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Old 05-09-2011, 11:03 AM
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Thumbs up What a ‘super soldier’ could wear, carry

What a ‘super soldier’ could wear, carry




By Lance M. Bacon - Staff writer
Posted : Sunday May 8, 2011 902 EDT

Imagine a soldier: strong enough to carry 200 pounds without breaking a sweat; able to pinpoint a shooter’s location after hearing one shot; able to see what is happening behind walls; able to see a person’s heat signature at night and in bad weather; knowing the location of good and bad guys beyond the periphery of his own vision.

This “super soldier” may sound like the lead character in a summer blockbuster. In truth, the super soldier is you — and this scenario is closer than you think.

“Think ‘Iron Man,’.” said Brig. Gen. Peter Fuller, Program Executive Office Soldier. “You won’t have tank-killing missiles or a nuclear reactor in your chest. And you won’t be able to fly; the Army is done with its leather jackets and white scarves. But consider the integrated capability seen.”

The Army, determined that its soldiers never enter a fair fight, has cool new technologies in various levels of testing and fielding to provide that integrated capability.

We begin our review with the aptly named “HULC.”
Stronger

The Human Universal Load Carrier, or HULC, is an anthropomorphic exoskeleton that enables a soldier to carry 200 pounds of weaponry, supplies, ammo or wounded comrades for extended periods.

Developed by Lockheed Martin in coordination with the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center, Massachusetts, the untethered suit is battery-powered with an onboard microcomputer and hydraulically driven titanium legs configured to match the soldier’s movements. It moves with you.

Nine of 12 new “rugged” HULCs will start Phase 2 tests at Natick in May, said Keith Maxwell, business development manager for Lockheed Martin.

Field tests will follow this summer at Fort Benning, Ga., and an
undetermined Marine Corps base. The upgraded HULCs are modular and adjustable without tools, and can conform to the 95th percentile of men, he said. Power packs enable soldiers to carry 130 pounds over level ground for 20 kilometers.

That’s good news for an Army seeing 53 percent of its battlefield injuries described as muscular-skeletal. Today, 20,000 soldiers are nondeployable because of such injuries, and they cost the Veterans Affairs Department $500 million a year.

The system is sealed to keep water, dust and sand out of moving parts. The newest version also stays cooler, uses less energy and is quieter.

Maxwell said he wanted to get out of the old system after a couple of hours; he wore the new system 14 hours a day for three days and “felt great.”

Strength isn’t measured only by what one can carry. Lighter, stronger body armor is a priority. You won’t deflect bullets like Superman, but these body-armor advances are about as close as you can get.
More vigilant

Enemy snipers, beware. The Individual Gunshot Detector has better reflexes than Blade in a bad mood, and gives soldiers the direction and distance of a shooter a fraction of a second after the enemy fired his first round.

The Rapid Equipping Force fielded 2,000 first-generation models in the past year. The Army is now fielding 13,000 advanced versions, with all heading to Afghanistan, said Lt. Col. Chris Schneider, product manager for Soldier Maneuver Sensors. The first 161 were sent in April; 700 more are set for May. Soldiers will get 1,500 a month starting in June. Further purchases are dependent on combat assessments.

Schneider said the detectors, made by QinetiQ North America, have proven their worth on combat patrols. Upgrades have “drastically reduced false-alarm rates” and are accurate well within the 90 percent threshold.

“When it goes off, you can be highly confident it was a gunshot and the bullet came within a 20-meter parameter,” he said.

A display screen attached to body armor shows the distance and direction of incoming fire. With an ear bud, the soldier can get an audio report of distance and direction — “shot, 450 meters at 3 o’clock.” The report will compensate its orientation when you move.

What the gunshot detector does for ears, the Enhanced Night Vision Goggles will do for eyes. The Army has dropped $770 million
to put the goggles on the helmets of 50,000 more soldiers. The system combines thermal and image intensifiers in a way that would make X-Men’s Beast lose his cool.

The image intensification provided by the helmet-mounted AN/PVS-14 Monocular Night Vision Device is good for observation but cannot detect a camouflaged combatant. The added thermal capability provided by ENVGs, however, will reveal that individual with a 50 percent probability at 300 meters and an 80 percent probability at 150 meters, according to Army data.

The goggles are produced by ITT, L-3 Insight Technology Inc. and DRS Systems Inc. The first variants are receiving rave reviews in the ’Stan.

“Once soldiers put it on, they don’t want to do night ops without it,” Schneider said. Once production and quality goals are achieved, an order for 4,500 will go out for each of the three contracts, followed by a bulk order of 12,000 for each.

The awesome optics don’t end there. What good is a super soldier if he can’t see through walls?

We’re not talking about the cheesy eyeglasses you ordered from the back of a comic book as a kid. We’re talking about “sense through the wall” technology. This lightweight, battery-powered detector uses radar waves to detect human targets through 8 inches of adobe walls or other barriers.
The waves detect movement — even breathing, according to Army data.

