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U.S. Soldiers Hate New High-Tech Gear

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the dead-batteries-take-on-a-whole-new-meaning dept.

mattnyc99 writes "Land Warrior, the Army's wireless equipment package featuring helmet cams, GPS, laser range-finders and a host of other state-of-the-art electronics, is finally ready for deployment on a global battlefield network in Iraq after 15 years of R&D at the Pentagon. But in a report for Popular Mechanics, Noah Shachtman not only tries on the new digital armor—he talks to troops who don't like it at all. As if that wasn't disheartening enough for the future of tech at war, the real Land Warrior system doesn't even match up to its copycat gear in Ghost Recon 2."

5 of 619 comments (clear)

  1. Linux? Are they daft? by malevolentjelly · · Score: 0, Troll

    They're running Linux on a wireless networked system that soldier's lives depend on?

    Way to cut costs there, guys. They should be running a lean proprietary system that doesn't have its source code WIDELY AVAILABLE TO EVERY SINGLE ENEMY OF OURS UNDER THE SUN.

    Also, no wonder it runs like ass on a 400-mhz system- I can't believe they couldn't create a leaner ground-up system.

    I hope all the countries we fight are ass-backwards, and haven't discovered that computer systems with common os's can be broken into.

    I mean, the enemy only needs to get their hands on one of these to reverse-engineer it and turn it against us. They need to get these retarded things off our soldiers backs before someone gets hurt. Back to the drawing board, I say. Make a more high quality system for ground commanders and scrap the 'every soldier is a lunix computar' plot.

  2. Re:Is anyone else worried? by bradavon · · Score: 0, Troll

    By you guys knowledge of weaponry. It's scary to say the least. I know very little about guns. I don't want to as I'm not a police officer on or the military, those are the only two reasons ANYONE should know or own a gun. Owning guns breeds violence as proven recently so brutally.

  3. Re:Just Like The M16 by camperdave · · Score: 0, Troll

    When the soldiers just spray and pray, accuracy isn't all that important.

    Yes, and as I recall, America lost the Vietnam war. You'd think that with the whole "right to bear arms" gun culture that Americans are brought up with, that they'd at least know how to shoot.

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  4. Re:Yeah... by jhol13 · · Score: 0, Troll

    I don't see a moral problem with a tool I created being used for war. I do. Especially tools designed to be used for war.

    Everything can be subverted for use in war But they are not, originally, tools created for war. Your bread example is a good one: when the bread was done (by the farmers), it was not made for war (and if the farmers did it for that purpose, I would condemn them too). It was converted for the war later (when delivered to the soldiers), and the converter does not get any of my sympathies.

    Just like Linux ... it is not designed for war. Unfortunately it can be used to make "instruments of death". I do not condemn Linus, I condemn those who use make those weapons.

    To me making money is not the evil, to me the terrible suffering is the evil.

  5. Re:From the soldier's mouth: by jerald_hams · · Score: 0, Troll

    Your rambling style of narrative provides terrifying insight into a twisted twitching mind. Did Iraq make you like this? Or is this why you chose to waste your life being shot at?