UPDATED UPDATE: Courtesy of our good friends at Soldier Systems, it looks as if PEO has indeed fielded 1100 individual shot detection systems — but not the BBN one.
Oddly enough, despite funding the development of Boomerang Warrior, the Army seems to be much keener on the QinetiQ North America’s Soldier Wearable Acoustic Targeting System (SWATS). In fact, photos of the IGD system on PEO-Soldier’s website feature a Soldier wearing SWATS. Army G3 directed PEO-Soldier to execute a field evaluation of an Individual Gunfire Detection system and the system chosen was the SWATS. The Capabilities Production Document (CPD) is still in draft and any use at this point should be considered an operational demonstration to ascertain the validity of the technology and to consider Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures development. Based on candidate technical maturity, Product Manager Soldier Sensors and Lasers deployed 12 Soldier SWATS to theater in 2007 for the first user evaluation. This evaluation prompted several changes to the design and functionality. In 2008, 1100 improved SWATS were sent to theater for a second user evaluation. The information gathered during these evaluations is being used in the development of the IGD CPD.
END UPDATE
PEO Soldier is developing a nifty little device that gives individual Soldiers the ability to pinpoint the source of incoming rifle fire.
The so-called Individual Gunshot Detection system clips onto a Soldier’s body armor and uses sensors to hear the “crack-bang” of a shot, then processes the data in miliseconds to indicate the cardinal direction of the fire’s source and approximate distance.
The single sensor system (SWATS, Boomerang Warrior) reports this solution directly to the individual Soldier on a visual display and audio alert within a second of a muzzle blast. The technology is able to detect and provide alert data for variants of both 5.56mm and 7.62mm sized ammo. The system is powered by two DL 123 batteries.
I’m still working on details about how many are to be fielded, to whom and what the cost is, but I will say that I had the opportunity a couple years ago to see a demo of a bunch of these devices in development for vehicles. The one being developed for PEO is manufactured by BBN Technologies of Boston — they’re the ones who make the Boomerang vehicle-mounted system which I found was the simplest system to operate and the most “Soldier Proof” of the others, some of which delivered much more refined information.
Incoming shot announcements are transmitted to an ear piece while a light-weight wrist display provides range, azimuth and elevation coordinates of the shooter position. As the Soldier moves, the system compensates for the Soldier’s motion and continually updates the threat’s location on the wrist display. A digital interface is also included to enable immediate transmittal of shot coordinates to other situational displays.
This system seems like a good idea for Afghanistan, given the terrain and cover afforded ambushing insurgents. Put a couple guys in a squad at strategic positions with these things and you could zero in on the bad guys in no time.
This might also be something that Land Warrior might want to look at…
UPDATE: Our friends over at Soldier Systems tell us that PEO sent only one of the IGD systems from BBN to theater and that despite paying for the development of the Boomerang Warrior “PEO is going in a different direction.”
Still no word from PEO Soldier on this…
– Christian
{ 33 comments… read them below or add one }
Wow,looking at these new weapon systems is like reading a porno mag. They look very "sexy," they give you a hard on,but you'll never EVER see them in real life.
Or you only might if you are very rich…
I don't think you would see every soldier utilizing such a device. Obvious choices would be team and squad leaders along with Company Commanders and Senior NCOs. You could also give these to your rifle marksman or sniper. That could help them quickly find the threat and put them down fast.
We will see these, but in what time frame and how many is the true question. Maybe they should try to take that motion device that can recharge batteries and electronic devices and combine it with this thing. That way its always ready to go and you don't have the worry of a low battery.
Ed — you are spot-on.
I have to agree with Ed, this would not be something for every soldier, but rather the designated marksman in the squad or something of that nature. If your in a firefight, and a sniper is shooting at you, I doubt it would be much use. At the same time, I could also see many scenarios in Iraq where it would have come in good use if it works as advertised.
I would like to see more updates on the system mounted to HMMWV's in theater and how they performed.
On a side not, I'm waiting for Zandor to explain for the umpteenth time about his displeasure in a picture of this nature. lol
The ones on MRAP and Strykers (and HMMWV's) have been downrange for a few years. Testament is that the Commanders keep requesting additional systems. They have about 3000 systems now and more on the way.
2 bad we coulodnt have this developed in WW1 or WW2 alone.
Radical.
Test on PD Units & PD SWAT at home & US Border patrol aside forces in Iraq.
How about pairing this with top-down aerial video on an iphone-like screen? Sortof like the drop marker on my iphone, "Here's your shooter, behind the house". I can see where all this is leading, the military had it all wrong with FCS, the networked battlefield should start at the soldier level, lets get that powered exo-skeleton armor going too…
I know the numbers, but I'm going to keep my mouth shut.
see update…
How about pairing these things with the XM25? Hmmm…?
ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm, that would have been a nice device for the Vietnam Troopers.. i am tired of everyone always jumping in and never once thinking of those who were being shot at not knowing where unless you were right on top of the enemy.. just a thought men.. remember there are still about 3 million ex vietnam vets still above ground.
Another whiz bang gizmo for the hapless troops.
I wonder just how well it will work when the firing is coming at them from several directions, several ranges, and several terrain levels all at the same time?
I wonder if the gizmo will be able to differentiate between the firing of a friendly unit that is out of sight?
I am also sure that the Afghans have some access to US weapons. Which will only add to the confusion if those US weapons are used intelligently against the gizmo carriers.
My bet is that this gizmo won't work worth a damn.
The gizmo wristbands will light up like Christmas trees, and the troopers will start firing wildly in every direction.
But the US Military, which loves and has all the latest gizmos, seems to be having a very hard time against a donkey powered adversary.
The first thing the US should do is forget the gizmos, and immediately get out of the hell hole that the US Government has blundered into.
There is no military solution in Afghanistan, simply leave the place now, and leave it alone forever.
The USA is however determined to keep betting on a losing hand.
It's amazing how the morons of the world who know jack about this equipment want to tell the rest of us how it will or won't work.
Dear That Guy,
While A may not refer to myself in third person, or continue to express the same opinion over and over again, I do see your point. The guy like zandor may have some valid points, but as usual forgets that there could be some very useful situations for a "gizmo" of this nature. Zandor obviously does not know very many scenarios in Iraq or Afganistan where this would be useful, even if his assumptions are correct.
Dear That guy;
Since you are not a moron, and imply that you know about this gizmo. Why don't you tell us how it won't have problems with the situations that I brought out?
The article says that in one second the gizmo will determine direction, distance and vertical angle of the shot. The the soldier needs to look at his wrist band display to get the information.
I would imagine that this would take several seconds at best, during which time the shooter will have plenty of time to get off a few more shots, or change his position, which would severely degrade the information provided by the gizmo, and possibly result in a dead or wounded trooper who was busy consulting his watch band.
I think that the above questions along with my previous post raises very serious concerns.
I'm with That Guy regarding the morons of the world.
Notice how they always have these little half-wit Gamer names, like they're some kind of B.A. in the world? Z should take a Midol and go back to her Nintendo.
Zandor,
Not to get into alot of detail … the system will give the direction and distance in 1 second. The system will pick up most types of ammunition, yes even U.S. ammunition. As far as getting shot from mulitple locations … the system will identify each as a seperate incident and display it, and finally the system will tell you the info, you don't have to look at the display.
It's not just your comments Zandor, I consistently read comments from people regarding the military especially Special Operations, who think they know it all; when they really know only what they've seen on TV or read in a book.
Dear That guy;
The article says that the detector will supply an audio alert of the shot via an ear piece, and then gives the coordinates via a light weight wrist band.
To me that means the ear piece buzzes to let the soldier know he has been shot at. What ever happened to soldiers being able to hear shots being fired?
Has that become obsolete?
Then the soldier looks at his wrist band display.
How will the soldier know if he is being shot at, or if the fire is directed toward a different target, or if the fire is from friendly forces?
As near as I can tell from this article, during a real shoot out, this gizmo will provide loads of pretty much useless information.
By the way, I don't arrive at my opinions by reading comic books. But rather from running Recon missions for 9 solid months on The Ho Chi Minh trail in Laos, and then another 9 months along the trail in S. Viet Nam.
Yeah.. right. You have disgraced your country. Go move to China.
Dear Mike;
It is always a pleasure read what you have to say.
Keep up the good work.
Zandor,
I'm not going to sit here and discuss alot of sensative info with you and the rest of the world. Just know that the audio tells you exactly what's on the screen. It is also meant to give you the location of a sniper, so you know where to look and what side of cover to get behind. If you need this to tell you what side an ambush is on … then you're in the wrong line of work. In all honesty the points you bring up have all been asked by myself included, and me using it over there cleared up alot of your questions. It's not a perfect answer and nothing will be, you still need to use common sense, it's a tool to help. Nothing more.
Audio direction-finding. Nifty, but not novel. I can imagine that during a firefight such devices will have difficulty distinguishing the sniper hanging back from the inevitable exchange of machinegun fire.
What is needed more in Afghanistan is audio sensors to help find the insurgents. Maybe an enhanced version of those microwave eavesdroppers so UAVs can pick up conversations from far away or the sounds of bombs being emplaced.
I thought it said that the direction would be told in the ear piece and then you can look down and get the distance and elevation with the display if and when you are covered from that direction. And say there is fire from multiple directions, you now know the exact location of one, where you can engage suppress or nuetralize and then you get pay attention to the next. Better than nothing especially if it can help distinguish the original sound from echos in urban environments or help point you to which tree in the tree line is live.
