Avatar to help the soldier
Perspective directions for the creation of third generation combat equipment
The development of modern and substantiation of the prospects for improving the equipment of servicemen is proclaimed one of the priority tasks of the state in terms of modernization and re-equipment of the RF Armed Forces. This approach is not accidental, since equipment is one of the most important components of ensuring the combat readiness of soldiers, increasing their survival rate and saving thousands of lives.
The leading countries of the world are currently conducting extensive experimental and theoretical studies in the field of equipment in order to dramatically increase the capabilities of an individual soldier on the battlefield.
In general terms, modern combat equipment can be represented as a complex integrated system, functionally combining elements of the subsystems of destruction, protection, control, life support and energy supply (see diagram).
Achievements
In the leading NATO countries, national research and development (R & D) programs are being carried out within the framework of national programs in order to improve the existing and create military equipment, including in the framework of the “soldier of the future” program. Priority areas include the widespread use of new materials and technologies for developing advanced portable weapons, a single information field, reducing the mass of uniforms and equipment, improving the protective properties and durability, providing comfortable conditions for long-term wearing, as well as reducing the cost of serial samples.
In the works on the creation of military equipment of servicemen, there is a significant increase in the aiming rate of fire of the wearable weapons, the damaging effects of bullets and shrapnel and improvement of instrument-sighting equipment. Major improvements relate to reconnaissance tools for small targets through the use of short-pulse radar based on the use of nanotechnology. The use of neural systems in the instrument-sighting complex of the soldier of the XXI century will provide a reduction of its mass by five - seven times, energy consumption - up to ten times. The secrecy of goals will increase due to the complex of adaptive blackout. A significant increase in the ballistic protection of military personnel is associated with the development of a new ceramic material using nanopowders.
The main trend in the work on improving the equipment systems of the advanced countries of the world in the 21st century is connected with the development of new generation weapons and military equipment equipped with intelligent control devices that have a higher degree of autonomy, reliability and quality of operation in various conditions of the battle environment and the external environment. of the most important elements in the concept of network-centric wars.
Abroad funded national technology programs for the "soldier of the future": Land 125 (Australia), African Warrior (South Africa), Warrior 2020 (Finland), Felin (France), JdZ (Germany), Soldato Futuro (Italy), Combatiente Futuro (Spain), Soldier Modernization Program - SMP (Netherlands), NORMANS (Norway), Soldado do Futuro (Portugal), Advanced Combat Man System (Singapore), IMESS (Switzerland), MARKUS (Sweden), ANOG (Israel), FIST (United Kingdom), BEST (Belgium), Projekt TYTAN (Poland), 21st Century soldier (Czech Republic), F-FINSAS (India), Integrated Soldier System Project (Canada) and Future Force Warrior (USA) and others.
Analysis of these programs shows that their goal is a sharp increase in the combat effectiveness of the 21st century infantryman. The programs provide for the full integration of the infantryman into the system of his combat unit in order to increase overall performance.
It is expected that research and development in the field of creating promising combat equipment for military personnel of the 21st century based on the introduction of high technologies in the near future (5 – 10 years) will make it possible to achieve a qualitative jump in the combat capability of military personnel as a whole.
In Russia, the development of military equipment for servicemen (hereinafter referred to as BEV) is carried out as part of the Target Program of work in the field of portable weapons, equipment and special equipment of the RF Armed Forces and other troops up to 2015 of the year. The program is implemented in stages.
The first stage (1999 – 2005), which involved the development of first-generation equipment, has been completed. As a result, a basic set of individual equipment “Barmitsa” was created, which according to the characteristics of the main elements was at the level of the best foreign analogues and was the basis for the formation of sets of equipment for military personnel of various specialties. Body armor jackets and armored helmets, which more fully met the requirements for the protective characteristics of fragments and bullets, were developed.
However, the basic set of individual equipment of military personnel by mass slightly exceeds the permissible loads on a person.
In addition, the armor-piercing action of the bullets of domestic small arms was not enough due to the appearance of new armored vests abroad. Soldiers are not provided with reliable and modern means of communication, navigation and aiming.
