Here are a couple other things I picked up from the SASC Authorization markup.
So it looks like senators included the $102 million the Army wanted for another Land Warrior deployment.
This time it’s for an entire brigade, rather than a single Stryker battalion. Lt. Col. Ken Sweat, who’s been working on the Land Warrior system for longer than it was even called “Land Warrior,” told me in Iraq last winter that if they got the money, the 5th Brigade of the 2nd Infantry Division would get the next Land Warrior suite. This is huge news for a program literally on life support and a big win for LW backers who helped folks like me get over to Iraq to cover the system in combat.
Sweat told me 5/2 would be equipped with Land Warrior Next-Gen — which will include a Blackberry-like soldier control unit instead of the ruggedized mouse device they have now. They’ll also move the helmet electronics assembly off the helmet and place the unit on the soldier’s chest, they’ll shave weight by combining the navigation box and the computer and they’ll ditch the GPS unit for Joes and use instead a radio location device so they can be tracked by unit leaders.
Of course, the money still has to make it through the House, then a joint committee markup, but it’s a positive first step.
Also, the Senate put its foot down on the Stryker Mobile Gun System. You’ll remember my story about the MGS from some interviews I did in Iraq. Now, I know there are some strong fans of the vehicle, but the Joes I talked to hated it.
The SASC lawmakers included language in their version of the bill to require “the Secretary of Defense to ensure that the Stryker Mobile Gun System (MGS) is subject to testing to confirm the effectiveness of actions taken to mitigate the deficiencies identified in Initial Operational Test and Evaluation and Live Fire Test and Evaluation…”
That’s a blow to GDLS and the Army, who both think the MGS is the greatest thing since sliced bread. I’m agnostic on the whole thing and can only go with what the Joes told me. And it looks like the Senate is going to also.
– Christian
Sounds now more like “Infanterist der Zukunft” (German program).
Hmmm, Landwarrior is still too heavy, but the basic premise is interesting: shoot around corners without exposing yourself, track squad members, a radio for every grunt, a PDA to sort intel.
Landwarrior is interesting stuff. But way ahead of the technology curve. I think it will be another 5 years before the hardware gets worked out and another 10 before the software is. Battery technology is the key and it really isn’t there yet. It would go nicely with some of the nanoturbines DARPA is working on– essentially jet engines a fraction of an inch across. Or perhaps a refillable fuel cell. Software is another issue. It would be interesting to know if the army is using open source as a base or reinventing the wheel. I suspect they are reinventing the wheel.
to Sven,
At the risk of sounding like a typical arrogant American claiming techno-superiority, the Landwarrior program predates ANY other simlilar program of its kind. It is the trailblazer that other Western nations and Israel saw the need to have something similar.
The UK’s FIST, France’s FELIN, the German IdZ, Italy’s Soldato Futuro, it’s all based on what was then called the Objective Force Warrior program.
Land warrior is great, and even better given that they are fielding it. Sure there are problems with it, things missing, to much weight, hard to use controls, etc but each time they field it to a group again they learn a huge amount of stuff from those guys on the ground. A great program that if the army is smart it will never end, Even 5 years plus from now when every solider has it they should just keep working on improving it forever.
“the Senate put its foot down on the Stryker Mobile Gun System” is vague, to put it mildly.
Found the following on TradingMarkets.com:
“Requires the Secretary of Defense to ensure that the Stryker Mobile Gun System (MGS) is subject to testing to confirm the effectiveness of actions taken to mitigate the deficiencies identified in Initial Operational Test and Evaluation and Live Fire Test and Evaluation;…“
So we’re not talking cancellation, but a delay of mass production.
The combination of a 120 mm mortar in a turret version + the ATGM version sounds good, but you have to wonder how well the mortar version would do against tanks in a short range fight. I have never heard of either the 2S9 or the 2S23 taking on tanks. The Stryker MGS is comparable to the M18 tank destroyer of WW2.
You can hope that you will always be able to get M1s to the fight if the bad guys have tanks, but it’s always better to have options. As for those die hard tread heads that want to resurrect the XM8, I doubt any argument will ever satisfy them.
In the long run, this technology is needed and keeping the development program alive is a good thing.
On the other hand, it’s a lot of kit when you are chasing an opponent who wears tennis shoes, has a cell phone and carries an AK-47.
The MGS was not designed to take on enemy armor. It fires a 105mm round and is a lightly armored vehicle. While there is a Stryker variant with an anti-tank missile, its obviously not Plan A when going head to head with other tanks.
The Land Warrior is a fair amount of weight to add to our kit, however the R&D geeks are spending a lot of effort on shrinking battery size and making the system highly modular so every joe doesn’t need to wear the whole ensemble.
Gee Whizzzz… Its hard to remain “profesional” when one sees such blatant crap being funded.
Actually perhaps not the inner guts of the thing, but doggonitt! nobody is gonna convince me that welding storm grates to those things “is smart”.……don’t care if your a Nobel Laureate.
Just dumb.…..and dumber. Best to all, Dave
(Before any of you wanna smash me, just ask our kind Editor about me first, ok? )