News

2015-03-01

ENHANCING CORE SOLDIER CAPABILITIES

Forces concentrate on developing future system technologies

Good intelligence and the ability to make decisions based on changing information are key to the success of discrete military operations, but not all decisions can be at the top. In the second of a two-part series Nation Shield outlines the Land Warrior for the Americans, IMESS (Integrated and Modular Engagement System) for the Swiss, and Land 121 for the Australians.

Around the world, armies are recognising the importance of equipping soldiers with technologies to allow them better insight to their surroundings, while giving those back at base a real-time view of just what is happening on the battleground.

As the international military community refocuses on conventional battlefields, countries are reinvigorating their future soldier programmes with the intention of enhancing core soldier capabilities and improving survivability. Proportionate lethality, weight minimisation and power utilisation are key components in providing force multipliers to an operations most potent tool: the soldier.

Many NATO countries are now developing future soldier system technologies. These are electronic systems to bring positional, mapping and information systems to each soldier along with enhanced sighting, targeting, closed-circuit communication, range finding and night vision. Most systems will also incorporate new materials for clothing and lightweight body armour systems.

Land Warrior Integrated Soldier System, USA

American soldiers and Marines are already among the most deadly in the world, but a system called Land Warrior makes them unmatched. Land Warrior integrates small arms with high-tech equipment enabling ground forces to deploy, fight and win on the battlefields of the 21st century.

Land Warrior came about in 1991 when an Army study group recommended the service look at the soldier as a complete weapon system. The first priority in Land Warrior is lethality. The second is survivability and the third, command and control. The program will cost $2 billion when 45,000 sets of the equipment will have been fielded between 2001-2015. The Marine Corps, Air Force and many foreign countries are interested in the system.

First and foremost, Land Warrior is a fighting system. Land Warrior has several subsystems: the weapon, integrated helmet assembly, protective clothing and individual equipment, computer/radio, and software.

The weapon subsystem is built around the M-16/M-4 modular carbine. It has a laser range finder/digital compass, a daylight video camera, a laser aiming light and a thermal sight.

In conjunction with other components, a soldier can even shoot around corners without exposing himself to enemy fire.

The integrated helmet assembly is lighter and has a helmet-mounted monocular day display, a night sensor with flat panel display, a laser detection module, ballistic/laser eye protection, a microphone and a headset.

The protective clothing and individual equipment subsystem incorporates modular body armor and upgrade plates that can stop small-arms rounds fired point-blank. It includes an integrated load-bearing frame, chemical/biological protective garments and modular rucksack.

The infantryman will attach the computer/radio subsystem to his load-bearing frame. Over this goes the rucksack for personal gear. The computer processor is fused with radios and a Global Positioning System locator. A hand grip wired to the pack and attached to the soldier’s chest acts as a computer mouse and also allows the wearer to change screens, key on the radio, change frequencies and send digital information.

The subsystem comes in two flavors: The leader version has two radios and a flat panel display/keyboard, and soldiers have one radio. With the equipment, leaders and soldiers can exchange information. Soldiers using their weapon-mounted camera, for example, can send videos to their leaders.

Finally, the software subsystem includes tactical and mission support modules, maps and tactical overlays, and the ability to capture and display video images.

The soldiers who will actually use Land Warrior have been consulted every step of the way. The prime contractor for the Land Warrior System is Raytheon Systems Company. Subcontractors include Motorola, Honeywell, Omega, GENTEX and Battelle.

IMESS (Integrated and Modular Engagement System) for the Swiss Soldier)

IMESS is accepted by the Swiss defence procurement authority.
Airbus Defence and Space has successfully completed the development of the integrated modular engagement system (IMESS) to the level necessary for series production. The order from 2011, worth 23 million Swiss francs, was completed on schedule following technical acceptance by the Swiss procurement authority armasuisse.

With IMESS, the Swiss Army has one of the world’s most powerful and high-tech soldier systems at their disposal. By employing more efficient and powerful components – many of them newly developed – various capabilities have been optimized. Ttactical command-and- control capabilities from company level to individual soldier level have been improved through the integration of combat vehicles, including computer and radio connections.

Radio communication has been optimised through increased range and new, standardised radio equipment. The use of head/helmet mounted displays provides a clearer situational picture and enables simpler navigation. The night fighting and reconnaissance capabilities could also be expanded.

A modular architecture provides numerous standard interfaces to sensors, such as a thermal imaging device, as well as modules for link-up with external systems, such as unmanned aircraft. The weight and energy balance of the equipment was significantly improved.

Cassidian has won a contract from the Swiss defence procurement authority Armasuisse for the advanced production engineering of the IMESS programme The volume of this order is in excess of 20 million Swiss francs.

It will give the Swiss Army one of the world’s most powerful advanced soldier systems. It will fit smoothly into the Swiss Army joint reconnaissance, command and action forces. It can also be integrated with systems already in use.

IMESS prototypes based on Warrior 21 have been proving their worth since 2007 in numerous field tests and in presentations to high-ranking representatives of the Swiss Army.

The present contract takes this experience as a basis for upgrading the existing systems to production standard and supplementing them with further, production-ready IMESS soldier systems. To ensure command-and-control capability on high-mobility operations, the contract also provides for the equipping of combat vehicles – including the tactical military vehicle DURO and the armoured assault vehicle PIRANHA – and their integration into the IMESS network.

The advanced production engineering contract will optimise various capabilities of the Warrior21 IMESS version by employing more efficient and powerful components, many of which are dedicated new developments.

Land 121, 116, 400 (Australian Defence Force)

Land Systems Division (LSD) is responsible for the acquisition and sustainment of designated land systems for the Australian Defence Force (ADF).

LSD’s activities include management of major and minor capital equipment projects, overall coordination of the Army minor capital equipment program, and national land fleet management. The Division is also responsible for the provision of engineering support to land materiel, ADF operations, exercises and activities. The Division manages large projects including:

- LAND 121 Phase 3B - medium/heavy capability, field vehicles, modules and trailers - Overlander

- LAND 116 Phase 3 - Bushmaster protected mobility vehicles

- Land 400 - highly lethal, survivable and networked combination of armoured vehicle capabilities

LAND 121 Phase 3B – total approved buget $3469.07m, year of completion 2023. This project will deliver approximately 2700 medium and heavy vehicles in an array of variants, including recovery trucks, integrated load handling systems and flatbeds, in both protected and unprotected configurations.

To complement the acquisition, approximately 3,800 modules and flatracks will be supplied and approximately 1,700 trailers will also be acquired to enhance the payload carrying capacity. The Phase 3B fleet will include both protected vehicles (for operational deployment and tactical training) and unprotected vehicles (primarily for tactical training).

Land 116 Phase 3 - total approved budget $1251.71m, year of completion 2017. This project will deliver approximately 1050 vehicles, across its five production periods, in seven variants. The vehicles provide protected land mobility to Army combat units and Air Force Airfield Defence Guards. The delivery of Production Period 5

Land 400 Phase 2 - Year of commencement: 2015, LAND 400 – Land Combat Vehicle System (LCVS) is one of Defence’s most significant capability programs both in terms of acquisition cost and its impact on the Army’s war fighting capability. The program seeks to address the emerging mounted close combat capability gap that exists between the current in service vehicles and increasingly capable weapons that could be used against Australian forces.

LAND 400 will provide a highly lethal, survivable and networked combination of armoured vehicle capabilities to enable mission success across the spectrum of threat scenarios.

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