Army marching to high-tech future
| • | Army sees faster, bigger brigades as key for future |
By Frank Oliveri
Advertiser Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has a vision for the future that rivals Hollywood's best special effects.
High-tech uniforms won't just be bulletproof, they'll also protect against biological and chemical attacks, sense injury, administer nutrients and regulate temperature.
Soldiers will enter combat zones under the watchful eyes of unmanned aerial drones while surrounded by lightweight, remote-controlled combat vehicles. Sophisticated communications software will link each soldier with each piece of the force.
"They will have capabilities that are far better than today's," said Maj. Gen. Robert Mixon, deputy director of the Army's Futures Center at Fort Monroe, Va. "We won't get into a close-enemy fight often. But when we do, we will be survivable."
The Army will begin demonstrating these technologies in the next few years and begin production in 2010.
The General Accounting Office, Congress' investigative arm, warns that the Army is moving too quickly to complete its Future Combat Systems (FCS) plan.
Based on the Pentagon's schedule, many of the technologies needed for the 18 networked war-fighting systems Army officials are planning still would be emerging while the systems are being built, the GAO noted. The agency said that will make cost overruns and scheduling delays more likely. It recommended that the Army slow its pace.
But Army leaders are pushing ahead.
"You have to have intellectual courage to be willing to fail a little bit as you learn," Mixon said. "The FCS will go through its paces."
Heavy battle tanks will continue to play a limited role in the Army's future, Mixon said, but the emphasis will be on lighter, faster-moving vehicles that will rely on high-tech surveillance to strike enemy forces before they know they're in danger.
Patrick Garret, an associate analyst with Globalsecurity.org, said tank battles are a thing of the past.
"Enemy tanks will get (destroyed) by air power," he said.
Technology will allow future combat vehicles to confuse enemy weapons guided by infrared, heat or radar, and the vehicles will carry extra armor that could be installed in the field. Technology also will dramatically change what soldiers wear into battle.
The so-called Objective Force Warrior ensemble is a full-body, lightweight outfit that will digitally connect soldiers and vehicles.
Helmets will come equipped with night-vision devices, digital displays and laser-eye protection. Uniforms will be largely bulletproof and will regulate body temperature and control hemorrhaging from wounds. They also will track vital signs and provide nutrients when needed. Commanders and medics will monitor the health of individual soldiers through digital links.
And while the average soldier today carries about 105 pounds of equipment into battle, future fighters will carry their equipment in unmanned vehicles called mules. Individual soldiers will carry only about 50 pounds themselves.
Many of these systems are expected to reach soldiers by 2008.
Looking even further into the future, Army soldiers may someday be issued exoskeletons that would improve overall strength and endurance.