These shortcomings are supposed to be eliminated in second-generation BEV kits, which are being developed as part of the development work (R & D) “Warrior” from December 2011.
As a result, a set of second-generation individual combat equipment will be created, which will ensure parity with foreign analogues. Based on the use of existing technologies, it is planned to increase the armor-piercing effect of ammunition and the protective characteristics of the kit. At the same time, radio communication will be improved by increasing the speed of data exchange and the characteristics of recognizing typical targets. Means of protection against damaging factors of weapons of mass destruction with improved protective properties will be created. It is also possible that the mass of the wearable part of the kit can be reduced from 30 to 24 – 25 kilograms. Due to the listed improvements, the effectiveness of military operations of military personnel is expected to be no less than 1,2 times and the reduction of irretrievable losses on the battlefield is reduced.
However, in the near future, sets of second-generation equipment will not fully meet the ever-increasing demands of the troops, in addition, new technological opportunities appear for the development of BEV.
The Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences is actively involved in research in the field of improving equipment. On the basis of summarizing the experience of conducting combat operations, analyzing the available information and previous research, the Academy outlined some development prospects and formed views on the main problems of creating third-generation military equipment.
Justification of technical appearance
Analysis of research in the field of development of protective equipment, performed in recent years, shows that the main directions of improving personal protective equipment (NIB) are increasing ergonomics, creating promising ballistic materials and new-generation armored structures to increase the level of protection of a military man from modern attack elements thermobaric and high-explosive action, and reducing their mass. In the equipment of the third generation, an important direction will be the provision of comprehensive protection of servicemen against weapons of mass destruction and actively developing at present non-traditional means of destruction.
The most promising direction is the creation of a new generation of high-strength materials developed on the basis of nanotechnology, including for elements of bullet and splinter protection, and for adaptive masking to the surrounding background. This can provide a reduction in the mass of samples of small arms, melee weapons and individual body armor by one and a half to two times, as well as reducing the visibility of military personnel in various wavelength ranges from radio and optical electronic reconnaissance equipment.
In order to provide timely and high-quality medical care to a serviceman, to maintain and maintain his health, it is advisable to more widely use biomedical life support technologies and protect people, the introduction of which with sufficient attention to this problem is supposed to be carried out in the process of their readiness and mainly in the third generation BEV.
It should be noted that extensive experimental and theoretical studies are conducted in the leading countries of the world, in which, along with the development of systems of defeat and defense, particular attention is paid to the necessary coordination of actions of servicemen when they perform combat tasks and thereby increasing the effectiveness of achieving combat objectives.
To increase the effectiveness of the actions of the units of great importance is the control system. In order to improve it, first of all, it is necessary to create a portable multifunctional tablet that provides communication, transmission and reception of audio and video data, orientation and topography, work with external terminal devices and work in the local network of the control system and in the network of the single tactical level management system.
Many questions need to be resolved to improve the life support system for military personnel, for example, to introduce biotechnologies in medical preparations and food.
One of the important areas is the introduction of biomechanical technology to maintain human muscle capabilities (unloading clothes, exoskeletons). In particular, the development and inclusion of exoskeletal structures in the BEV. It is believed that they will provide a multiple increase in the physical capabilities of the soldier. Thus, when testing an experimental model of an exoskeleton abroad, it was established that the human effort expended is reduced by about eight times. At the same time, there was no noticeable limitation of the operator’s natural mobility.
For soldiers moving on foot, they can carry weapons, ammunition and other cargoes with a robot-vehicle. For example, in the United States, a “walking unit support system” has been developed, which surprisingly accurately reproduces the locomotive of an animal moving through four legs. It can pass where no other car passes.
In the future, in order to increase the effectiveness of weapons, combat robotic weapon systems will be created. It is believed that the implementation robots into the practice of the troops is a matter for the near future. Abroad, full-scale research is being carried out in this area. For example, at the Global Future 2045 International Congress, the US Department of Defense and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced the launch of the Avatar project. It represents the idea of the emergence of the digital human. At the heart of this project is work on creating a model of the human brain. The ultimate goal is to recreate or even transfer the individuality of a particular person into a completely artificial medium. The avatar will be controlled through the neural interface. This is a humanoid robot with a brain-computer control system, which is supposed to be used during military operations. The purpose of this development is to enable robots to act as a surrogate soldier. Available information confirms that the creation of a robot avatar is not fiction.
