"SOLDIER OF THE FUTURE" Concept Displayed by US Army at [AUSA 2017]
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.
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.
Nathaniel is a history enthusiast and firearms hobbyist whose primary interest lies in military small arms technological developments beginning with the smokeless powder era. He can be reached via email at nathaniel.f@staff.thefirearmblog.com.
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I'm all for a small unit of indestructible super soldiers that goes in, obtains the objective and gets out.
But there will always be a need for a platoon of expendable grunts wearing minimal armor who just kick in a city...
This is all a fantastic pipe dream that gets revived every few years. I worked at Aberdeen for years developing small arms. We could develop tactical nukes the size of a gold ball for the infantry and it would get all the way to the third or fourth phase of development then lose funding. But the military will waste millions on changing uniforms and other really stupid crap. I think we developed 5 different OCIW's to replace the M4 rifle. Once they were completed and ready for production, they were scrapped due to " lack of funding". We're still using a rifle developed back in the 1960's. WTH !
The defense industrial complex is the best in the world at wasting taxpayers dollars combined with a Mount Everest level of mentally retarded ways of procurement. Case in point the LCS ship. We are still buying these pieces of crap which don't run, can't survive enemy engagements and can't perform a single mission with any degree of success. Most of them broke down and had to be towed back to port. The Navy could accomplish more with the USS Constitution. The F-35 is another super shiny, extremely expensive polished turd.
The Army has excelled at weighing the soldier down with more and more crap, batteries,etc and done more to inflict stress fractures and weight related injuries to them vs giving them better, more lethal equipment and improving the chances of them completing their assigned missions.
Anybody notice that we have been fighting for 25 years against guys with AK's, no body armor, a 4th grade education level at best and no multi-million dollar air forces to support them ? It's not our men and women on the battlefield that are the problem. It's our doo doo for brain commanders and political leaders calling the shots.