The ability to overwhelm the device with thousands of "signals' or incidents at once is a real consideration, and the unreal expectation that it will always be ready and reliable. Otherwise, my experience while fighting in Baghdad 2004, is that it really is damn hard to define the location of incoming fire, since so often it doesn't follow expectable patterns, it is important to know the general direction the shots came from.
Case in point- My recon platoon was prepping for the first Iraqi elections at a major traffic circle connecting the nearest bridge to the Green zone past the Ministry of Defense- we were there for 3 days straight with no contact. But we all naturally used individual "hard targeting techniques"- meaning that we never stood still, and dipped in and out of both cover and concealment. The day after we left a Combat Engineer was shot and killed there, and fellow Engineers pinned down because a seemingly safe area had a sniper sneak in there and there were hundreds of good sniping locations. So had there been a cardinal direction and distance given, it is very likely that a 10' change in location would provide angular cover, and would have given my team something to deploy against for a counter-sniper mission. Urban centers provide great audible and visual concealment for shooters with its many layers and levels which make establishing visual Positive ID (PID) very challenging, but is absolutely required before engaging apartment buildings or other urban terrain.
As for Mr. Zandor- all do respect, but victory is only unattainable when you run out of hope, and hope is based on availability of options and capabilities. There are solutions, but it requires adaptation and perseverance, and avoiding indiscriminate automatic weapons fire in response to precision enemy fire is a good place to start, and in full out ambush situations such as the bases in Afghanistan these systems can communicate to mortar teams to provide rapid protective fires.
Dear Sierra3;
What is the definition of victory in Afghanistan?
I can't remember.
I've used the Boomerang (vehicle version of this) in Iraq. It was crap and constantly broke. I never saw it actually work. We hated them.
Just another ridiculously expensive tool to "enhance force protection" that the Army/USMC will spend millions on and shove down the throat of the end-user with minimal combat testing. A la the Guardian Man-Pack ECM, RAID Tower, DragonVision, etc.
Here's an idea: instead of buying tons of tech crap that doesn't work, we fund a civil affairs program that actually works. We suck again.
roger that. Thankfully i had a meeting with the engineers after our last deployment. One engineer actually teared up a bit when my team as well as several others had nothing but hate for ALL of their products during a recorded meeting. Thank you PEO for letting my voice be herd.
LTB: Without pushing into the limits of OPSEC, when did you deploy with Boomerang? Is it possible that it may have been upgraded for better performance?
I am at a total loss for words at the moment but I will try and see this thru….
If the shoe fits wear it….
1. How ignorant is it of you to talk about equipment that OUR soldiers are wearing and in the same breath talk about the sensitive nature of said equipment? Are you so stupid as to believe that the ENEMY is not reading this same blog as well as thousands of others and reading your stupid comments and using each piece they obtain to create the LARGER picture? Just to let you know they do have internet capability!!!!! Get smart, make general comments but don't go into the the whats, how, techs and specifics, you are killing our soldiers by your ignorance.
2. If you never served or have never worn the system, enlighten me as to why you believe your opinion counts? Why are you creating scenarios that you yourself will never be engaged in? Before you talk about the system, wear it, you arm chair generals who have never seen combat other than on TV or video game talk the talk about how bad these systems are but are too afraid to get off you assess and support YOUR country,wear one and then see if it works by FIRST HAND EXPERIENCE, then get on this blog and then you have a right to open your useless mouth
3. The system is a TOOL people, it is nothing more than any other piece of equipment, it is never to replace only to increase. Obviously you can't seem to grasp that content.
4. Think before you write, the internet is worldwide and the information they obtain from blogs like these are damaging, so regardless if you agree or disagree those young men and women over there are heroes and should be supported by your words than cursed behind their backs, and every piece of equipment is not perfect but can be with INPUT to the manufacturers over secure lines not on the non secure, so figure out how to do it and keep our soldiers in the fight.
Theoretically speaking: You are facing the enemy north and the rest of your known friendly units are south, east and west of you. The last thing you would remember is the alarm going off that those incoming deadly bullets that would end your young life are coming from south, east and west of you. Sad…
i used this system in afghanistan and it is quite possible the most useless piece of gear ive ever been issued. Tax payer money going to good use! This system works off of the sound a round makes as it travels through the air at supersonic speeds, the problem is 7.62 does stay supersonic for long and once it drops below the threshold and become subsonic the system cant detect it. So that guy 400 meters away that i can clearly see? yeah it will tell me where he is. But those pop shots from that sniper 1000 meters away? The heavy uncomfortable, bulky system has no idea anything even happened.
also i didnt go on one mission without a rucksack on. Try and figure out how to wear this thing and still carry your gear.