FORT BENNING, Ga., (April 13, 2016) -- Gen. Dalbir Singh, the chief of army staff of the Indian Army, visited Fort Benning April 8 to learn about the Maneuver Center of Excellence's mission and how the U.S. Army develops, trains and educates its Soldiers.

While here, Singh visited the 75th Ranger Regiment and Mabry Hall, where he watched the 1st Battalion, 29th Infantry Regiment's Experimental Force train.

Col. Travis Thompson, director of Soldier Division director and Training and Doctrine Command Capability Manager-Soldier, said the visit was intended to show Singh how the U.S. Soldiers use gear and other training capabilities to enhance performance.

"We all care about performance," Thompson said. "This isn't something that's new, every army in the world deals with it ... but, we maybe have some resources and capabilities to do it in a way that not everybody in the world can. So this is just one demonstration of how we're trying do that."

As part of his visit, Singh watched as the EXFOR tested a new body Armor as they maneuvered through an indoor obstacle course.

The demonstration was testing through Load Effects Assessment Program-Army, or LEAP-A. Each station had different configurations set up, where Soldiers, with and without body armor, ran through obstacles and were measured on time and performance. Thompson said this type of training helps figure out how Soldiers can perform at the highest level - whether equipment increases their performance or maintains it with extra capability.

Maj. Dan Rowell, assistant product manager with Soldier and Squad Systems Integration, said the obstacle course is important because the armor and load on a Soldier affects his or her performance.

For example, he said more body armor may be good, but if it makes the Soldier exhausted - is it worth it? Soldiers have to be fast and maintain energy to be effective.

Thompson said it's good to have these types of training facilities and to share ideas, because not all services or nations have the same number of resources available to them.

"I think it helps with that collaboration and we can start to see how we can work together as we move forward," Thompson said.