“Soldier of the Future”: Improving Equipment for US Army Fighters
In the spring of 2019, the United States presented its vision for the further development of the concept “Soldier of the Future”. The main emphasis of the US military is going to be on human-centered concept. The focus is on the fighter and the maximum easing of his life both in the domestic plan and on the battlefield. It is the human-centric approach (human-centric) that is declared as one of the main features of the development of this area of military thought.
In many ways, the emergence of the concept “Soldier of the Future” and related projects occurred as far back as the 1960s in the United States during the Vietnam War. The development of the concept was associated with an increase in the losses of US troops, which were planned to be reduced in various available ways. In the USSR, such work began actively against the background of a large-scale military conflict - the war in Afghanistan. This concept has already been most developed in the 21st century and today many countries are working to increase the efficiency and productivity of both individual soldiers and small tactical units.
First of all, scientists and engineers are working to increase the combat effectiveness of each individual soldier who is directly involved in hostilities, mainly on foot in various theaters of operations. Taking into account the technical achievements that became available to mankind in the 21st century, the concept received a serious impetus to development, informatization and computerization of both individual soldiers and tactical units began to play a huge role. Modern projects for the creation of the “Soldier of the Future” are necessarily focused on the integration of fighters into a digital battle management system, which allows the command to receive a lot of useful combat information in real time and better coordinate and control the troops entrusted to it, set combat tasks to be carried out in practice.
In many ways, the whole concept is built around the creation of new equipment and samples of personal weapons of military personnel. The main purpose is to increase the combat effectiveness of soldiers and tactical units. This is achieved by increasing the information connectivity of the entire unit, as well as facilitating the coordination of servicemen among themselves and with the higher command in combat conditions. A separate area is to increase the survival rate of servicemen in battle by creating new means of protection not only for helmets and body armor, but also for “dynamic armor”, special thermostatic fabrics, and mine detection systems. Great importance is also paid to alleviating physical load on fighters and increasing their mobility on the march and in battle, this is achieved both through the use of modern lighter means of protection and materials, and due to the appearance of exoskeletons. As part of the concept of creating a “soldier of the future”, modern means of chemical and biological protection are being developed, electronic sights and weapon control systems that can hit the enemy with minimal use of ammunition and reduce the risks associated with human factors, for example, save from “friendly fire” .
An updated view of the well-known concept consists of just one word “human-centric” (the phrase “human-centric” is used to denote this term). This approach, when people are put in the forefront, is a key feature of the project. The goal set by the Americans is formulated as follows: “the desire to ensure that our soldiers are the best in the world equipped, protected, fed and clothed”. They are going to achieve this by reducing the load on the fighters, increasing combat effectiveness and improving living conditions. To do this, Doug Tomilio, who is the director of the CCDC Soldier Center, which is part of the United States Army Soldier Systems Center, proposes to change everything from exoskeletons to new shoes and from living conditions at the advanced bases to new materials, newspaper reports "News".
In total, the management of the development of combat capabilities of the US Army (CCDC) identified nine main areas of development of the concept of "Soldier of the Future"
1. Power fighters.
2. Creating new individual rations.
3. The development of technology and systems of the soldier (all equipment and relevant interfaces and infrastructure).
4. Contingency technology and shelter for soldiers.
5. Landing troops and cargo.
6. New fabrics.
7. Simulation and simulation.
8. "Advanced technologies of the military" (involves the development and implementation of most modern technologies, for example, miniature UAVs known as nano-Drones).
9. Basing and logistics.
The concept of the further development of the “Soldier of the Future” idea is now based on two main observations. The first is that a modern soldier should not “bear the burden and deprivation of military service,” if there is an opportunity to avoid this. The Americans are confident that the practice unequivocally says that the fighter with “Coke and conditioner” is more effective and represents a great danger for an opponent who fights not only with the enemy, but also with the living conditions. Secondly, in the army there should be no trifles, especially in such a complex logistics complex, as the interaction of soldiers with dozens of different services. This is explained by a simple example: one of the subparagraphs of the “food fighters” area is the work of saving water for washing dishes. The logic is simple and clear: reducing water consumption - reducing the burden on logistics services - increasing the volume of delivery of goods for other purposes.