According to preliminary calculations, the implementation of the above (not counting exotic) directions for improving equipment can provide an increase in the efficiency of the combat missions of grassroots subunits by one and a half to two times. It should be noted that the given directions cannot yet serve as a basis for conducting full-scale research on the creation of third-generation equipment due to their qualitative nature, and the existing scientific and technical background for substantiating quantitative parameters is not enough.
Naturally, the necessary scientific and technical groundwork can be created only as part of a comprehensive research work on this thematic focus. The implementation of new research is needed primarily to justify the equipment system, its structure, composition, appearance and basic tactical and technical requirements.
The relevance of such studies is largely determined by the fact that the existing approaches and methods for evaluating the technical level of products are not focused on a full-scale assessment and do not provide a full account of the factors related to the specifics of the tasks to be solved. So, in connection with the wearing of individual armor protection by the servicemen, it is necessary to clarify some criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the actions of lower-level units operating in dispersed orders. In addition, in the course of research, it is necessary to develop a software-modeling apparatus for evaluating the effectiveness of both the equipment system in general and the small arms systems, aiming tools, control systems and body armor in particular. As a result, it will be possible to assess the sets of equipment on the criterion of "cost-effectiveness".
The need for research is also determined by the fact that the organizational structure of subunits and units, the organization and order of their interaction have changed, the forms and methods of combat operations are changing. In addition, it requires detailed consideration of the issues of equipping new, including non-traditional means of destruction, control and protection of military personnel when they operate in urban areas and justify the system of destruction of grassroots subunits. Conducted research should take into account the peculiarities of the new technological structure, which is characterized by rapid rates of development of new technologies, especially in the field of nano-, bio-and cognitive technologies, microsystem technology, robotics and biomechanics. The implementation of the achievements of the latest technologies can contribute to a qualitative improvement in the characteristics of all means of equipment.
Thus, on the basis of previously conducted research, it has been established that the use of promising technologies will allow solving a number of currently existing scientific and technical issues and will ensure the possibility of meeting modern requirements for elements and sets of individual combat equipment of military personnel up to the 2020 year. For example, it will be possible to cope with the most important problem in reducing the mass of a wearable piece of equipment to 16 – 18 kilograms.
Having solved the primary task, in the future, all work in the field of creating third-generation equipment should be carried out according to a program that more clearly reflects a unified scientific and technical policy.
For developers, the creation of promising sets of combat equipment is associated with considerable technical and organizational difficulties. Firstly, due to the large number of elements that are included in the kit, and secondly, the number of equipment items is constantly increasing. For example, in the next 5 – 10 years, equipping military personnel with non-traditional weapons is expected. Obviously, these difficulties are easier to solve by well-coordinated efforts of science, industrial enterprises, customers and consumers, and on the basis of an integrated approach as an important element in implementing the concept of network-centric warfare in terms of reliable information support for ordinary military personnel and commanders. It seems that a platform for consolidating efforts to improve equipment will be in demand at the interdepartmental level.
The main problem of the scientific and technical issue of creating third-generation combat equipment is the general gap between domestic industry in the field of microelectronic technology, micromechanics, special chemistry, electrochemistry and materials science. Thus, it is also necessary to accelerate the technological capabilities of the defense industry and other industries in the country.
Based on the above, it is reasonable to justify in the near future the structure, composition and technical appearance of the combat equipment of the third-generation military personnel, and in the future to envisage a number of interrelated research within the framework of the relevant program.
It is also advisable to determine in the Ministry of Defense of Russia the organization responsible for coordinating work in the development, production and operation of combat equipment.
One of the organizations capable of performing these tasks and providing methodological coordination of work in the field of developing combat equipment at the new level, in our opinion, may be the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences due to its unique scientific potential on a wide range of military technical problems, including inter-institutional and interdepartmental.
The development of modern and substantiation of the prospects for improving the equipment of servicemen is proclaimed one of the priority tasks of the state in terms of modernization and re-equipment of the RF Armed Forces. This approach is not accidental, since equipment is one of the most important components of ensuring the combat readiness of soldiers, increasing their survival rate and saving thousands of lives.
The leading countries of the world are currently conducting extensive experimental and theoretical studies in the field of equipment in order to dramatically increase the capabilities of an individual soldier on the battlefield.
In general terms, modern combat equipment can be represented as a complex integrated system, functionally combining elements of the subsystems of destruction, protection, control, life support and energy supply (see diagram).
Achievements
In the leading NATO countries, national research and development (R & D) programs are being carried out within the framework of national programs in order to improve the existing and create military equipment, including in the framework of the “soldier of the future” program. Priority areas include the widespread use of new materials and technologies for developing advanced portable weapons, a single information field, reducing the mass of uniforms and equipment, improving the protective properties and durability, providing comfortable conditions for long-term wearing, as well as reducing the cost of serial samples.
In the works on the creation of military equipment of servicemen, there is a significant increase in the aiming rate of fire of the wearable weapons, the damaging effects of bullets and shrapnel and improvement of instrument-sighting equipment. Major improvements relate to reconnaissance tools for small targets through the use of short-pulse radar based on the use of nanotechnology. The use of neural systems in the instrument-sighting complex of the soldier of the XXI century will provide a reduction of its mass by five - seven times, energy consumption - up to ten times. The secrecy of goals will increase due to the complex of adaptive blackout. A significant increase in the ballistic protection of military personnel is associated with the development of a new ceramic material using nanopowders.The main trend in the work on improving the equipment systems of the advanced countries of the world in the 21st century is connected with the development of new generation weapons and military equipment equipped with intelligent control devices that have a higher degree of autonomy, reliability and quality of operation in various conditions of the battle environment and the external environment. of the most important elements in the concept of network-centric wars.
Abroad funded national technology programs for the "soldier of the future": Land 125 (Australia), African Warrior (South Africa), Warrior 2020 (Finland), Felin (France), JdZ (Germany), Soldato Futuro (Italy), Combatiente Futuro (Spain), Soldier Modernization Program - SMP (Netherlands), NORMANS (Norway), Soldado do Futuro (Portugal), Advanced Combat Man System (Singapore), IMESS (Switzerland), MARKUS (Sweden), ANOG (Israel), FIST (United Kingdom), BEST (Belgium), Projekt TYTAN (Poland), 21st Century soldier (Czech Republic), F-FINSAS (India), Integrated Soldier System Project (Canada) and Future Force Warrior (USA) and others.
Analysis of these programs shows that their goal is a sharp increase in the combat effectiveness of the 21st century infantryman. The programs provide for the full integration of the infantryman into the system of his combat unit in order to increase overall performance.
It is expected that research and development in the field of creating promising combat equipment for military personnel of the 21st century based on the introduction of high technologies in the near future (5 – 10 years) will make it possible to achieve a qualitative jump in the combat capability of military personnel as a whole.
In Russia, the development of military equipment for servicemen (hereinafter referred to as BEV) is carried out as part of the Target Program of work in the field of portable weapons, equipment and special equipment of the RF Armed Forces and other troops up to 2015 of the year. The program is implemented in stages.
The first stage (1999 – 2005), which involved the development of first-generation equipment, has been completed. As a result, a basic set of individual equipment “Barmitsa” was created, which according to the characteristics of the main elements was at the level of the best foreign analogues and was the basis for the formation of sets of equipment for military personnel of various specialties. Body armor jackets and armored helmets, which more fully met the requirements for the protective characteristics of fragments and bullets, were developed.
However, the basic set of individual equipment of military personnel by mass slightly exceeds the permissible loads on a person.
In addition, the armor-piercing action of the bullets of domestic small arms was not enough due to the appearance of new armored vests abroad. Soldiers are not provided with reliable and modern means of communication, navigation and aiming.
