Future Combat Systems

The Army's soldier suit of the future, once left for dead, appears to be crawling back to life. After 15 years and a half-billion dollars in development, the Army officially cancelled the Land Warrior program, and its collection of electronic maps, GPS beacons, digital radios, and next-gen rifle scopes for infantrymen. All kinds of configurations of the wearable electronics were tried. But the gear always wound up being too bulky to justify the seemingly-modest help it provided frontline soldiers, the Army decided.

Monster Pentagon contractors Boeing and SAIC jointly announced today that two of their latest offerings for the future robot armies of America have entered military testing early. The machines in question are a relatively dull lightweight groundcrawler job and a frankly splendid ducted-fan flying Dalek.

A $200 billion plan to remake the largest war machine in history unfolds in one small way on a quiet country road in the Chihuahuan Desert. Jack Hensley, one of a legion of contractors on the project, is hunkered in a slowly moving SUV, serving as target practice for a baby-faced soldier in a Humvee aiming a laser about 700 yards away. A moment later, another soldier in the Humvee punches commands into a computer transmitting data across an expanse of sand and mesquite to a site 2 1/2 miles away. On an actual battlefield, this is when a precision attack missile would be launched, killing Hensley almost instantly.

As part of the Army's $160 billion Future Combat Systems, to be deployed within the next decade, robot soldiers will be programmed to invade hostile terrain and shoot to kill. If all goes according to plan, there could be virtually no humans on the battlefield -- at least on our side

Army information technology managers need to develop the service’s LandWarNet to deliver key information to soldiers without overwhelming them, Army Secretary Peter Geren said recently, adding that “we cannot afford a modernization holiday.” Speaking last week at the LandWarNet conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Geren stressed the importance of equipping soldiers with information about their situation without overwhelming them.

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Dec. 7, 2006) - The Army is developing a new core competency for career Soldiers and officers interested in becoming electronic warfare specialists. "As the Army continues to face an increasingly sophisticated, learning and adaptive enemy, who will engage in asymmetric warfare characterized by irregular tactics, terror, and the use of the most deadly casualty-producing means available to them, we find ourselves needing to develop new ways to attack and defeat these adversaries," said Lt. Gen. James J. Lovelace Jr., Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations.