Land Warrior Needs Work, Soldiers Say

[Rob Thornton]

Hey Stevely,
What would you consider a marginal advantage?
Best, Rob

[Centurion]

Instead of equipping individual soldiers with this amount of weight and equipment, why not spend that money on equipment that would be useful.
such as,
better rifles. Imho, the M-16 series should of ended it's run long ago, outdated design now.
Lighter, more comfortable body armour.
It's been proven this stuff works, so why not make it lighter and more comfortable, instead of putting heavyier equipment on it, as the land warrior is doing.
Improving the radio's that are carried by radio operator's, to allow them to FULLY be a part of the combat team if needed, instead of having a heavy radio to carry.

The millions of dollars that are going into land warrior is being spent wrong now, and it should end.

[Fuchs]

Give the technology a chance - sometimes users find applications for it that the designers never dreamt of.

Some LW stuff is just over-engineered, though. Two examples:

- camera+display to shoot around corners. Also possible with a simple flip-over mirror (some company offers an trustworthy-looking module for carbines)

- helmet sight; that sight cannot double as input tool. The rugged PDA approach (leaders only) makes more sense imho.

And most important: The troops should train first without, then make their jobs easier with technology. Battery shortage, radio silence, jamming make much of the equipment less useful.

[William F. Owen]

FACT: Everything you need to "substantially increase" the capability of infantry is available now, off the shelf and needs no development. It's all pretty cheap as well.

Cheap is the problem. Defence contractors don't make any money.

...and BTW, the IDF is making a very similar mistake. The obsession with technology is alarming. - but as 60% the family pay check is dependant on it, I'll just say that it's a jolly good thing!!!

[Armchairguy]

It seems that one of the areas that land warrior might need improvement is in not trying to be everything to everybody. That said, it seems like any other technology in that it will evolve into a more useful form. It could be a system that distributes functions inside a squad or platoon might be more useful than everyone having everything. This might reduce weight and possibly confusion by keeping the information to a manageable level. Technology has its place and land warriors premise seems to be to give our troops the information edge. I doubt anyone can fault the premise.

[reed11b]

From what I can see, the integrated commo equipment is good (on a squad and Plt. level, any higher and you have div commanders ordering individual soldiers around) but the weird weapons additions look bulky and non-functional. Another visual complaint is that it looks designed to snag and get in the way with all it's wires and bumby protrusions. Keep it clean and simple. A Selectible small magnification/CQC sight or combonation would provide a vast improvement in the idividuals soldiers awarness and reaction time w/o the weight and cost of the land warrior rifle system.
Reed

[Kreker]

General Dynamics has developed the "Rifleman's Radio" to support the Ground Soldier Ensemble. This ensemble is the updated version of Land Warrior that will be fielded with FCS Spin Out 1 in 2011 to IBCTs. The Rifleman Radio will replace the Raytheon MicroLight as the SRW radio for dismounted soldiers.