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Future Army Battle Uniforms - Wired, Lethal
ssyladin writes "CNN is running an article about the future US army battle dress, code-named 'Scorpion'. It says that "..soldiers of 2011 will step into wired uniforms that incorporate all the equipment they need. The uniforms will monitor vital signs and plug them into a massive network of satellites, unmanned planes and robotic vehicles the military has planned." There will be sensors to monitor heartrate and blood-pressure, built-in tourniquets, a HUD to connect to GPS info, overhead maps, infrared and starlight cameras, and even the venerable M16 rifles are slated for an overhaul."
But still, they all died. Except for Ripley of course ;-)
I've been seeing a _lot_ of articles and "special features" lately about The Weapon and The Soldier of The Future. I can't help but be reminded of the pro-army propaganda in Starship Troopers (the antiwar movie, not the conservative novel). The Future Soldier that CNN is featuring somehow reminds me of a wimped-down version of Heinlein's powered armor suits.
There have been many instances of media covering the weapons of the future (I submitted a story on future robots a couple of weeks ago); what I'm worried about is why that focus is there. Are we getting ready for a long series of wars, ones that we expect to last until at least 2011, when these super-wired Counterstrike uniforms will come into service? That's kind of scary.
(sorry for the blatant US-centrism)
We recently had heard in the office over one of the Yellow Machine that's made by Anthology Solutions.
I can't see how using an arcade joystick with big blastic ball on the top would be helpful in any way in the operation of the joystick of the F-14's HOTAS. Moving an arcade joystick teaches as much about a flying an aircraft with its joystick about as much as moving the stick shift in your car. It'll teach you how change direction, but not what the castle button on the top of the F-14's stick does when pushed in the N direction, or even the fact that pushing the stick forward makes the aircraft pitch down and side motion controls roll.
As for the connection between AWACS and sonar operators learning how to read their screen by arcade games, I'd say that you're vastly underestimating the complexity of said military applications. Since when do arcade games use the same symbology, labeling conventions and settings as radars? How could staring at a bunch of pixelated space ships help in reading a waterfall display on a sub?
The Quake thing is kind of true- a modified version of Doom was used for reaction training, and now a system based off Operation Flashpoint is in development. Based off of it, but still heavily modified.
Might I ask whether you have any references for your other claims?
The only games I've found to be similar to military activities are the ones that actually try to portray it realistically. Even with those there are significant sacrifices made for gameplay or development reasons.
America's Army home page.
Rangers Lead the Way!
The last (almost) global empire, the Roman one, did think the same thing. They thought their legions were unbeatable by anyone in the world, so they just didn't care about improving it, and the number of logionaires was at an all time law by the end of the 5th century. They were still the greatest army in the known world, and unbeatable by any other army.
Then in the winter of around 495 the legions of the Rhine and Danube fronteers just saw something strange. Hundreds of thousands of people were camping in the borders of the rivers. But not Soldiers. Not young and strong man. But Old men and women and children...
As soon as the rivers got frozen by the lower winter temperatures, they just crossed it. Thousands of people, unarmed, weak, starving. And the legions could do nothing, even with better equipment and better training and all the money Rome spent with them. There were simply not enough of them to stop thousands of "civilians" to invade the empire.
I guess the US are just not willing to incur in the same mistakes as the romans did.
Not to mention that the OICW costs $35,000 (on top of being more fragile). The only thing the weapon adds is a laser range finder which is nearly useless when you consider the trajectory of 5.56mm rounds. Depending on the grain of the cartridge the round is dead on at 200 meters and only drops a couple inches at 300 meters. I just can't see the need for all that electronics crap just so you don't need to aim 4 inches higher. Not to mention that you now have to laze to the target before you fire on it and you can easily get a bad range if there are shrubs in the path of the laser. I can see the need for a laser range finder on a tank but not when you are engaging targets that are only 350 meters away. Want accuracy? Rechaimber an M16A2 for 7.62, reduce the 40mm size of the M203 grenade launcher so it can be fired at a greater velocity, and fit the weapon with a M4 carbine style tactical scope instead of the M16A2 style open sight.
Saying Java is nice because it works on all OS's is like saying that anal sex is nice because it works on all genders.
Which is exactly the problem: the M16 wasn't designed to be used in battlefield conditions. A little sand here, or lack of lube there, and you've got a glorified bayonet. The M16 is a classic example of textbook engineering - it is a very well designed, very accurate rifle. But unlike the soviet and chinese counterparts, it has no tolerance for dirt; without proper lubrication, it jams. Compound this with the fact that the Army doesn't issue field cleaning kits, and that CLP (lube) is distributed at the platoon level (if at all), and you've got a recipe for battlefield failure. Granted, the AK47 and Kalishnikov rifles aren't accurate past 400 meters, but the average soldier couldn't hit anything beyond 150 meters with any appreciable accuracy anyway. Contrary to popular belief, firefights don't consist of a bunch of soldiers picking off the enemy from 1000 meters. In short, having a reliable, albeit inaccurate weapon is much more useful than having an accurate weapon that jams at the wrong time.
You are way overstating the case. Yes, the original marks of the M16 in the Vietnam era had a lot of problems, but those were worked out in the A1 and especially A2 versions of the rifle. You need to clean and lubricate your weapon but this is true of all weapons. The current M16 is no different than most other modern battle rifles in reliability. A military that doesn't train its troops to maintain their equipment is a poor military and probably has other problems beyond dirty weapons.
I don't know what platoons you were in, but in the units I was in, every soldier got a little bottle of CLP, and as much of that and patches as he could ask for. Soldiers who use magazines as hammers need to be corrected of that habit, maybe some extra duty or a statement of charges will do the trick. Never use a tool for something other than what it was intended to do.
I know this because Tyler knows this.
"A technologically adept adversary could take advantage of this fact and, say, feed false info into the system..."
Taking the opposite strategy let Australia defeat the US in wargames a few years ago.
Australia took the part of defenders of a large (anonymous) desert country, and the US the attackers from the sea. US plans included a lot of electronic surveillance. The Aussies passed commands using runners and pieces of paper, sent fake messages to each other implying that the most heavily defended area of beach was completely empty, and foiled the US landing.
The script said this wouldn't happen, so the referees allowed the game to continue as if the landing was successful.
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more, Or close the wall up with our American dead!