In shaping the image of a soldier of the future, a helmet plays a large role, which has long been performing not only protective functions. One of the benefits of the new helmet should be a 40 percent weight reduction through the use of new materials. It is believed that new glasses will be integrated into the helmet with a thermal imager, a night-vision device with an “image intensifier” (image intensifiers), which are especially useful in low light conditions. It is reported that the new helmet will be associated with sensors mounted on weapons fighter, projecting everything that is visible in the sight.
An important feature of the new helmet should be an integrated system of visual addition or augmented reality (Integrated Visual Augmentation System). Currently, the US Army has already tested the first augmented reality glasses HoloLens, which are developed by the famous Microsoft company, which won the corresponding tender in December 2018. According to information published in the media, the amount of the contract the US Army with Microsoft for this project is estimated at 480 million dollars. In total, the US Army expects to acquire up to 100 thousands of such devices, and their final adoption is scheduled for 2028 year.
A feature of the glasses, in which it is planned to integrate the night vision system, is the user interface (augmented reality), which is superimposed on the real world picture seen by the fighter. Over the usual for the human eye pictures superimposed various additional useful information. A compass, time, important dynamic markings and images informing the soldier on which side the allies and opponents are located can be displayed on the points display. It is assumed that such points will become indispensable not only in combat, but also in the training process.
It remains only to decide how to integrate all the elements of the new helmet with each other. After solving this task, it will be possible to focus on solving new ones, which include work in reducing the negative impact on soldiers of excessive pressure and noise, as well as the negative impact of bright flashes of light (the simplest example is in explosions). Speaking simply about the helmet itself, the most advanced at the moment is the IHPS (Integrated Head Protection System) protective helmet, which is already being tested in the 82 of the American Airborne Division. According to the developers, the helmet weighs less than the Enhanced Combat Helmet with a 1,51 kg weight, which provides the same level of ballistic protection, but 100 percent better cope with strikes to the head. It is about hitting blunt objects. First of all, it minimizes the effects of debris and elements of buildings, stones, lumps of earth, raised by the explosion, arriving at the soldier, not the consequences of hand-to-hand combat.
According to the development of the “Soldier of the Future” concept, the US military should receive new models of small arms. With this replacement, the whole complex is subject from the famous M4 automatic carbine and its modifications to the M249 SAW light machine gun. The US military made a difficult but fundamental decision - they are going to transfer the army from the 5,56x45 NATO cartridge to the new 6,8 mm cartridge. Promising small arms in the new caliber are already being developed as part of the Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) program; it is planned to begin replacing existing models with 2025. And it is planned to begin testing the first images of small arms with a new cartridge in the summer of 2019.
About the cartridge 6,8 mm is known so far quite a bit. There is not even information about whether the new cartridge will be built on the basis of the previously .280 NATO cartridge that has already been repeatedly considered as a replacement for the .7,62 NATO cartridge or will become a completely new ammunition. From the statements of the US military it is known that they expect to retain all the best qualities of heavier ammunition caliber 10 mm while reducing the weight of the cartridge by XNUMX percent. In this case, the sleeve of the new cartridge will not be made of brass, the possible material is called a special polymer.
If we talk about the prospects of the weapon itself, then its improvement in the framework of the concept of a soldier of the future involves following previously voiced features: the use of lighter materials; reduced recoil; improved ergonomics; electromechanical descent; increase in range of aimed fire. Also, the weapon is supposed to be equipped with an ammunition counter, so that the fighter always knows how much ammunition he has left. Separately, we can single out the creation of new sighting systems, which should become adapted fire control systems, usually standing on heavy military equipment, but miniature and meeting the capabilities and tasks of an ordinary soldier.
One of the directions for the development of the “Soldier of the Future” concept is to increase the situational awareness of the fighters and increase intelligence capabilities. At the same time, it is planned to increase the growth not just of small tactical units of the branch - platoon, but also of each individual soldier on the battlefield. Currently, in the US, work is underway to create modern tools that should help the fighters to work in the face of the enemy's suppression of the GPS navigation system and communications equipment. In the future, each fighter will have to get the opportunity to "look into the next room and around the corner."
