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Son of Land Warrior Evolves in the Wild

Apr-22-2007 » Filed Under: 4/2 SBCT

According to the following analysis, although the Land Warrior program has effectively been ended, elements of the system have been adopted by Stryker Brigades.

Strategy Page

April 22, 2007: The U.S. Army is still trying to figure out what to do with a lot of new technologies developed for its Land Warrior program. That was an effort to enhance infantry performance with a lot of technology that was never ready for prime time (like wearable computers). Although the Land Warrior program is dead, the general concept lives on with new stuff the combat troops are using. The problem with Land Warrior was that is tried to be revolutionary, while the troops really wanted evolutionary items. Although the army has halted work on Land Warrior, it is sending some of the equipment to Iraq, to see how well it performs in combat. The current Land Warrior gear includes a wearable computer/GPS/radio combination, plus improvements in body armor and uniform design. Troops who tested Land Warrior in the U.S. found it too much hassle, and not enough benefit. [...]

While Land Warrior is dead, it's cousin, Mounted Warrior, is not. The Stryker vehicles are using a partial set of the Mounted Warrior ensemble, a version of Land Warrior for the crews of armored vehicles. The troops liked all these new electronic gadgets a lot. just as commanders took to Blue Force Tracker in 2003. In effect, the first beta of Mounted Warrior was installed in the Stryker vehicles headed for Iraq in 2005. That gear worked well, and the troops were enthusiastic about using a vehicle that was booted, rather than simply started. The main idea with this new gear was to provide the troops with superior "situational awareness." That's a fancy term for having a good sense of where you are. The Stryker troops always knew where they were, by looking at a computer screen. There, a GPS placed the vehicle on a detailed map of the area.

Over half a century of studies has resulted in knowledge of what an infantryman needs to be more effective. They need to know where they are, quickly. Having a poor idea of where you are proved to be one of the main shortcomings of armored vehicles. While infantrymen can just look around, armored crews tend to be cut off from this while inside their vehicle. The crews are even more easily disoriented. When the shooting starts, even the commander, instead of standing up with his head outside the turret, ducks back inside to stay alive. Infantry aren't much better off. Although they can see their surroundings, they are often crouching behind something. When getting shot at, standing up to look around is not much of an option.

But the infantry are often not much in need of a computer to tell them where they are. In Iraq, much of the infantry are doing SWAT type operations. These are run fast, with most of the troops in close proximity to each other. The wearable computer and its GPS driven map proved useless, mainly because it took the system over a minute to update the map. Even the personal radio is counterproductive for most troops. On patrols the GPS and radios can come in handy. But there are already personal radios, and various models of GPS, available for that. Land Warrior tried to make the technology do what it was not yet capable of, to perform a function the troops didn't particularly need.

Meanwhile in Iraq, infantry officers and NCOs, equipped with PDAs, have found the map/GPS combo a tremendous aid to getting around, and getting the job done. The troops also buy commercial gear, a piece at a time, to take care of their Land Warrior type needs. Thus "son of Land Warrior" is already showing up in combat, piece by piece. And this is changing the way troops fight. Everyone is now able to move around more quickly, confidently and effectively. This model has already been demonstrated with the Stryker units. Captured enemy gunmen often complained of how the Strykers came out of nowhere, and skillfully maneuvered to surround and destroy them. "It wasn't fair," some of the enemy complained. This was often done at night, with no lights (using night vision gear.) When you have infantry using Land Warrior gear to do the same thing on foot, you demoralize the enemy. Hostile Iraqis already attribute all manner of science fiction type capabilities to American troops. But with Son of Land Warrior, the bar will have to be raised on what's science fiction, and what is just regular issue gear. This is typical of what happens in wartime, where the demand for better weapons and equipment, and a realistic place to test it, greatly accelerates the development and deployment of the new stuff.


Comments For "Son of Land Warrior Evolves in the Wild":

Calling this "Son of Land Warrior" is inaccurate. The thrust of the article is that COTS systems - ordinary PDAs and GPS units - made the more complex Land Warrior system unnecessary.

In my experience, this is common - government systems are developed under arcane bureaucratic rules and on lengthy timelines - both contribute to the kind of bloat that sank Land Warrior. By contrast, commercial systems are often developed with the goal of getting to market as quickly as possible.

Land Warrior is just one of many Army systems that didn't pass the go-to-war test.

Posted by: currahee [TypeKey Profile Page] | April 23, 2007 3:23 AM

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