were in the Close Combat Assault Ration compared to the First Strike ration," Gaffney-Stomberg said.
The latest science on sports nutrition was a starting point for working out the best proportions of macronutrients — fat, protein and carbohydrates — in the new ration. But she said the Army had to go deeper, looking at differences in dietary needs between athletes and troops in combat.
"Athletes know when the event is going to happen, they know what that event is, and they've got the luxury of preparing specifically for that event," she said. "Whereas our war fighters don't necessarily know when the event is going to happen and exactly how it's going to unfold, and they might be operating in a multi-stressor environment."
Athletes can make sure, for example, that they've dialed in their sleep and timed carbohydrate intake for a specific contest. But troops have to perform even if they're sleep deprived, have to react to something unexpected, or if they're stressed by environmental conditions.
And the nutrition had to be delivered via foods that make the CCAR palatable, because the best nutritional content doesn't matter if the troops don't eat it.
The Army ration experts ran the CCAR through multiple rounds of testing with soldiers and Marines before finalizing the ration. Early on, an approach using mainly nutrient-dense bars, which are lighter and denser still, was tested. But the soldiers and Marines who tested them made it clear they wanted entrees.
An informal sampling of soldiers who tried the rations during the U.S. Army Special Operations Command's intense, multi-day Best Squad competition recently at Fort Bragg, N.C. suggests the CCAR hits its palatability goal.
Nick, a sergeant who, because of the nature of his unit, can only be identified by his first name, tried the CCAR featuring a "chicken burrito bowl" entree and pronounced it better than an MRE.
He especially liked that the CCAR included a lot of small components, like bars and packets of trail mix.
"That way, when you're moving through the field or you're doing something where you're on the go, you can pull those out and kind of keep them in a pocket, so it's easier to get to easier nutrition per se," he said.
That was by design. Gaffney-Stomberg said it's supposed to be a "grazing ration."
"Meaning that it's not three meals, but rather there's multiple components that you could pair together to meet the nutrition for the specific time of day, depending on the activity you're doing," she said.
Even the entrees were crafted for that, she said, with a spout for the opening so they can be squeezed into the mouth even while moving.
Some in the group of soldiers at Fort Bragg said they wished for less sugar. But a sergeant named Alexa said that after her hard efforts that morning on an eight-hour slog through the forest in a land navigation test, the recipes seemed about right.
"I needed the sugar, the calories," she said. "I like that has a lot of calories for days like this."
She quickly ate the packet of trail mix, the almond coconut nut bar, the apple pie dessert spread, and the cookie. She tried a little of the entree, but saved most for later so she wouldn't be too full for the afternoon phase of the competition.
As compact and light as the CCAR is, Army experts say they aren't done trying to improve future field rations.
They're seeking help from private industry and academia to develop ways of actually making food closer to the front lines.
And they've also been working with a production method called vacuum microwave drying. One result is a rectangle of compressed vegetables infused with honey-mustard dressing. It's been dubbed the Salad Bar.
This story was produced by the American Homefront Project, a public media collaboration that reports on American military life and veterans.
