Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center

The Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center (CCDC SC), formerly the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC), is a military research complex and installation in Natick, Massachusetts, charged by the U.S. Department of Defense with the research and development (including fielding and sustainment) of food, clothing, shelters, airdrop systems, and other servicemember support items for the U.S. military.^[1][2] It is a component unit of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command and is a tenant unit of the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center (NSSC).^[3] The installation includes facilities from all the military services, not just the Army, and is so configured to allow cross-service cooperation and collaboration both within the facility and with the many academic, industrial and governmental institutions in the Greater Boston Area.

The CCDC is subordinate to U.S. Army Futures Command (AFC) headquartered in Austin, Texas, which was activated in July 2018. Futures Command was formerly U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM) at Aberdeen Proving Ground.

The SSC is sometimes called the Natick Army Labs, although this designation more properly refers to one of its tenant units, the U.S. Army CCDC Soldier Center.

The SSC occupies 78 acres (320,000 m²) at its main Natick campus and has an additional 46 acres (190,000 m²) in neighboring communities. The main campus is located to the northwest of Natick center and abuts upon Lake Cochituate.

Employee/tenant numbers total 1,957 (159 military personnel, 1,048 civilians and 750 contractors).^[4][5][6]

The SSC public relations office reports that the installation’s FY2006 funding totaled approximately $1 billion and that the facilities infuse more than $135 million annually into the local economy through installation salaries, utilities and local contracts.^[7][8]

The installation commander is a U.S. Army Brigadier General, currently BG George Hackler, who also serves as the Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command.^[9]

The SSC includes facilities designed to research and test both materials (textiles, combat rations), advanced technologies and human performance (human research volunteers) under simulated environmental extremes (altitude, heat, cold, wind, etc.). The requirement for improved combat rations has led to groundbreaking developments in the field of food irradiation and freeze-drying techniques. Improved body armor, new military parachuting technology, and enhanced military garments designed for a variety of environments are all ongoing efforts.

Construction of the Quartermaster Research Laboratory at Natick, MA, was authorized by Congress in October 1949, and began in November 1952. A year later, in October 1953, the QRL was redesignated as the Quartermaster Research and Development Center, and four years later, in January 1957, as the Quartermaster Research and Engineering Command.^[10][11]

July 1961 saw the activation of the U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM) at Natick and a year later the QREC was placed under the U.S. Army Materiel Command (AMC). In November 1962, the QREC was redesignated as Natick Laboratories and the following year the Food and Container Institute moved to Natick. July 1967 saw the Navy Clothing and Textile Research Facility (NCTRF)^[12] relocate to Natick.^[10]

Natick Laboratories became a subordinate element to the Troop Support Command (TROSCOM) in July 1973 and was redesignated two years later as the U.S. Army Natick Development Center and reassigned to the AMC. The NDC was redesignated the U.S. Army Natick Research and Development Command (NARADCOM) in January 1976 and assigned to the U.S. Army Materiel Development and Readiness Command (DARCOM) (aka AMC, which was redesignated the U.S. Army Materiel Development and Readiness Command (DARCOM) that same month).^[10]

In September 1980, NARADCOM was redesignated as the U.S. Army Natick Research and Development Laboratories, and three years later, in October 1983, as the U.S. Army Natick Research and Development Center, a subordinate element of the U.S. Army Troop Support Command (TROSCOM) in St. Louis, Missouri. (Elements of DARCOM and TROSCOM merged in July 1992 forging the U.S. Army Aviation and Troop Command (ATCOM), St. Louis, Mo.)^[10]

In 1982, Natick Labs surrendered control of 3,100 acres in the Massachusetts towns of Hudson, Maynard, Stow and Sudbury to Fort Devens to become a field training facility. The land had been an ordnance supply depot during World War II. After being an Environmental Protection Agency "superfund" cleanup site in the 1990s it became the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge.

In October 1992, the NRDC was redesignated the U.S. Army Natick Research, Development and Engineering Center (NRDEC),^[13] still a subordinate element of the ATCOM.^[10][14]

A U.S. Army Soldier Systems Command (SSCOM)^[14] was activated at Natick in November 1994. Elements subsequently established at the SSCOM included the Sustainment & Readiness Directorate (February 1995) and Product Manager-Soldier Support (October 1995); elements subsequently relocated to Natick included the Clothing and Services Office (October 1996; from Ft. Lee, Virginia) and Product Manager-Force Provider (June 1997). The Sustainment & Readiness Directorate became the Integrated Material Management Center in October 1997.^[10][15]

SSCOM merged with the Chemical Biological Defense Command (CBDCOM)^[16] to become the Soldier and Biological Chemical Command (SBCCOM) in October 1998.^[15] At this time the installation was renamed the Soldier Systems Center (SSC).^[10] At some time prior to January 2017, the installation was renamed Soldier Systems Center Natick (SSC).^[17]