The detector has a 60-foot reach, meaning an operator can “sense” 10 feet into a building if a person is standing 50 feet away, or 60 feet into the building if the detector is placed against the wall. A red dot identifies the individual behind the wall, and provides the distance from and direction to that person.

Schneider said the Army is “just fully beginning to understand its tactical applicability.” He said he would not be surprised if in 10 to 15 years the technology is integrated into body armor or the outer tactical vest.

As this technology matures, Schneider said, the sensors may be networked to provide 3-D images of a room’s interior, depending how soldiers are positioned outside.

Soldiers will get this hand-held device in early 2012, when the first of 7,100 systems are distributed.
Deadlier

Recall how bullets bounced off of Superman? That’s because he never was shot with “green ammo.”

A 2006 survey of combat vets found enemy soldiers shot multiple times still kept fighting. One in five U.S. soldiers polled recommended a more lethal round.

The answer was the M855A1 enhanced-performance round, also known as “green ammo.” It provides more stopping power at shorter distances. If it hits the enemy, he is going down.

Much early data is still classified but expected to be released in coming weeks. But soldiers from two battalions of the 101st Airborne Division “praised the hard-target performance of the M855A1 over the M855 and commended the ability to engage targets at longer distances,” said Picatinny Arsenal spokeswoman Audra Calloway. The soldiers were surveyed in December and January during operations in Afghanistan.

The Army plans to produce more than 200 million of these rounds in the coming year, officials say. It’s likely you will soon fire them from a new carbine. The Army is replacing 500,000 M4s with an enhanced version of the Special Operations Command M4A1, which has a heavy barrel and automatic fire. The Army also will replace its 600,000 M16s with the enhanced M4A1 — or something better. A $30 million carbine competition is underway.

If the bad guys take cover behind a vehicle or building, just call for “the Punisher.” That’s the name soldiers have given the XM25. Its target acquisition system calculates range. The data is transferred to an electronic fuse, enabling the 25mm round to explode over the target and rain shell fragments.

“No longer can the enemy shoot at American forces, then hide behind something,” Fuller said. “This is a revolutionary weapon. This is a game-changer.”

All five prototypes were sent to Afghanistan in November. Officials said the weapons “performed flawlessly” with no maintenance issues. Soldiers have been so pleased with the XM25, they are carrying it as a primary weapon and not bothering to bring an M4.

The Army will put 36 Punishers into a battalion in the next 18 months, said Col. Douglas Tamilio, project manager for soldier weapons. Fielding will begin in 2014. The total number is undecided, but estimates are as high as 12,500 — enough to put one in every squad.
Smarter

Returning to Fuller’s analogy, a look through the heads-up display leaves no doubt that Iron Man Tony Stark understands the value of information. So does the Army, which has two programs to put battlefield intelligence where it matters most.

Nett Warrior operates from a small, helmet-mounted screen. Its digital, hands-free moving map shows locations of the user and fellow soldiers without military GPS, as well as the location of known enemies. A secure radio keeps the dismounted team leader connected to the network for constant communication and information sharing. A hand-held data input device lets users send emails and other data.

Nett Warrior replaces the Land Warrior program, canceled in 2007. The new, open-architecture system replaces the PDA processor and 2 GB of memory with a laptop processor and 16 gigs, for more storage of maps, mission-specific imagery and graphics. The 5-pound, battery-powered system runs about 24 hours on a four-hour charge.

The system is intended to be fielded in increments over the next decade, with Increment I expected by late 2012.

NETT Warrior is not for everyone, but soldiers will no longer have to rely on “Spidey-senses” to know where the bad guys are. The Micro Defense Advanced GPS Receiver, or MicroDAGR, gives real-time position, navigation and timing information. When connected to a radio, MicroDAGR becomes a blue-force tracking tool that marks the location of friendly and enemy forces.

MicroDAGR, from Rockwell Collins, is in the hands of about 100 Rangers. The 6.5-ounce version is the size of a cigarette pack. It uses the same type of processor as in an Android, but has selective availability anti-spoofing module software. It cannot be hacked, jammed or spoofed.

The planning application allows the user to download moving maps and mark hot spots, neutral sites and rally points. MicroDAGR has six buttons for access to simple functions. The color, touch-screen display is sunlight readable and you can operate it with gloves on.

And this technology plays into the plan of leaders who look to build a network focused on the individual war fighter.

“It’s not about pushing things down now, it’s about pushing things up,” said Chief of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey. “When I was a captain, I completely relied on the colonels to provide me what I needed in terms of information and intelligence. I knew I had an obligation to develop the situation myself, but my expectation was that all the really good intel was going to come from the top down. Not now. Now, the really good intel comes from the bottom up, and we’ve got to spin the paradigm on its head and build the network to deliver it.”

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2011/0...-gear-050811w/
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