The term "fog of war" is often used to describe the uncertainty that historically surrounds much of what happens on the battlefield. Despite advances in sensors, communications, information processing and data distribution, there are still gaps in information that can be critical. This becomes especially evident at the level of the individual soldier and small unit. Incomplete, untimely and inaccurate information about the environment can lead to the death of both an individual soldier and members of a combat group. However, in the past, much attention was paid to increasing the level of command and control of the combat situation of the highest command echelons. The soldier basically had to rely on his own abilities. This situation began to change in part thanks to advances in data processing, layout of subsystems and their miniaturization, which allowed new possibilities for the design and manufacture of devices that are small, durable and simple enough that soldiers could carry and use in the field. All this is inherent, for example, in modern mobile phones, which have become an integral part of our life.
Whether it's a shooter or a crew member of an armored combat vehicle, every soldier wants to know a few basic data: his exact location (and the location of his fellow soldiers), information about the surrounding terrain and landmarks, and where the enemy is. Ideally, this information should be transmitted day and night, in any weather, regardless of vegetation and geographical features of the area. In addition, the ability to communicate and exchange observation data with members of their group and higher command increases the unit's agility and the effectiveness of its fire.
Achieving such capabilities has been the goal of a number of military initiatives in many countries. “Improving the level of command of the situation on the battlefield for an individual soldier and a small unit is a rather difficult task, but it also provides significant potential advantages and benefits in combat situations,” says one of the officers of the US Army.
The American army tried to solve all these problems in its Mounted Land Warrior program. In 2006, Stryker's 4th Brigade Team was equipped with General Dynamics' Warrior Stryker Interoperable to conduct operational assessments in training scenarios. As explained by Neil Eurynham of the Doctrine Development and Training Command (TRADOC), "The system connects Stryker combat vehicles, combat groups and soldiers, thereby enabling unprecedented real-time information exchange within units and their personnel." After evaluating tests lasting a year, the system was sent to Iraq, where it was used with great success in combat operations. Its ability to link the soldier and infantry squad with a larger tactical picture has been assessed as a factor in increasing combat capability. The system was able to offer a clearer, unified picture based on complete and reliable information collected in real time, which allowed various elements in the unit to respond more effectively with their firepower and maneuver. The military was unanimous that the system, even at this early stage, significantly increased tactical awareness and contributed to increased combat effectiveness.
Situational awareness on the battlefield
“For a soldier to own the situation on the battlefield is the ability to know his position relative to other members of the unit, the location of a potential enemy and the terrain features,” explained a TRADOC spokesman.
Historically, the military has relied heavily on visual observation, and therefore a great deal of attention has been paid to developing systems that improve a soldier's natural senses, particularly vision. This includes optics with magnification for improved target acquisition and aiming, plus night vision devices and other means that are effective in limited visibility. And systems for enhancing the brightness of the image, such as night vision devices (NVDs), and thermal imaging sights are individual systems. A BAE Electronic Systems spokesperson believes that “night vision provides tremendous benefits, allowing you to operate even in low visibility conditions. It expands the capabilities of the human eye, for example, a thermal imager detects temperature differences and thus can see through vegetation or smoke and identify hotter objects against a colder background. However, while night vision is good at detecting objects, it has the worst ability to identify objects within sight. It can be difficult to distinguish your soldier or vehicle from the enemy's soldier and vehicle. The high probability of friendly fire has always been a problem at night and in conditions of limited visibility, while, even despite the use of night vision devices, it has not lost its sharpness.
Since its inception in the 1980s, NVG technology, which has made a significant contribution to increasing the level of local situational awareness of the individual soldier, is now more closely integrated with other technologies. Examples include embedding required data into a display, such as heading, target data, and alarms.
L-3 Insight's Ground Panoramic Night Vision Goggle solves the problem of the narrow field of view that most standard night vision goggles have. The GPNVG-18 has a 97-degree field of view, such a wide field of view reduces the number of head turns, thus reducing operator fatigue.
