The new reckoning: The Combat Casualty Care Research Program responds to real and present challenges in military operational projections.

Abstract

This issue of the Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery features topics from the 2017 Military Health System Research Symposium and starts a second decade of partnership between the Combat Casualty Care Research Program (CCCRP) and the journal. This publication comes at a time of significant change for the CCCRP, as it responds to military planning for the future multidomain battlefield (MDB). The projected MDB portends markedly different operational scenarios than those conducted over the past 17 years. Emerging threats around the globe have the Department of Defense preparing for more complex battlefields that are larger in size and scope and which pit the United States against better equipped and more sophisticated adversaries. As the CCCRP navigates this new reckoning associated with trauma care on the MDB, its research investments will need to be robust and enabled to plan, program, and budget for agile and closer-term solutions. To accomplish this, the program will need to expand on its strong foundation of lessons learned and assets developed over the past 20 years.