Combat Ready M.R.E. Pizza is Finally Here

An army marches on its stomach, as Napoleon supposedly said ... and what better food to feed the troops than pizza?

Now, after two decades and hundreds of failed attempts, the Army's Combat Feeding Directorate has finally created the combat-ready Meal, Ready to Eat (M.R.E.) pizza.

Dave Philipps of The New York Times has the scoop:

Now being shipped to military bases around the world, the newest of 24 current M.R.E. options is a humble three-by-five-inch Sicilian-style slice, scattered with melt-proof shreds of mozzarella and pebbles of mild pepperoni, sealed in a dun-colored laminate pouch.

It isn't much to look at, even by free-pizza standards. But this is no ordinary slice. To quality for M.R.E. duty, a food item has to be able to survive years of storage in a dank ship's hold or a sun-baked shipping container, withstand Arctic freezes and tropical monsoons, stave off assaults by insects, and remain intact through a parachute airdrop or even a free fall from 100 feet.

Forget 30-minute dlievery - Army regulations say it has to stay fresh for 36 months. And after all that, the pizza still has to be tasty enough to eat.

Photo: Kayana Szymczak for The New York Times