The Soldier of the Future

An anonymous reader writes "Land Warrior, the Army's wearable electronics package, was panned earlier this year by the troops who were testing it out. They were forced to take the collection of digital maps and next-gen radios to war, anyway. Now, Wired's Noah Shachtman reports from Iraq, those same soldiers are starting to warm up to their soldier suits of the future."

Comments

A bit misleading

[Daniel Dvorkin]

Yeah ... they're starting to warm up to it ... kinda ... except it's still too heavy and it doesn't work right ... and a bunch of stuff has been taken out of the original concept ... but yeah, it's great!

IOW, it's still a POS, just not quite as much a POS as before. And, oh yeah, it costs money the Army doesn't have.

Jesus. I was a grunt back in the dark ages (late 80's) and I can't tell you how glad I am that we didn't have to lug that crap around with us. The amount we did have to carry was already a killing load; the senior NCO's, who got their start in Vietnam, always told us exactly what we should throw away, and were unanimous in their opinion we were still carrying too much stuff. (And they had heard the same thing from their Korea-veteran sergeants.) Sorry, I don't believe that today's infantrymen are that much bigger and tougher than we were -- the human body hasn't changed, but the amount of crap the brass wants to load onto it keeps going up and up. And this is in the desert! Pretty soon the Iraqis won't have to kill American soldiers, just wait for them to drop dead of heatstroke.

Re:Time to give Apple a DOD Contract?

[russellh]

As much as I want to agree with that sentiment, being anti-war, it should be obvious that it isn't about killing. It's about not getting killed, not killing the wrong people, and getting to our troops that need assistance. The more information and the more communication the better -- always. The fact that we're in Iraq is a reality. We're there and no matter what you want and no matter what you think is right, we're still there. Anything that saves American lives is good with me, even if I think we shouldn't be there and I want us to get out. Getting out is going to suck and I'm sure we'll need all the communication and positioning we can afford when we do it.

Re:Moral neutrality of technology

[gd2shoe]

quote

The point is that human beings don't have to live that way. We can decide to be reasonable and rational and agree to set rules on the competitions short of life and death battles to the death. We don't have to breed like rabbits, live like pigs, and ultimately die like dogs. We are human beings, and we can make choices and live by them.

You're a naive philosophical ostrich. That level of civilization is not yet possible. It will not ever be possible as long as we have people such as:

• Adolf hitler

• Joseph Stalin

• Osama Bin Laden

• Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (On Monday: "In Iran, we don't have homosexuals")

• Kim Jong-il

• Fidel Castro

• ... etc ...

• arguably, most current politicians (to a lesser degree)

• and of course, the people who listen to them

Please stop spouting off garbage until we can resolve the real problem (political greed).

Pacifism leads to death ...

[AHumbleOpinion]

We can decide to be reasonable and rational and agree to set rules on the competitions short of life and death battles to the death.

Pacifism leads to death unless you have non-pacifists around to protect you. Being reasonable and fair is fine and good, and we should strive for that path, but one must also be willing and able to use deadly force in defense. Even in modern times, over a small number of generations, we have seen a population split, the two halves become isolated, one become pacifist, and when the two halves reestablish contact the pacifists are murdered and/or enlsaved by their blood relatives. Sorry, read this in a book so I don't have a link handy, the people were Pacific islanders, timeframe 19th century IIRC.

Nonsense

[ConanG]

Of course it's about killing. The only reason for a soldier not to get killed is so they can do more killing. It's only a bonus that they get to come home in one piece.

As for saving American lives... why does it matter if their American? I'm for saving lives period. I've lived on the other side of the great divide. I've been in the military. I've since decided that it's wrong to think about being just an American citizen and defending this country. To truly move forward we must think of ourselves as global citizens and care for all people. It's when we divide ourselves into groups (American, Iraqi, etc...) that we forget to see the humanity in others.

Re:Nonsense

[Anonymous Coward]

As an American Soldier who has been to Iraq twice, it's not about killing. Killing has (almost) never been the point of war. The point is to reduce your enemies ability to defend themselves to the point where they cannot resist your will. This often times is accomplished by killing, but it's not the point. The Land Warrior system (and its older brother FBCB2) is designed to be a "combat multiplier" which simply means increasing the soldiers' combat effectiveness.

This also includes preventing fratricide as well as more precisely labeling enemy combatants. If you are calling in a grid from an old map with a radio and a set of binoculars, there is a margin for error that can lead to the loss of civilian life. Put a laser range finder, GPS, and a digital compass on the soldier and suddenly the individual soldier can call in pinpoint strikes reducing civilian loses.

Honestly, the average soldier over there doesn't want to kill anybody, they just want to help the country rebuild to give the people a better life and come home. I would say that the folks fighting the evil Americans kill more civilians who just want to live their lives like you and I than the US has in this conflict. I was blessed to never have shot at, or been shot at by anybody in the two years I spent over there, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

For the record however, given that the Militant Islamists have killed more civilians for not believing in their cause than the Americans have. Given the choice, I'd rather have their ability to make war diminished far more than ours because I want my children to grow up with at least some freedom and live with significantly less fear as opposed to what they would receive under a regime dominated by Militant Islam.

Apple - Kill Different.

[GameboyRMH]

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