Tom, first let me thank you for letting us toss this about. We haven't seen a thread this good in a while. Second, I've got friends and family in the Navy, so thank you.

I saw you were thinking about the 2-person Heatsheet, so there goes my first thought. Most of my other thoughts have been been addressed (LEDs, SAM splints), except for two.

How are the PLBs triggered? Manually once people are aboard, or automatically once the raft is deployed? For some of the smaller ships, I'd agree that one each port and starboard is sufficient, but for the larger vessels (carriers, the various amphibious ships) is it enough? Possibly one each fore and aft to each side for the big ships, just becuase of the numbers of rafts and the risk of them getting scattered. When we have lost troop ships and carrier, even if we have to go back 60 years, how badly scattered were the life rafts, this might not be a concern?

Also, how big are the current aircrew survival radios, and are they cost feasible? It might not be as much an issue as far as communicating with aircraft, but with other surface assets and particularly among this fleet of little orange rafts. For example, I know small ships only have a corpsman and even for the really big ships you still have a limited medical staff- raft-to-raft communication might be needed there. Or is it just a non-issue?

Personally, I'm not a fan of the knife in question, but it works. The odds of needing it are fairly low, so I don't see it as cost efficient at this time to replace them with new knives so long as they open, haven't rotted out and are reasonably sharp.

As for the idea of the MRE heaters, I'd say no. Last time I checked, they still released hydrogen gas when wet. I'm not sure that goes with the less HAZMAT requirement on equipment carried on the deck of a ship.