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Guns and Gigabytes

Jul-25-2006 » Filed Under: 4/2 SBCT

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MICHAEL GILBERT; The News Tribune

For more than a decade the Army has been trying to put together a wearable package of computers, radios, lasers and other high-tech gear to help infantrymen better pierce the fog of war.

The technology has always been a little too buggy, the equipment too heavy and cumbersome to use under the stress of combat.

But proponents think they’re getting close with a system that Stryker troops are testing at Fort Lewis. If the soldiers and their commanders like it, they might take it with them to Iraq next summer, officials said.

The package, called the Land Warrior System, takes much of the communications, computing and targeting power that’s on a Stryker armored vehicle and puts it into the hands of each infantryman who runs down the ramp.

“Most of us who have been in the Army a long time have been through the evolution of the next whatever – it doesn’t really change what we do, but it’s just a little better, a little faster,” said Lt. Col. William Prior, who commands the battalion training with the system.

“This is much different. … It has the potential to change the way we fight.”

A 2 gigabyte flash memory

The Army and its private contractors have delivered 440 Land Warrior units to the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment. They’re also testing a companion system for 170 Stryker drivers and vehicle commanders called Mounted Warrior.

Soldiers trained on it in May and over the past couple weeks have begun to use it in squad and platoon-level exercises. They’re assessing what they like and working with designers to fix what they don’t, said Lt. Col. Brian Cummings, the program manager.

Improvements in technology have brought the system within reach, proponents say.


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