Future Soldier Roundup

by Steve Johnson

Published: April 18th, 2014

Gizmodo has a nice pictorial roundup of Future Soldier programs from around the world. Its not a comprehensive list, its missing a number of countries, such as the recently announced Sudanese program we blogged about a few weeks ago, but its worth taking a look. The photo above is of Spanish troops participating in the Combatiente Futuro (COMFUT) program.

Many thanks to Torrin for the link.

#Spain #FutureSoldier

Steve Johnson

I founded TFB in 2007 and over 10 years worked tirelessly, with the help of my team, to build it up into the largest gun blog online. I retired as Editor in Chief in 2017. During my decade at TFB I was fortunate to work with the most amazing talented writers and genuinely good people!

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Kyle on Apr 20, 2014

The sudanese system looks outdated also one of them have the eye cover on their right eye while holding the type 97 in the right hand so they cannot aim down the sights on the rifle with ease. Seems like a big design flaw to me compared to the Swiss system where the display looks reversible to either eye in the event of injury or changing position for going around different corners. Also it looks like the swiss system has controls for the thermal optic on the foregrip so you don't have to get off your sight picture to change the optics setting.
Considering the other options I would even take the bulky spanish system over the sudanese system that does not even use a vest that matches the camouflage they are wearing. If they get even get matching vest for the camouflage they are wearing what does that tell you about the electronic? Most likely dated and inefficient in both function and battery life ( the sudan is not known for its electronics industry,optics or industry in general).Also the huge antenna on the waste seems like a huge obstacle that could distract others in the units when they are walking in a formation and the antennas are whacking the guy behind them when it is not obstructing or distracting their aim. Also the antenna seems to go over their helmet in height so much for not raising attention (even more so than the mismatched camouflage).

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N0truscotsman on May 06, 2014

Yet not a single country has "lightened" their soldier's load.
Not a single one.
I see a epidemic of stupidity.

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- Eric Vought on May 07, 2014
  
  @n0truscotsman Agreed.
  One of the problems with all of these "future" systems is that electronics and optics are delicate. You either have to armor the hell out of them, which makes them unreasonably heavy (on top of the obscene weight of the batteries) or you have to deal with proximity soft-kills taking out all of your fancy equipment. And really, there are severe limits to how much you can protect optics no matter how much weight you are willing to accept.
  If the soldiers depend on the fancy equipment, then they will stop functioning without it. If you train them to not need it, it's often better to just leave the stuff behind in the first place. On the other hand, there are specific maybe squad-to-platoon-level engagements where a very high integration of information is *extremely* useful, where individuals or quads have to be very precisely placed, and where specific expertise being remotely brought to bear is a win. (It may beat your computer tech having to armor up and go in with the strike; or at least, having remote telemetry may mean they have a much better idea of where to go in the second wave so they end up where they are *actually* needed.)
  
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- N0truscotsman on May 07, 2014
  
  @Eric Vought I think of equipment and the soldier as another victim of a principle similar to the Jevons paradox.
  As equipment becomes more efficient (lighter weight, more compact, less bulky), commanders use the opportunity of less pounds to add more equipment to make up for the difference. That has been a consistent pattern since world war II.
  
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