Popular Mechanics looks at the Land Warrior System in the May, 2007 issue.
The Land Warrior system (Wikipedia) is a 16-pound system with a dozen pieces of gear. It plugs infantrymen into the global battlefield network.
The Army’s 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team (Wikipedia) from Fort Lewis, Wash., is preparing to deploy to Iraq with Land Warrior this spring. But the Army has now cancelled the program.
HELMET SUBSYSTEM
The Kevlar Advanced Combat Helmet weighs approximately 3 pounds — half the weight of current models. An eyepiece (A) bolted to the helmet acts as a full-color computer interface, displaying maps and images from the camera on the weapon. A boom mic (B) and over-the-ear headphones (C) allow troops to communicate.
SOLDIER CONTROL UNIT
A computer “mouse” (D) shaped like a gun grip is strapped to the chest and used to toggle among screens in the eyepiece. It also is used to key the radio and send data to other soldiers.
WEAPON SUBSYSTEM
A laser rangefinder (E) mounted on the rifle pinpoints enemy positions and sends their location coordinates across the network. The thermal sight (F) provides night vision, and a digital camera (G) lets soldiers send video clips to commanders.
CONTROLLER
A toggle switch (hidden by the soldier’s left hand) is used to control the weapon’s laser and video sights. It can also be used to operate the multiband radio.
A key capability of the current Land Warrior development effort is the interoperability with the Stryker family of combat vehicles, through a Vehicle Integration Kit. When Land Warriors are mounted in the Stryker land vehicle, voice, data and power are connected through an umbilical. Voice and data are achieved through an extension of the individual soldier’s Personal Area Network.
The mounted Land Warriors have the capability of communicating voice and data with each other, the vehicle crew, Land Warriors external to the vehicle and other Land Warrior units mounted in other Stryker vehicles. Communications with the vehicle crew are achieved by interfacing to the Vehicle Intercom System.
The program was a favorite of ex Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfield. But after more than 10 years of testing, the Army is pulling the plug on Land Warrior.
Army officials cut funding in February as part of the Army’s fiscal 2008 budget request.
The Joint Tactical Radio System (JTRS, often pronounced “jitters”) is a software-defined radio for voice and data that will be backward-compatible with a very large number of other military and civilian radio systems. Unfortunately, says Wikipedia, there has been a realization that the U.S. cannot afford to replace all 750,000 tactical radio systems in use in the near term. The program is budgeted at $6.8 billion to produce 180,000 radios, an average cost per radio of $37,700.
Since its inception in 1996, the Army has invested about $500 million in Land Warrior. When used together, Army officials say, it would give soldiers an unmatchable edge in battle.
But the system took too long to perfect and was too expensive, leading Army officials to kill appropriations for Land Warrior this February.
Related DailyWireless articles include; Advanced EHF - Wait for It, Satellite Jam, Software Radios in Space and Unwired in Maui.
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