These shortcomings are supposed to be eliminated in second-generation BEV kits, which are being developed as part of the development work (R & D) “Warrior” from December 2011.
As a result, a set of second-generation individual combat equipment will be created, which will ensure parity with foreign analogues. Based on the use of existing technologies, it is planned to increase the armor-piercing effect of ammunition and the protective characteristics of the kit. At the same time, radio communication will be improved by increasing the speed of data exchange and the characteristics of recognizing typical targets. Means of protection against damaging factors of weapons of mass destruction with improved protective properties will be created. It is also possible that the mass of the wearable part of the kit can be reduced from 30 to 24 – 25 kilograms. Due to the listed improvements, the effectiveness of military operations of military personnel is expected to be no less than 1,2 times and the reduction of irretrievable losses on the battlefield is reduced.
However, in the near future, sets of second-generation equipment will not fully meet the ever-increasing demands of the troops, in addition, new technological opportunities appear for the development of BEV.
The Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences is actively involved in research in the field of improving equipment. On the basis of summarizing the experience of conducting combat operations, analyzing the available information and previous research, the Academy outlined some development prospects and formed views on the main problems of creating third-generation military equipment.
Justification of technical appearance
Analysis of research in the field of development of protective equipment, performed in recent years, shows that the main directions of improving personal protective equipment (NIB) are increasing ergonomics, creating promising ballistic materials and new-generation armored structures to increase the level of protection of a military man from modern attack elements thermobaric and high-explosive action, and reducing their mass. In the equipment of the third generation, an important direction will be the provision of comprehensive protection of servicemen against weapons of mass destruction and actively developing at present non-traditional means of destruction.
The most promising direction is the creation of a new generation of high-strength materials developed on the basis of nanotechnology, including for elements of bullet and splinter protection, and for adaptive masking to the surrounding background. This can provide a reduction in the mass of samples of small arms, melee weapons and individual body armor by one and a half to two times, as well as reducing the visibility of military personnel in various wavelength ranges from radio and optical electronic reconnaissance equipment.
In order to provide timely and high-quality medical care to a serviceman, to maintain and maintain his health, it is advisable to more widely use biomedical life support technologies and protect people, the introduction of which with sufficient attention to this problem is supposed to be carried out in the process of their readiness and mainly in the third generation BEV.
It should be noted that extensive experimental and theoretical studies are conducted in the leading countries of the world, in which, along with the development of systems of defeat and defense, particular attention is paid to the necessary coordination of actions of servicemen when they perform combat tasks and thereby increasing the effectiveness of achieving combat objectives.
To increase the effectiveness of the actions of the units of great importance is the control system. In order to improve it, first of all, it is necessary to create a portable multifunctional tablet that provides communication, transmission and reception of audio and video data, orientation and topography, work with external terminal devices and work in the local network of the control system and in the network of the single tactical level management system.
Many questions need to be resolved to improve the life support system for military personnel, for example, to introduce biotechnologies in medical preparations and food.
One of the important areas is the introduction of biomechanical technology to maintain human muscle capabilities (unloading clothes, exoskeletons). In particular, the development and inclusion of exoskeletal structures in the BEV. It is believed that they will provide a multiple increase in the physical capabilities of the soldier. Thus, when testing an experimental model of an exoskeleton abroad, it was established that the human effort expended is reduced by about eight times. At the same time, there was no noticeable limitation of the operator’s natural mobility.
For soldiers moving on foot, they can carry weapons, ammunition and other cargoes with a robot-vehicle. For example, in the United States, a “walking unit support system” has been developed, which surprisingly accurately reproduces the locomotive of an animal moving through four legs. It can pass where no other car passes.
In the future, in order to increase the effectiveness of weapons, combat robotic weapon systems will be created. It is believed that the implementation robots into the practice of the troops is a matter for the near future. Abroad, full-scale research is being carried out in this area. For example, at the Global Future 2045 International Congress, the US Department of Defense and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced the launch of the Avatar project. It represents the idea of the emergence of the digital human. At the heart of this project is work on creating a model of the human brain. The ultimate goal is to recreate or even transfer the individuality of a particular person into a completely artificial medium. The avatar will be controlled through the neural interface. This is a humanoid robot with a brain-computer control system, which is supposed to be used during military operations. The purpose of this development is to enable robots to act as a surrogate soldier. Available information confirms that the creation of a robot avatar is not fiction.
