{"id":900771,"date":"2026-09-22T02:10:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T02:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/900771\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T02:10:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T02:10:10","slug":"socom-nutrition-app-aims-to-optimize-performance-and-lethality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/900771\/","title":{"rendered":"SOCOM nutrition app aims to optimize \u2018performance and lethality\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Special Operations Command<\/a>, or SOCOM, issued a sole-source contract<\/a> to Teamworks Tactical Solutions, the maker of a nutrition app.<\/p>\n

According to the statement of work, the app will provide dietitian services to SOCOM troops by coordinating with dining halls to develop meal plans that \u201coptimize human performance and lethality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The platform will connect a team of up to 55 performance dietitians to provide \u201cpersonalized, mission-specific nutrition plans\u201d for more than 18,000 tactical troops across geographically disparate locations, according to the document.<\/p>\n

Teamworks Tactical Solutions\u2019<\/a> \u201ccore business,\u201d according to James Coffos, Teamworks\u2019 chief strategy officer, includes working with Division 1 athletes to professional and Olympic-level athletes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith stakes literally being life and death in the tactical context,\u201d Coffos said, \u201cwhen looking at a software platform to run your HP program, it makes sense to look to a system like Teamworks, which has been proven at the very highest levels of human performance.\u201d<\/p>\n

The contract comes as the Pentagon works to improve fitness standards<\/a> and rally against \u201cfat\u201d troops<\/a>, but Coffos said the app has already been in use by the U.S. military.<\/p>\n

\u201cSOCOM has actually used this particular product for years, so this isn\u2019t an entirely new capability for them,\u201d he said in an email to Military Times.<\/p>\n

The original contract<\/a> was through the Air Force Research Laboratory\u2019s STRONG Lab<\/a>, but the new contract moves the agreement directly to SOCOM.<\/p>\n

Coffos said his company worked with SOCOM\u2019s senior performance dietitian to tune the software to better suit the organization\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really a great situation where we have this virtuous circle from sport to military and back again,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The app allows SOCOM troops to engage with dietitians in two ways. They can see nutritional ratings for options at the chow hall, or, when military dining facilities are not available, they can ask for guidance regarding the food available to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just removes a lot of friction from the process of making good decisions around what you\u2019re eating, and that in turn frees an operator up to focus on the mission at hand,\u201d Coffos said.<\/p>\n

Troops can also adjust their plans based on food preferences and personal goals. But the technology does not eliminate the need for individual decision-making, Coffos said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou still have to have a basic understanding of nutrition and the willpower to choose what your body needs versus what just looks like it tastes best,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As for how the app improves \u201clethality\u201d through diet, Coffos explained it depends on how the term is defined.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d start by pointing out that \u2018lethality\u2019 is SOCOM\u2019s word, not ours,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I\u2019d also gently point out that the word isn\u2019t at all foreign to sports.\u201d<\/p>\n

He explained that it\u2019s often used to describe performance by professional athletes, like \u201cMariano Rivera was described as lethal for 19 seasons and no one thought twice about it\u201d or \u201cSteph Curry is lethal from 30 feet.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he has come to understand the term, at least in the case of SOCOM, as a reference to maintaining physical performance deep into an arduous mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen SOCOM writes \u2018lethality,\u2019 I really think what they\u2019re describing is the mile-22 problem,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s about the quality of the human being at the end of the effort, not the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n

He compared the nutritional demands of a special operator on a long mission to those of a marathon runner nearing the end of a race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatch a marathon at mile 22. You\u2019re absolutely going to see somebody who was running beautifully at mile 18 reduced to a shuffle, and it isn\u2019t because they got less fit in the last four miles. They ran out of fuel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the case of SOCOM, Coffos said, imagine an operator about 20 hours into a mission, carrying about 65 pounds of gear and running on about four hours of sleep. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the same physiology and the stakes are the only thing that changed,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen SOCOM writes \u2018lethality,\u2019 I really think what they\u2019re describing is the mile-22 problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Daniel Terrill is a contributor to Military Times. He\u2019s been reporting on military issues, the gun industry, and the outdoors for nearly two decades. Although writing is his passion, he\u2019s been a Marine, police officer, and, perhaps the most dangerous job of his career, a substitute teacher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Special Operations Command, or SOCOM, issued a sole-source contract to Teamworks Tactical Solutions, the maker of a nutrition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":900772,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[64,63,60550,35478,60548,35479,60549,137,60551,532,469439,469438,469440],"class_list":["post-900771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-circulated-air-force-times","tag-circulated-army-times","tag-circulated-marine-corps-times","tag-circulated-military-times","tag-circulated-navy-times","tag-health","tag-military-times","tag-nutrition","tag-nutrition-app","tag-socom","tag-teamworks-tactical-solutions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900771","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=900771"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900771\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=900771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=900771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=900771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}