Future Soldiers on Mail Call

[amprecon]

I don't know if any of you watch Mail Call with R. Lee Ermey on the History Channel. But there was an episode where he was describing the American soldier of the future with a tricked out CAR-15 with a camera and thermal imaging device mounted. He also wore a computer and a fold down eyepiece on the helmet that was linked to the rifles camera. He could point the rifle around the corner and see what it showed through the eyepiece from a safe position. It looked like a modern day Krummlauf device. It also looked like a technological nightmare.
There was also a GPS device with a moving map and data uplink capabilities.
Is it me or are rifles becoming smaller and smaller. I mean looking at what they carried during the American Revolution to what they're arming our troops with today, it seems the rifle is becoming less and less important. Maybe it is. It appears that the role of infantry is becoming less of closing with and engaging the enemy and more of scouting for the enemy and getting on his/her superduper "wokky-tokky" and calling in an unmanned drone with environmentally friendly napalm with bio-degradeable candy shell.
Has the Army given up contracts with Colt to enlist the help of Sony instead?
I wonder what kind of games come with that "wearable" computer? Pac-man, Space Invaders? Gotta keep the troops busy during the down times.
What does the guy/gal do when the batteries go dead, they gotta go find the nearest 115V outlet and plug themselves in for awhile?
Are they soldiers or golf carts? Jeezus! I don't like this kind of dependancy on technology. I mean it was cool for the marines in Aliens, when they're cameras got screwed up they still had those hand held gatling guns or flame throwin' rifles with grenade launchers, you know, stuff that'll still mess stuff up. Just my thoughts on the modern-day "LandWarrior".

 

[Jamie Young]

It also looked like a technological nightmare.

The more they over-take the plumbing the easier it is to stop up the drain.

 

[Schuey2002]

whatever..

 

[Hkmp5sd]

I saw that episode and got the impression that the rig was more for recon/SF/seals type units which are generally small in numbers and spread thin when sneak&peaking. It would provide instant communications within the group and higher. Visual information could actually be sent back to command, saving time on acting on the info. The flip down eye-piece would allow the soldier to receive graphic information from command rather than depending on verbal descriptions. If one member saw a danger approaching another member, he could send the realtime video to that member so he knew exactly what as going on.

A good example of this occured in the movie "Navy Seals" when they encountered the "bin Laden" type character during the initial raid and let him go because they didn't know his ID. He wasn't ID'd until the video they shot was reviewed back aboard the ship. With this new rig, the intelligence types on the ship would be seeing what the Seals saw in realtime, allowing for identifying the BG while they still had him in custody.

As far as platoon/company and greater groups, it would be a communications nightmare to try to decipher all of the information.

Of course, it also creates the possibility of command micro-managing the unit.

 

[DUDE]

No the Military has not given up contracts with Colt.
Colt at this time holds all contracts to make the M4 and M4A1 Carbines for the Military, FN does not make the M4/M4A1 for the Military. but they do make parts for it, and they make the M16A2, M249 SAW as well as the M240, M240B and M240G medium machine guns.

 

[JIH]

it seems the rifle is becoming less and less important

It is.

There's only so much more they can do with ball & cartridge ammunition. Short of a breakthrough in caseless ammunition or energy weapons, there's not a whole lot of improvement to be made except making small arms lighter and more powerful. Now, they're working on everything else. They've got the basics of killing people down. They want to keep out people alive while they kill other people. The best way to do this is through coordinated tactics. protective equipment, and technological competitive advantage. (The spooky thing about all the night vision equipment is that most other countries don't have access to it like we do... we can fight in conditions that the enemy cannot, therefore we are more likely to win in those conditions and will press our advantage for all its worth)

Besides, the recent trend is toward air power to beat the enemy defenseless while using small insertion teams on the ground. The ground pounders become more of a mop-up crew, used to take the ground and get the folks that hid from the bombs, who probably aren't well supplied because all their gear and artillery has been destroyed. Conflicts in the early three-quarters of the 20th centrury kinda soured folks on using mass infantry. Then again, wars cannot be won through air power alone. People still gotta take the land. Hard to do that with an F16.

 

[Art Eatman]

We left Vietnam thirty years ago, right? A buddy of mine was a USMC lieutenant, a platoon leader, who spent a good bit of time in the boonies. His favorite and most deadly weapon was the radio.

TV in a drone sorta cuts down on the number of middlemen needed.

Regardless, a war ain't won until a teeny-bopper infantry guy can sit and eat his MREs without worrying about his six o'clock.

Art

 

[T-Rex]

The idea is sound. The technology isn't quite there yet. It will be soon. I read a quote from a Civil war Infantry Sergeant a while back. He said that to win a war, all you had to do was to " Git there the firstest with the mostest men, and don't tell nobody yer comin'." He was right, for the Civil war.

Now, the rule is to find the enemy and dump explosives on him before he does it to you. All that tech crap is intended to allow one private to be strolling along, see an enemy command post, report it, and a minute later an ATACMS rains DPICM bomblets all over it. Pretty cool if we can make it work. It's like Pvt Snuffy carries a whole Arty Bn. on his shoulder.

Another thing is that troops can disperse over wider areas without losing contact with each other, and keep operating. When Snuffy's squad gets split up, they can find each other again and drive on. At night. In the Jungle, In a hurricaine, and under fire.
All that Army of One BS might just be close to the truth.........IF we can make it work............

I think it's worth working on.

 

[MessedUpMike]

I believe what your thingking of is the "Land Warrior" system it's an interesting idea, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for it. A lot of the true wonders usually take us in a direction we hadn't forseen: prepare for European warfare, end up in asian jungle; prepare for jungle warfare, end up in the desert; etc...
Prepare an electronic dependent army, watch the lights go out. Like I said it's a cool idea, but the are those with far more experience in warfare, and far more brains than I have who have to have this proven to them first (hopefully).
Are rifle going anywhere anytime soon, No. Eventually, Maybe. Every time somebody comes up with the "ultimate weapon" somebody else shows up with something else. Not much ever gets abandoned though.


Mike

 

[eyeballz]

I like watching mail call. I saw the same episode that your talking about. Cool Stuff Huh!

 

[hdm25]

"I read a quote from a Civil war Infantry Sergeant a while back. He said that to win a war, all you had to do was to " Git there the firstest with the mostest men, and don't tell nobody yer comin'." He was right, for the Civil war."


Infantry sergeant? Sergeant? That quote is from the great Nathan Bedford Forrest! No SERGEANT, but one of the canniest commanders in the Civil War...and a GENERAL.