Future soldier technology (modified thread)

cluttonfred said:

An "explosive fox-hole digger." huh? What could go wrong?!?

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lastdingo said:

Those things haev come into use actually. Essentially they create a crater to be used as foxhole.

The most sophisticated ones use an EFP to create a tunnel downwards and shoot an explosive charge into the tunnel which detonates underground and creates the crater.
IIRC.

These things are loud and you got to do a lot of work to camouflage the foxhole, for all that soil thrown up usually doesn't look like the surface.

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PENTAGON: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, a former Marine Corps rifle platoon leader, wants better technology and training to keep frontline foot troops alive.

He sent a Feb. 8 memo (below) to the Joint Chiefs, service chiefs, combatant commanders, and other top officials to create a Close Combat Lethality Task Force, applying the kind of top-level Pentagon focus on ordinary infantry usually reserved for jet fighters. Several sources tell us large investments are on the way for everything from night vision to body armor, a new rifle to replace the M16/M4 family, and frontline cyber/electronic warfare, with over a billion dollars in the “initial” phase alone.

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"To get a quantum increase in the quality of close combat forces, we can do it in the next two years, (and) the cost compared to the rest of the DoD budget is very small," said retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales, who chairs the advisory board for Secretary Mattis's Close Combat Lethality Task Foce.

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There’s a revolution afoot in America’s infantry. New guns to replace the M4 carbine, M16 rifle, and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. A new mini-drone to scout ahead. A new tactical network to link scattered units. A new night vision sight that displays targeting data like a fighter pilot’s Heads-Up Display. New tactics to use all of the above and new VR simulators to train on. All these innovations could be in the hands of US Army infantry within “a few years,” Brig. Gen. Christopher Donahue told reporters Friday.

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bobbymike said:

https://breakingdefense.com/2018/03/guns-drones-augmented-reality-army-seeks-infantry-revolution/

There’s a revolution afoot in America’s infantry. New guns to replace the M4 carbine, M16 rifle, and M249 Squad Automatic Weapon. A new mini-drone to scout ahead. A new tactical network to link scattered units. A new night vision sight that displays targeting data like a fighter pilot’s Heads-Up Display. New tactics to use all of the above and new VR simulators to train on. All these innovations could be in the hands of US Army infantry within “a few years,” Brig. Gen. Christopher Donahue told reporters Friday.

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Thinking of robotic systems coupled with artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics as an existential threat to humanity as (for example) Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and other scientists have done recently is at best premature, and at worst that thought process threatens to cede U.S. military advantage to hostile and aggressive state competitors.

Of course, objections by scientists to the militarization of technological advances of all types has a rich—if somewhat misguided—history. But as military professionals, it is incumbent to discount breathless reports of our imminent extinction at the claws of our silicon superiors and understand the concrete reality of robotic systems and AI on the battlefield to solve specific military problems.

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WASHINGTON -- For Soldiers, survival depends on out-maneuvering the enemy. While the Army's current fleet of tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and aircraft can protect Soldiers against near-peer threats, these vehicles lack the critical technologies to maintain tactical overmatch in future battles.

To counter these challenges, the Army identified Next-Generation Combat Vehicle, or NGCV, and Future Vertical Lift, or FVL, as the second and third priority in its six-prong modernization strategy.

A Cross Functional Team was created to support each modernization priority, including one for both the NGCV and FVL. The CFTs are developing the blueprint for future technology with teams composed of subject matter experts from the requirements, acquisition, science and technology, test and evaluation, resourcing, contracting, cost and sustainment communities.

How U.S. Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, or RDECOM, scientists and engineers are supporting the NGCV and FVL will be the focus of "Next Generation Combat Vehicle and Future Vertical Lift Modernization Priorities" Warrior's Corner Monday, March 26 from 12:40-1 p.m., at the U.S. Army (AUSA) annual meeting in Redstone, Alabama.

RDECOM's Tank Automotive Center leads the NGCV effort. The center is developing technology for the next generation of ground vehicles that are not only more lethal and survivable, but also much smaller, lighter and more fuel efficient. Key areas of research and development include: power architecture, protection, vehicle electronic architecture and autonomy.

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CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. – The Marine Corps is planning for a future that will pit Marines against an enemy well-versed in fighting and hiding in crowded urban areas and equipped with high-tech weapons and communications systems.

Current events have validated these assumptions about future operations, including the use of bomb-bearing and swarm-capable drones during recent attacks on a Russia base in Syria. Such threats loomed large as a Marine infantry rifle company took to the streets of a Camp Pendleton combat town this week to experiment with several dozen new technologies and prototypes designed to make them more lethal, effective, efficient and agile in an urban fight.

About 180 Marines are participating in the Urban 5th Generation Marine Exploration and Experimentation 2018 exercise at Camp Pendleton. U5G 2018 runs from March 15-25 and is the first in a progressive series of exercises this year focused on identifying potential technology enhancements for the Marine Corps rifle company and its subordinate units.

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Foam might not seem a likely way to stop a high-speed bullet, but a North Carolina researcher has developed a composite metal foam that stops bullets on contact.

Afsaneh Rabiei, a professor at North Carolina State University, began researching how to improve metal foam, or metal with gas-filled pores.

Rabiei was told that while metal foams may be good for blasts, they don’t protect against ballistics.

However, she created a new material that combined metal foam with a metal matrix composite.

“It works like a heavy-duty bubble wrap,” Rabiei told Army Times. “The bubbles inside can squeeze down and provide protection.”

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What should the device show the soldier? "Where am I? Where are my buddies? And where is the enemy?" said Gen. Townsend. "Then other stuff could be optional.”

