“SOLDIER OF THE FUTURE” Concept Displayed by US Army at [AUSA 2017]

[Zarvan]

At the 2017 Association of the United States Army annual meeting (AUSA 2017), US Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command (RDECOM) presented a concept for the US Army’s future soldier of the 2030 timeframe, which promised everything from powered exoskeletons, to futuristic optics, to individual network capability. I captured the Command’s two future soldier concept demo videos that were running at the conference, embedded below:

Fair warning, RDECOM: These are on the Internet now, so they’re permanent.

To say the the concept looks like something from a video game is a bit of an understatement. The always-running exoskeleton-powered super-soldier depicted in the videos sports thermoregulated clothing, integrated power and data, advanced integrated sensors including integrated day/night thermal, and is the beneficiary of an individually tailored diet, advanced training and simulation, and “neural engineering”, whatever that means. His weapon, depicted as a sort of OICW-esque bullpup, features an advanced optic that can hand off targets from one squad member to another using an integrated processor. To round everything out, he will be protected with integrated hearing protection, body armor, and a suit that defends against chemical, biological, and directed energy weapons. Of course, all of this is powered by some sort of fantastic battery or capacitor in his backpack, which (naturally) can draw power from its environment and wirelessly distribute it to every subsystem on the soldier’s body.

Regarding the new concept, the US Army’s Twitter account proudly advertised: #USArmy will prioritize science and tech efforts to develop new Army capabilities.

https://twitter.com/x/status/917772856620089345

To which I ask: Isn’t this “we’ll solve it with science!” attitude a big part of the Army’s problem to begin with? Isn’t the fact that the Army is too-often unwilling to take a hard look at itself and reform its behavior and organization, but would rather spend money on pie-in-the-sky technology products that promise the world and end up cancelled after years and billions wasted the very thing that Senator McCain publicly berated Milley for in the first place?

Maybe I’m being to harsh – this is an RDECOM presentation after all. However, to me, it seems like something I’d expect from DARPA more than RDECOM, even, in how ludicrously ambitious and technology-focused it is. This isn’t to say that some of the technologies in the presentation might not eventually be realized, but the idea that the Army is seriously pursuing that end-of-the-rainbow wishlist as a total package is… Disconcerting, to say the least.

http://www.thefirearmblog.com/blog/2017/10/30/soldier-future-concept-displayed-us-army-ausa-2017/

@Horus @Oscar @Path-Finder @Tipu7 @Sulman Badshah @Arsalan @balixd @Joe Shearer

 

[Taygibay]

Zarvan mate, just think F-35 program all over again.

Felin, the French program works today, has for years,
and other systems have appeared elsewhere since its
inception.

In this particular area, the US was not leading the pack
at all, something which when understood at last usually
stokes the national ego towards great big things like say
the Moon program.

So in comes one of those TBTF mega-projects with all the
bells and whistles of 2050 miraculously fitted in too small
a volume by 2030 max ... heck maybe 2025 thanks to concurrency.

It only makes sense in the Pentagon-MIC-Congress viewpoint.

Have a great day, Tay.