At a base in Fort Breg, North Carolina, where the first augmented reality glasses are already being tested, the US military is testing new miniature drones, which have become known as nano-drones. Training of fighters is carried out according to a variety of scenarios that soldiers may encounter in real combat conditions. The drone should be the first such device to be available to the military at the squad level and below. In fact, an individual soldier can also use the information from it. The appearance of an unmanned aerial vehicle at such a low level should in the future reduce losses, injuries and injuries on the part of military personnel, since the unmanned aerial vehicle will significantly increase their situational awareness of the combat situation, taking on reconnaissance functions. Instead of real fighters, it will be possible to send a small drone to reconnaissance.
The modern army is not only new materials and technologies related to the personal weapons of the fighters, personal protection, clothing and footwear, communications and intelligence, but also food, which plays a very large role. Inadequate or poor-quality nutrition leads to loss of efficiency, fatigue, reduced stamina, badly affects the psychological state of the soldier. At the same time, modern individual rations are moving in the same direction as the other elements of the future soldier system. The creators of the IRP are working to reduce their weight, which should reduce the burden on military personnel.
Currently in the United States are testing new individual rations, received the designation Close Combat Assaut Ration (CCAR). According to experts, if at present a soldier’s office requires approximately 128 kg of food in the form of dry rations for a week, new diets could be reduced by 39 by weight, by 42 by volume and by 35 by cost, with the same calorie, as in previous MRE. Currently, the new diet is at the prototype stage. But now the creators managed to achieve the fact that the daily ration weighs 1,5 kg, it was possible to do this by using the technology of vacuum microwave drying products. In the future, it will have to take up less space on 75 than a set of similar MRE rations of the same caloric content. This is especially important for fighters who are facing long field exits. For example, with a five-day mission, instead of 15 MRE packages, soldiers will be able to take all 5 packages with a CCAR of less weight and volume, getting the 3000 kcal they need per day. The place stored in the backpack can be used more favorably by taking more ammunition, medicine, equipment or water.
"Soldier of the Future"
In many ways, the emergence of the concept “Soldier of the Future” and related projects occurred as far back as the 1960s in the United States during the Vietnam War. The development of the concept was associated with an increase in the losses of US troops, which were planned to be reduced in various available ways. In the USSR, such work began actively against the background of a large-scale military conflict - the war in Afghanistan. This concept has already been most developed in the 21st century and today many countries are working to increase the efficiency and productivity of both individual soldiers and small tactical units.
First of all, scientists and engineers are working to increase the combat effectiveness of each individual soldier who is directly involved in hostilities, mainly on foot in various theaters of operations. Taking into account the technical achievements that became available to mankind in the 21st century, the concept received a serious impetus to development, informatization and computerization of both individual soldiers and tactical units began to play a huge role. Modern projects for the creation of the “Soldier of the Future” are necessarily focused on the integration of fighters into a digital battle management system, which allows the command to receive a lot of useful combat information in real time and better coordinate and control the troops entrusted to it, set combat tasks to be carried out in practice.
Variants of Russian equipment "Warrior" for the scout and tankman
In many ways, the whole concept is built around the creation of new equipment and samples of personal weapons of military personnel. The main purpose is to increase the combat effectiveness of soldiers and tactical units. This is achieved by increasing the information connectivity of the entire unit, as well as facilitating the coordination of servicemen among themselves and with the higher command in combat conditions. A separate area is to increase the survival rate of servicemen in battle by creating new means of protection not only for helmets and body armor, but also for “dynamic armor”, special thermostatic fabrics, and mine detection systems. Great importance is also paid to alleviating physical load on fighters and increasing their mobility on the march and in battle, this is achieved both through the use of modern lighter means of protection and materials, and due to the appearance of exoskeletons. As part of the concept of creating a “soldier of the future”, modern means of chemical and biological protection are being developed, electronic sights and weapon control systems that can hit the enemy with minimal use of ammunition and reduce the risks associated with human factors, for example, save from “friendly fire” .
