Soldier-centered design is the core of Etaloyd’s engineered combat gears. One of the basic tenets of our design process is to “know the user”. Usability engineering which entails closely integrating design and evaluation through incremental development and iterative refinement of a system based on soldier input and feedback, is another critical component of a soldiercentered design process. Soldier survivability is a function of protection and other relevant operational factors, such as situational awareness, mobility, and lethality. Throughout history, helmets and body armor have protected soldiers from injury but often at the cost of increased weight, reduced mobility, and reduced situational awareness. These tradeoffs remain relevant today. Etaloyd’s soldier centered design allowed us to improve soldier survivability by optimizing body armor and helmet design. This includes improving protection in key areas such as mitigating blast-induced brain injury, and reducing weight in other areas such as torso body armor, increasing mobility. Etaloyd is working also emerging technologies such as weight distribution systems, exoskeletons/exosuits, have the potential to dramatically improve soldier survivability. In some cases, these technologies have the potential to fundamentally change a 3,000-year-old dilemma for foot soldiers in war: Their weapons and armor are limited by what they can carry into battle.Emerging technologies could potentially change this dynamic by: