troops don't like land warrior

[harryRIEDL]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology...aw/4215715.html

 

this was not too much of a surprise but what the troops say is intersting

 

In the Pentagon's April 2007 Selected Acquisition Report, the US Army's $4 billion "Infantry-21" program - Land Warrior - lists as terminated. Noah Shachtman at WIRED's Danger Room says the soldiers weren't that crazy about it, anyway:

 

"But as Alpha kicks in doors, rounds up terror suspects and peals off automatic fire in deafening six-shot bursts, not one of the soldiers bothers to check his radio or look into the eyepiece to find his buddies on the electronic maps. "It's just a bunch of stuff we don't use, taking the place of useful stuff like guns," says Sgt. James Young, who leads a team of four M-240 machine-gunners perched on a balcony during this training exercise at Fort Lewis, Wash. "It makes you a slower, heavier target."

[Stevely]

All that fancy Land Warrior gear doesn't really have anything to do with 4th generation warfare. You must be think of Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA) or Transformation. In which case, maybe.

[Ivanhoe]

If personal comms made individuals faster and more efficient, all the clowns prattling away into their Bluetooth headsets at the supermarket would be moving faster than old school types like me that just have a written list. And there wouldn't be a cottage industry printing up bumper stickers saying "Hang up and drive!"

 

A technical solution that isn't designed around human nature isn't a solution. The important vectors for communications is lateral and upwards on the org chart, but what tends to happen is downward. I have yet to read anything on Land Warrior that is going to prevent O-7s from trying to micromanage squad leaders. And small unit infantry operations is not the place to add more tasks, especially tasks that are kind of looming over the soldier's head all the time. Just like pilots fall into the trap of flying the instruments rather than the airplane, soldiers using the LW stuff will probably fall into the trap of spending too much time fighting the battle on the display rather than the real one.

 

The electronic rifle sight concept doesn't seem too bad to me, aside from the minor details of cost, reliability, and added training burden.

[BP]

Oh you Phillistines. Think of the synergy you'd get if an Army private in the middle of a firefight in Afghanistan knew where all of the Navy's LCS ships were located!

[Stevely]

Oh you Phillistines. Think of the synergy you'd get if an Army private in the middle of a firefight in Afghanistan knew where all of the Navy's LCS ships were located!

 

Not to mention the gains in Situational Awareness if that private could put his chop on the BUA slides via his Land Warrior system of systems.

[Doug97]

Will it allow soldiers to prepare and rehearse Powerpoint presentations while in the field? If not, I can't really see that it was terribly useful ...

[tankerwanabe]

What does everyone think of a modified version of the Land Warrior System? Rather than overload the infantryman with information, we provide only the commander with a bird-eye view, and allow him to direct his men.

 

And it ends there. Rather than make each person a commander, we leave that duty to a single person - platoon leader.

[Guest aevans]

What does everyone think of a modified version of the Land Warrior System? Rather than overload the infantryman with information, we provide only the commander with a bird-eye view, and allow him to direct his men.

 

And it ends there. Rather than make each person a commander, we leave that duty to a single person - platoon leader.

 

Uhhh...what happened to squad leaders? And what happens when individual privates are being given directions by generals 100 miles away?

[wallaby bob]

http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology...aw/4215715.html

 

this was not too much of a surprise but what the troops say is intersting

 

In the Pentagon's April 2007 Selected Acquisition Report, the US Army's $4 billion "Infantry-21" program - Land Warrior - lists as terminated. Noah Shachtman at WIRED's Danger Room says the soldiers weren't that crazy about it, anyway:

 

"But as Alpha kicks in doors, rounds up terror suspects and peals off automatic fire in deafening six-shot bursts, not one of the soldiers bothers to check his radio or look into the eyepiece to find his buddies on the electronic maps. "It's just a bunch of stuff we don't use, taking the place of useful stuff like guns," says Sgt. James Young, who leads a team of four M-240 machine-gunners perched on a balcony during this training exercise at Fort Lewis, Wash. "It makes you a slower, heavier target."

 

Harry. As a very ex-infantryman I'd just like to make a few comments on this and any other like projects.

"the soldiers say they don't like it" Since when has any soldier from the "sharp-end" been allowed an opinion on ANYTHING?

"It makes me a heavier slower target" again how is this going to effect the thinking(?) of promotion-seeking office-bound Staff officers.?

Situational awareness is not enhanced by Information Overload and micro-management from uninformed and physically remote commanding Generals, and in extreme cases "politicians" diven by re-election prospects AND lobby groups, would seen the complete antithesis of competent war=fighting certainly as I understand it.

Seems we were given early warning of this very thing by Albert Speer 50+ years ago.

The provision of superior,not just new/novel, sighting systems is a real improvement PROVIDED they are rugged enough to survive the treatment they will certainly get and not simply a product of software over reality. WB

[Koz]

It does seem to me that all that fancy gunsights will break almost immediately when deployed.

[Ivanhoe]

Will it allow soldiers to prepare and rehearse Powerpoint presentations while in the field? If not, I can't really see that it was terribly useful ...

 

Au contrere, mon frere. The rear echelon will be able to use Tactical Powerpoint* to have real-time briefing and training sessions with soldiers while they're in contact, saving all sorts of time and money wasted on transport. Need to make sure the graphics engine for the soldier HUD has enough horsepower to handle animated slide transitions, though.