New American concept of "Soldier of the Future"
An updated view of the well-known concept consists of just one word “human-centric” (the phrase “human-centric” is used to denote this term). This approach, when people are put in the forefront, is a key feature of the project. The goal set by the Americans is formulated as follows: “the desire to ensure that our soldiers are the best in the world equipped, protected, fed and clothed”. They are going to achieve this by reducing the load on the fighters, increasing combat effectiveness and improving living conditions. To do this, Doug Tomilio, who is the director of the CCDC Soldier Center, which is part of the United States Army Soldier Systems Center, proposes to change everything from exoskeletons to new shoes and from living conditions at the advanced bases to new materials, newspaper reports "News".
In total, the management of the development of combat capabilities of the US Army (CCDC) identified nine main areas of development of the concept of "Soldier of the Future"
1. Power fighters.
2. Creating new individual rations.
3. The development of technology and systems of the soldier (all equipment and relevant interfaces and infrastructure).
4. Contingency technology and shelter for soldiers.
5. Landing troops and cargo.
6. New fabrics.
7. Simulation and simulation.
8. "Advanced technologies of the military" (involves the development and implementation of most modern technologies, for example, miniature UAVs known as nano-Drones).
9. Basing and logistics.
The concept of the further development of the “Soldier of the Future” idea is now based on two main observations. The first is that a modern soldier should not “bear the burden and deprivation of military service,” if there is an opportunity to avoid this. The Americans are confident that the practice unequivocally says that the fighter with “Coke and conditioner” is more effective and represents a great danger for an opponent who fights not only with the enemy, but also with the living conditions. Secondly, in the army there should be no trifles, especially in such a complex logistics complex, as the interaction of soldiers with dozens of different services. This is explained by a simple example: one of the subparagraphs of the “food fighters” area is the work of saving water for washing dishes. The logic is simple and clear: reducing water consumption - reducing the burden on logistics services - increasing the volume of delivery of goods for other purposes.
New helmet "Soldier of the Future"
In shaping the image of a soldier of the future, a helmet plays a large role, which has long been performing not only protective functions. One of the benefits of the new helmet should be a 40 percent weight reduction through the use of new materials. It is believed that new glasses will be integrated into the helmet with a thermal imager, a night-vision device with an “image intensifier” (image intensifiers), which are especially useful in low light conditions. It is reported that the new helmet will be associated with sensors mounted on weapons fighter, projecting everything that is visible in the sight.
An Example of Augmented Reality Integrated Visual Augmentation System
An Example of Augmented Reality Integrated Visual Augmentation System
An important feature of the new helmet should be an integrated system of visual addition or augmented reality (Integrated Visual Augmentation System). Currently, the US Army has already tested the first augmented reality glasses HoloLens, which are developed by the famous Microsoft company, which won the corresponding tender in December 2018. According to information published in the media, the amount of the contract the US Army with Microsoft for this project is estimated at 480 million dollars. In total, the US Army expects to acquire up to 100 thousands of such devices, and their final adoption is scheduled for 2028 year.
A feature of the glasses, in which it is planned to integrate the night vision system, is the user interface (augmented reality), which is superimposed on the real world picture seen by the fighter. Over the usual for the human eye pictures superimposed various additional useful information. A compass, time, important dynamic markings and images informing the soldier on which side the allies and opponents are located can be displayed on the points display. It is assumed that such points will become indispensable not only in combat, but also in the training process.
The most modern American protective helmet IHPS
It remains only to decide how to integrate all the elements of the new helmet with each other. After solving this task, it will be possible to focus on solving new ones, which include work in reducing the negative impact on soldiers of excessive pressure and noise, as well as the negative impact of bright flashes of light (the simplest example is in explosions). Speaking simply about the helmet itself, the most advanced at the moment is the IHPS (Integrated Head Protection System) protective helmet, which is already being tested in the 82 of the American Airborne Division. According to the developers, the helmet weighs less than the Enhanced Combat Helmet with a 1,51 kg weight, which provides the same level of ballistic protection, but 100 percent better cope with strikes to the head. It is about hitting blunt objects. First of all, it minimizes the effects of debris and elements of buildings, stones, lumps of earth, raised by the explosion, arriving at the soldier, not the consequences of hand-to-hand combat.