According to preliminary calculations, the implementation of the above (not counting exotic) directions for improving equipment can provide an increase in the efficiency of the combat missions of grassroots subunits by one and a half to two times. It should be noted that the given directions cannot yet serve as a basis for conducting full-scale research on the creation of third-generation equipment due to their qualitative nature, and the existing scientific and technical background for substantiating quantitative parameters is not enough.
Naturally, the necessary scientific and technical groundwork can be created only as part of a comprehensive research work on this thematic focus. The implementation of new research is needed primarily to justify the equipment system, its structure, composition, appearance and basic tactical and technical requirements.
The relevance of such studies is largely determined by the fact that the existing approaches and methods for evaluating the technical level of products are not focused on a full-scale assessment and do not provide a full account of the factors related to the specifics of the tasks to be solved. So, in connection with the wearing of individual armor protection by the servicemen, it is necessary to clarify some criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of the actions of lower-level units operating in dispersed orders. In addition, in the course of research, it is necessary to develop a software-modeling apparatus for evaluating the effectiveness of both the equipment system in general and the small arms systems, aiming tools, control systems and body armor in particular. As a result, it will be possible to assess the sets of equipment on the criterion of "cost-effectiveness".
The need for research is also determined by the fact that the organizational structure of subunits and units, the organization and order of their interaction have changed, the forms and methods of combat operations are changing. In addition, it requires detailed consideration of the issues of equipping new, including non-traditional means of destruction, control and protection of military personnel when they operate in urban areas and justify the system of destruction of grassroots subunits. Conducted research should take into account the peculiarities of the new technological structure, which is characterized by rapid rates of development of new technologies, especially in the field of nano-, bio-and cognitive technologies, microsystem technology, robotics and biomechanics. The implementation of the achievements of the latest technologies can contribute to a qualitative improvement in the characteristics of all means of equipment.
Thus, on the basis of previously conducted research, it has been established that the use of promising technologies will allow solving a number of currently existing scientific and technical issues and will ensure the possibility of meeting modern requirements for elements and sets of individual combat equipment of military personnel up to the 2020 year. For example, it will be possible to cope with the most important problem in reducing the mass of a wearable piece of equipment to 16 – 18 kilograms.
Having solved the primary task, in the future, all work in the field of creating third-generation equipment should be carried out according to a program that more clearly reflects a unified scientific and technical policy.
For developers, the creation of promising sets of combat equipment is associated with considerable technical and organizational difficulties. Firstly, due to the large number of elements that are included in the kit, and secondly, the number of equipment items is constantly increasing. For example, in the next 5 – 10 years, equipping military personnel with non-traditional weapons is expected. Obviously, these difficulties are easier to solve by well-coordinated efforts of science, industrial enterprises, customers and consumers, and on the basis of an integrated approach as an important element in implementing the concept of network-centric warfare in terms of reliable information support for ordinary military personnel and commanders. It seems that a platform for consolidating efforts to improve equipment will be in demand at the interdepartmental level.
The main problem of the scientific and technical issue of creating third-generation combat equipment is the general gap between domestic industry in the field of microelectronic technology, micromechanics, special chemistry, electrochemistry and materials science. Thus, it is also necessary to accelerate the technological capabilities of the defense industry and other industries in the country.
Based on the above, it is reasonable to justify in the near future the structure, composition and technical appearance of the combat equipment of the third-generation military personnel, and in the future to envisage a number of interrelated research within the framework of the relevant program.
It is also advisable to determine in the Ministry of Defense of Russia the organization responsible for coordinating work in the development, production and operation of combat equipment.
One of the organizations capable of performing these tasks and providing methodological coordination of work in the field of developing combat equipment at the new level, in our opinion, may be the Russian Academy of Rocket and Artillery Sciences due to its unique scientific potential on a wide range of military technical problems, including inter-institutional and interdepartmental.
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