The effects of hearing impairment on fire team performance in dismounted combat

Although hearing is known to play an essential role in military operations, few studies have directly measured the impact of hearing loss on combat effectiveness. In this study, Soldiers from the 101st Airborne were equipped with hearing loss simulators allowing parametric adjustment of hearing between normal and profound deafness. They then participated in a combat exercise requiring multiple fire teams with different levels of hearing loss to progress through a series of waypoints in a wooded area as quickly as possible without being eliminated by enemy gunfire. A GPS-based tracking system made it possible to record the progress of each team throughout the exercise, including information on player eliminations and the players credited with these kills. Results show that hearing impairment has a substantial negative impact on the performance of experienced Soldiers in terms of survivability, lethality, and mission success.