QUALITY EVALUTATION OF THE COMBAT INDIVIDUAL PROTECTION SYSTEM BY EUROFIT PHYSICAL FITNESS TESTING

Researchers from the National Armed Forces (NAF) Republic of Latvia in cooperation with researchers from Riga Technical University (RTU) and Latvian Academy of Sport Education (LASE) carried out a quality evaluation of the combat individual protection system (CIPS) of the NAF by the EUROFIT physical fitness testing complex and Harvard step testing, covering flexibility, speed, endurance and strength. Experiments were split into five days. Five different sets in total have been evaluated during the experiments with the following loads – 1,7 kg (light clothing mode), 11,0 kg (light armour mode), 20,2 kg (heavy armour mode), 19,6 kg (heavy armour mode without combat jacket), 11,8 kg (backpack mode). Six NAF soldiers were involved in the experiments. Results of the experiments show up to 43% of muscular endurance decrease, cardiorespiratory endurance decreased by 35%, trunk strength decreased by 22%, explosive