 

* Running only on Windows GI, of course.

[Ivanhoe]

It does seem to me that all that fancy gunsights will break almost immediately when deployed.

 

Its not the camera on the gun that bothers me, its the data cable from the sight to the soldier-mounted system. Moving/vibrating cables are a notorious failure item.

[Doug97]

Au contrere, mon frere. The rear echelon will be able to use Tactical Powerpoint* to have real-time briefing and training sessions with soldiers while they're in contact, saving all sorts of time and money wasted on transport. Need to make sure the graphics engine for the soldier HUD has enough horsepower to handle animated slide transitions, though.

 

* Running only on Windows GI, of course.

Windows Vista Military Edition? 12x the cost of Vista Ultimate, but the CD is scratch-resistant ...

[Guest JamesG123]

Oh you Phillistines. Think of the synergy you'd get if an Army private in the middle of a firefight in Afghanistan knew where all of the Navy's LCS ships were located!

 

Oh you jest, but one night while riding down MSR Tampa my BFT had a brainfart (or I did while trying to scroll the screen) and showed me where every BFT element in Afganistan was!

[philgollin]

It may be simplistic, but if the up and coming generation of young soldiers who have been raised on assimulating graphic information from computer games can't handle the gear then it would seem the ergonomic guys have cocked-up mightily.

[gnocci]

Windows Vista Military Edition? 12x the cost of Vista Ultimate, but the CD is scratch-resistant ...

"There are new update available. Please restart the system for the changes to take effect."

[nexus6]

even more annoying would be the "updates have been installed , do you want to restart now?" msg that cant be dismissed until you reboot. seriousy i can imagine someof this stuff could be usefull, but not all soldiers would need it. rather like the designated marksman idea, could you have certain squad members with this gear ?

[Doug97]

"There are new update available. Please restart the system for the changes to take effect."

 

I would imagine it would make enforcement of RoEs easier as the commander in the rear could have have is finger on an on/off switch that controlled the safeties of all in-theatre weapons. Just don't get shot at when he goes for a bathroom break.

 

Clippy: "It looks like you are trying to fire your weapon. Would you like help with that?"

[Marek Tucan]

"There are new update available. Please restart the system for the changes to take effect."

 

"You have pressed the trigger. This action may lead to projectile discharge from your weapon that may be harmful to humans and/or environment. Are you sure you wish to continue?

Yes No"

[Yama]

"You have pressed the trigger. This action may lead to projectile discharge from your weapon that may be harmful to humans and/or environment. Are you sure you wish to continue?

Yes No"

 

"Your weapon has performed an illegal action, and will now shut down."

[Yama]

Will it allow soldiers to prepare and rehearse Powerpoint presentations while in the field? If not, I can't really see that it was terribly useful ...

 

On a plus side, ability to download pr0n would definitely improve morale.

[Marek Tucan]

On a plus side, ability to download pr0n would definitely improve morale.

 

Will cornre drugs applicator also part of the package?

[Doug97]

Unfortunately the "Blue Screen of Death" might be more than just an expression ...

[Smitty]

I think there are some useful ideas in Land Warrior, but I would push the interactive portions up a level or two. For individual soldiers having a Windows-ish UI in an eyepiece probably doesn't give a big bang-for-buck/lb.

 

Keep the soldier instrumentation, the gunsight, the GPS/INS, a simple audio system, and the datalink. Make it as non-interactive as possible.

 

Feed this information upwards to a more robust platoon/company monitoring component with a dedicated operator and Tablet PC/Laptop.

 

RFID everything - uniforms, bullets, grenades, MREs, etc.. Provide an RFID reader to leaders to quckly catalog what's being carried by each soldier.

 

Add an RFID reader to the rifle that knows which magazine it has in it, how many rounds, and which exact round ID is chambered.

 

Push this information up the food chain so higher ups can monitor ammo usage, location/direction/volume of fire, etc..

 

Add an "I'm HIT" button that instantly transmits location and whatever vitals it can to the soldier's leadership and medics.

[SILL2]

I think there are some useful ideas in Land Warrior, but I would push the interactive portions up a level or two. For individual soldiers having a Windows-ish UI in an eyepiece probably doesn't give a big bang-for-buck/lb.

 

Keep the soldier instrumentation, the gunsight, the GPS/INS, a simple audio system, and the datalink. Make it as non-interactive as possible.

 

Feed this information upwards to a more robust platoon/company monitoring component with a dedicated operator and Tablet PC/Laptop.

 

RFID everything - uniforms, bullets, grenades, MREs, etc.. Provide an RFID reader to leaders to quckly catalog what's being carried by each soldier.

 

Add an RFID reader to the rifle that knows which magazine it has in it, how many rounds, and which exact round ID is chambered.

 

Push this information up the food chain so higher ups can monitor ammo usage, location/direction/volume of fire, etc..

 

Add an "I'm HIT" button that instantly transmits location and whatever vitals it can to the soldier's leadership and medics.

 

Now now don't be making fun of philgollin with such satire.

 

Any leader that needs any of that crap belongs in the AF where they have time to play with toys.