Quote Originally Posted by selil View Post
Future technology

These are all simple questions. When the basic infantryman no longer looks like a two legged pack mule, and the number of support personnel to front line fighters is reversed as a ratio then we can look at gee-whiz gadgets. Then again in COIN everybody is on the front line.

COIN is the interesting intersection of the technologies where more can create a drag. To often technology is a barrier to the “touchy feely” side of COIN. A tablet voice translation system is a great gadget but what does it say about the cultural sensitivities of the soldiers? What is the unintended message when using such a device? When the soldier looks like a walking arsenal and can be identified by the ever-present packhorse gate as they walk how can the true mission objectives be met? I believe that the highly trained, exceptionally educated, superior morality of the volunteer soldier is being ripped off in an effort to create unsustainable technologies at the cost of research into making the infantryman a more effective soldier.
All too true selil. Maybe before the Army decides to spend $200 billion or so bucks on tunring the Infantryman into a High-Tech descendant of Marius' Mules, they should spend a mere fraction of that on dealing with the various matters you listed above^(and including those that I deleted from the quote for the sake of space). Of course many, many billions of dollars need to be spent to acquire the next generation of combat systems (in their various forms and for their various roles) to replace current stuff which is, well, either or just plain worn-out or wearing-out.

But if the Army would like to solve some of the problem that you identified, it could save a lot of money by letting Infantrymen buy most of their own kit and giving them a proper Army allowance for said; you'd get much better kit for a lot less money overall, and the grunts would be carrying a lot less weight. And that's a quick and cheap solution to about a third of the list right there.

Very good post selil.