Transition to caliber 6,8 mm
According to the development of the “Soldier of the Future” concept, the US military should receive new models of small arms. With this replacement, the whole complex is subject from the famous M4 automatic carbine and its modifications to the M249 SAW light machine gun. The US military made a difficult but fundamental decision - they are going to transfer the army from the 5,56x45 NATO cartridge to the new 6,8 mm cartridge. Promising small arms in the new caliber are already being developed as part of the Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) program; it is planned to begin replacing existing models with 2025. And it is planned to begin testing the first images of small arms with a new cartridge in the summer of 2019.
About the cartridge 6,8 mm is known so far quite a bit. There is not even information about whether the new cartridge will be built on the basis of the previously .280 NATO cartridge that has already been repeatedly considered as a replacement for the .7,62 NATO cartridge or will become a completely new ammunition. From the statements of the US military it is known that they expect to retain all the best qualities of heavier ammunition caliber 10 mm while reducing the weight of the cartridge by XNUMX percent. In this case, the sleeve of the new cartridge will not be made of brass, the possible material is called a special polymer.
Prototype 6,8-mm Automatic Weapon
If we talk about the prospects of the weapon itself, then its improvement in the framework of the concept of a soldier of the future involves following previously voiced features: the use of lighter materials; reduced recoil; improved ergonomics; electromechanical descent; increase in range of aimed fire. Also, the weapon is supposed to be equipped with an ammunition counter, so that the fighter always knows how much ammunition he has left. Separately, we can single out the creation of new sighting systems, which should become adapted fire control systems, usually standing on heavy military equipment, but miniature and meeting the capabilities and tasks of an ordinary soldier.
Situational awareness and UAV
One of the directions for the development of the “Soldier of the Future” concept is to increase the situational awareness of the fighters and increase intelligence capabilities. At the same time, it is planned to increase the growth not just of small tactical units of the branch - platoon, but also of each individual soldier on the battlefield. Currently, in the US, work is underway to create modern tools that should help the fighters to work in the face of the enemy's suppression of the GPS navigation system and communications equipment. In the future, each fighter will have to get the opportunity to "look into the next room and around the corner."
American soldier launches nanodron
At a base in Fort Breg, North Carolina, where the first augmented reality glasses are already being tested, the US military is testing new miniature drones, which have become known as nano-drones. Training of fighters is carried out according to a variety of scenarios that soldiers may encounter in real combat conditions. The drone should be the first such device to be available to the military at the squad level and below. In fact, an individual soldier can also use the information from it. The appearance of an unmanned aerial vehicle at such a low level should in the future reduce losses, injuries and injuries on the part of military personnel, since the unmanned aerial vehicle will significantly increase their situational awareness of the combat situation, taking on reconnaissance functions. Instead of real fighters, it will be possible to send a small drone to reconnaissance.
New individual diet
The modern army is not only new materials and technologies related to the personal weapons of the fighters, personal protection, clothing and footwear, communications and intelligence, but also food, which plays a very large role. Inadequate or poor-quality nutrition leads to loss of efficiency, fatigue, reduced stamina, badly affects the psychological state of the soldier. At the same time, modern individual rations are moving in the same direction as the other elements of the future soldier system. The creators of the IRP are working to reduce their weight, which should reduce the burden on military personnel.
Individual ration ckar
Currently in the United States are testing new individual rations, received the designation Close Combat Assaut Ration (CCAR). According to experts, if at present a soldier’s office requires approximately 128 kg of food in the form of dry rations for a week, new diets could be reduced by 39 by weight, by 42 by volume and by 35 by cost, with the same calorie, as in previous MRE. Currently, the new diet is at the prototype stage. But now the creators managed to achieve the fact that the daily ration weighs 1,5 kg, it was possible to do this by using the technology of vacuum microwave drying products. In the future, it will have to take up less space on 75 than a set of similar MRE rations of the same caloric content. This is especially important for fighters who are facing long field exits. For example, with a five-day mission, instead of 15 MRE packages, soldiers will be able to take all 5 packages with a CCAR of less weight and volume, getting the 3000 kcal they need per day. The place stored in the backpack can be used more favorably by taking more ammunition, medicine, equipment or water.
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