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fredymac said:

Found this interesting new gun concept from a 2 year old startup called "Forward Defense Munitions". They use a 5 round cartridge of caseless bullets with the cartridge replacing the receiver. This results in having 5 separate barrels. Firing is done electrically with a battery capable of providing 15,000 shots. Firing modes include automatic, burst (all 5), and fully automatic using horizontally stacked cartridges. After all rounds are used, the cartridge is ejected taking the heat with it. Given the failure of every attempt to replace the M16/M4, I don't think they will succeed but it is something different.

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If a new task force has its way, time-honored extra duties such as handing out towels at the gym, raking sand, standing gate guard duty and picking up litter will no longer consume the time and energy of infantry soldiers and Marines.

Instead, they will be better selected, equipped, trained and prepared for their mission — intimate killing in close combat.

A close combat lethality task force operating at the highest levels of the Pentagon is likely shaping not only the future of the infantry but also who serves in ground combat forces, when and for how long, and what they do while they’re serving.

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bobbymike said:

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/04/11/this-mattis-directed-task-force-wants-to-overhaul-the-infantry-heres-how-it-might-do-that/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

If a new task force has its way, time-honored extra duties such as handing out towels at the gym, raking sand, standing gate guard duty and picking up litter will no longer consume the time and energy of infantry soldiers and Marines.

Instead, they will be better selected, equipped, trained and prepared for their mission — intimate killing in close combat.

A close combat lethality task force operating at the highest levels of the Pentagon is likely shaping not only the future of the infantry but also who serves in ground combat forces, when and for how long, and what they do while they’re serving.

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Trainees are also practicing more drill and ceremony in their first weeks of becoming soldiers, honing their skills with organized marching while moving throughout their days, culminating with a competition before graduation."

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dan_inbox said:

Trainees are also practicing more drill and ceremony in their first weeks of becoming soldiers, honing their skills with organized marching while moving throughout their days, culminating with a competition before graduation."

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And this must be considered somehow relevant to becoming combat-ready and effective?
Surely I am biased by the IDF ways, but I just don't understand the priorities of the other western military hierarchies...

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Kadija_Man said:

dan_inbox said:

Trainees are also practicing more drill and ceremony in their first weeks of becoming soldiers, honing their skills with organized marching while moving throughout their days, culminating with a competition before graduation."

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And this must be considered somehow relevant to becoming combat-ready and effective?
Surely I am biased by the IDF ways, but I just don't understand the priorities of the other western military hierarchies...

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Creates esprit de' corps, creates a readiness to obey orders, when given, creates an understanding of unit cohesion. Stems from the days of Napoleon and the need for units to perform drills in the midst of battle in the face of enemy fire.

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The Marine Corps is hoping industry can make lightweight .50 caliber ammunition that provides machine-gunners with a 30 percent weight savings over existing linked belts of .50 caliber ammo.

Marine Corps Systems Command recently released a request for information to see if commercial companies have the capability to produce lightweight .50 caliber ammo that "will provide a weight savings when compared to the current M33 .50 cartridge in the DODIC A555 linked configuration," according to the document released on FedBizOpps.gov.

"A belt of 100 Lightweight .50 Caliber cartridges with 101 links shall have a threshold overall weight of 24.6 lbs. or 15 percent weight savings compared to the legacy A555 configuration," the document states. "A belt of 100 lightweight cartridges with 101 links shall have an objective overall weight savings of more than 20.3 lbs. or 30 percent compared to the legacy A555 configuration."

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“Everything that Marine wears -- from their boots to their socks to their utilities to their helmet -- is all going to be changed," the Commandant said. "We’ve got money now to do that, and so we’ve got to make it happen now. We’ve got to make it happen now, because I’m not going to make the assumption that that money’s going to be there.”

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INDIANAPOLIS ― The Army’s plan for a new squad automatic rifle will bring a type of ammunition combination, from bullet to casing, that’s never seen the battlefield.

Army Lt. Col. Andrew Lunoff, product manager for the service’s small caliber ammunition program, said that the round currently under consideration is the 6.8mm caliber.

Lunoff was speaking on a panel on intermediate caliber development at the annual National Defense Industrial Association Armaments Systems Symposium here.

The 6.8mm round is the offspring of a project formerly known as the Enhanced Rifle Cartridge Program that put together Special Operations Command, the Army Marksmanship Unit and Remington Arms to create an alternative to the 5.56mm round currently in use across the force.

That size ammo falls in the sweet spot the Army is looking for, with all the good characteristics of the heavier 7.62mm but with more lethality and accuracy — and coming in at an automatic 10 percent weight savings.

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This is part 1 of a 10-part series covering U.S. Special Operations Command’s Top 10 technology needs leading up to the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference in Tampa, Florida, May 21-25, 2018. Today: The Iron Man Suit.

There perhaps has been no higher profile Special Operations Command technology development program over the past few years than the tactical assault light operator suit, or TALOS.

The idea sprung from former SOCOM Commander Adm. William McRaven in 2013. He wanted more protection for the first special operator to go through a door during raids. The suit would protect against bullets and blasts and have enough power for it to operate untethered. He set August 2018 as the deadline for the first working prototype and received $80 million for the first four years of development.

Meanwhile, the mainstream press picked up on the story after comparisons were made to the Iron Man superhero. Early SOCOM illustrations of the concept and a video it created with a fully-armored operator bursting through a door with bullets ricocheting off the armor certainly influenced the nickname, although officials have since downplayed the moniker.

Army Col. James Miller, director of joint acquisition task force (JATF) TALOS, told National Defense that there will not be a working prototype of the suit this year as hoped.

“TALOS is a unique engineering challenge that seeks to accelerate the development of emerging technologies across multiple domains simultaneously and integrate these disparate technologies into a fully functioning system that is intended to provide decisive advantage to future [special operations forces] in close combat,” he said in an email.

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