The SSC hosts several tenant units and facilities at its Natick installation:

• The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Soldier Center (CCDC SC),^[1] formerly known as U.S. Army Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center (NSRDEC), or as the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center (NSC), or as The Natick Army Labs, an element of the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (CCDC), formerly U.S. Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM) at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland.
• The U.S. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine (USARIEM), a subordinate lab of the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command (USAMRMC), headquartered at Fort Detrick, MD, USA.
• The U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM)
• The U.S. Army Integrated Logistics and Support Center (ILSC)
• The U.S. Coast Guard Clothing Design and Technical Office (CDTO)
• The U.S. Navy Clothing and Textile Research Facility (NCTRF)
• The Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier
• The U.S. Army Product Manager Force Sustainment Systems (PM FSS)
• The U.S. Army RDECOM Acquisition Center - Natick, the Natick Contracting Division of RDECOM AC, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Maryland
• An office of the General Services Administration (GSA)
• An office of the Hanscom Federal Credit Union
• An office of the United States Health Services Command
• An office of the Defense Automated Printing Service
• An office of the U.S. Army Audit Agency
• The Doriot Climatic Chamber Complex
• Combat Rations Production and Packaging Facility
• 3-D Anthropometrics Laboratory
• Camouflage Evaluation Facility
• Rain Court
• Hydro-Environmental Chamber
• Shade Room
• Fiber Plant
• Thermal and Flame Laboratory
• Military Operations in Urban Environment (MOUT) Lab/Facility

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (April 2025)

No.	Commanding General		Term
	Portrait	Name	Took office	Left office	Duration
As U.S. Army Soldier Systems Command
1		Brigadier General Henry T. Glisson	November 1994[18]	May 1996[19]	~1 year, 182 days
As U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center
-		Brigadier General Philip M. Mattox	June/July 2000[20]	6 August 2001[21]	~1 year, 31 days
-		Brigadier General James L. Kennon	6 August 2001[22]	9 July 2002[23]	337 days
-		Brigadier General Craig A. Peterson	9 July 2002[24]	10 October 2003[25]	1 year, 93 days
-		Colonel David J. Bongi	10 October 2003[26]	7 July 2004[27]	271 days
-		Brigadier General James R. Moran	7 July 2004[28]	~25 July 2006	~2 years, 18 days
-		Brigadier General R. Mark Brown	25 July 2006[29]	21 November 2008[30]	2 years, 119 days
As U.S. Army Natick Soldier Systems Center
-		Brigadier General Peter N. Fuller	21 November 2008[31]	27 August 2009[32]	279 days
-		Brigadier General Harold J. Greene	27 August 2009[33]	10 May 2011[34]	1 year, 256 days
-		Brigadier General John J. McGuiness	10 May 2011[35]	5 December 2013[36]	2 years, 209 days
-		Brigadier General William E. Cole	5 December 2013[37]	24 November 2015[38]	1 year, 354 days
-		Brigadier General Thomas H. Todd III	24 November 2015[39]	5 January 2017[40]	1 year, 42 days
-		Brigadier General Anthony W. Potts	5 January 2017[41]	5 January 2018[42]	1 year, 0 days
-		Brigadier General Vincent F. Malone II	5 January 2018[43]	~May 2020[44]	~2 years, 117 days
-		Brigadier General James P. Bienlien	May 2020[45]	8 June 2021[46]	~1 year, 38 days
-		Brigadier General David C. Trybula	8 June 2021[47]	31 July 2024	3 years, 53 days
-		Brigadier General George C. Hackler	31 July 2024[48]	Incumbent	281 days

Natick Labs has developed or is developing the following items or systems:

• Meal, Ready-to-Eat
• Unitized Group Ration
• Irradiated food^[49]
• The "instant chapel"^[49]
• Bulletproof clothing^[49]
• MOLLE Load-carriage Equipment
• Land Warrior
• Future Soldier
• Future Force Warrior
• Collective Protection Shelters
• Personnel Armor System for Ground Troops
• Interceptor Body Armor
• Quarpel, a water-repellent, water and stain resistant textile treatment^[50]

• Future Integrated Soldier Technology
• Armed Forces Recipe Service (maintained by Natick Labs until 2009)
• Close quarters combat
• Close combat
• Small unit tactics
• List of military installations in Massachusetts

• Earls, Alan R., (2005) U.S. Army Natick Laboratories: The Science Behind the Soldier (Series: Images of America), Arcadia Publishing.

This article contains information that originally came from US Government publications and websites and is in the public domain.

• Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier
• Official SSC Website
• Official Garrison Website
• Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) No. MA-52, "Natick Research & Development Laboratories, U.S. Army Natick Research, Development & Engineering Center, Natick, Middlesex County, MA", 38 data pages
• HAER No. MA-52-A, "Natick Research & Development Laboratories, Climatic Chambers Building", 25 photos, 28 data pages, 3 photo caption pages