BAE System's latest ENVGII / FWS-1 night vision goggles, integrated with a weapon sight, use wireless technology to provide a dual-use helmet-mounted vision system. BAE said that "with the integration of both units, the image from the scope and the aiming mark can be instantly transmitted to the glasses, which gives a tactical advantage during close combat missions."
Location
Determining the location or coordinates of any object has always been an essential skill for a soldier to successfully complete a mission. This meant a good knowledge of the area and an accurate correlation with the map. But errors and incorrect calculations often occurred here. In addition, it was part of the duties of the commander, who could determine the position of only his unit. For a small unit, ideally, you need to know in real time the location of all its soldiers, its other units, and even the coordinates of the enemy's positions. To do this, you need to track the position of each soldier (or vehicle) and then be able to share this information with others. The ubiquitous availability of GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) networks and the miniaturization of GPS receivers makes this location information of every soldier readily available.
GPS allows you to track your own location, movement and, when using a mapping program, tie all received coordinates to the terrain. This system is now widespread and available on a wide variety of devices. It allows you to significantly expand your capabilities on the battlefield. For example, the US Marine Corps received the new Common Laser Rangefinder from Elbit Systems of America as a general purpose device. It includes GPS and a laser designator, allowing any user to determine the coordinates of targets with high accuracy.
However, the growing threat of potential jamming of GPS signals has sparked a growing interest in alternative technologies that could provide accurate coordinates when GPS signals are unavailable or degraded. These capabilities have long been available for combat vehicles in the form of inertial navigation systems, but at present this solution requires a lot of energy and this is too much of a load for a dismounted soldier. WINS (Warfighter Integrated Navigation System) is a portable device development project that makes extensive use of the advances in miniaturization, in particular inertial sensors. The WINS system, being developed at the Communication Electronics Research Center (CERDEC), uses multiple sensors to track a soldier's movement from the last known point and record steps, speed, time, altitude, and other factors to display the soldier's position on a map. The Center is also studying the possibility of using a so-called pseudo-satellite operating at low altitudes. It can be a balloon, a drone, or even a ground vehicle. Another promising technology is called Chip-Scale Atomic Clock or CSAC. It provides accurate time for the GPS receiver when jamming or signal loss, allowing quick signal re-acquisition. As the combat experience of Ukraine shows, interest in navigation / positioning not based on GPS has increased, but all these devices under development are still too raw.
Means of communication
The main means of maintaining communication between soldiers and commanders for many centuries remained the voice, as a rule, without any means of amplification. Simple shouts of commands and remarks might simply not be heard or misunderstood in the noise of the battle, or they would be inappropriate in cases where silence is needed. The solution here should also be simple. Deployment of small, light, squad radios allows small unit commanders and fighters to exchange voice messages and data.
The efficient transfer of commands and the distribution of tactical information within the unit remains a challenge. Firstly, effective means of its delivery and, secondly, effective means of its withdrawal. However, there are simpler ways to achieve improved situational awareness. By combining each soldier's assessment of his environment, it is possible to create and present a broader situational picture of the unit. The emphasis is on using technology to distribute this broader picture throughout the division.
One of the most important ways to achieve this goal is to simply maintain communication between all stakeholders. A Harris Corporation spokesperson said, “Digital technology has brought great benefits to the military by not only delivering the voice and data needed to maintain situational awareness, but also allowing connectivity to a variety of communications. Our new AN / PRC-163 radio uses frequency division technology that allows the user to receive information and direct it up and down the command chain, as well as a single network backbone, while connecting to computer devices, including Android smartphones. It can simultaneously transmit information through a combination of existing satellite communications, line-of-sight VHF communications and mobile peer-to-peer networks.” It is equally important that the soldier's devices are simple, lightweight and compact. PRC-163 weighs 1, 13 kg and has dimensions of 15, 24x7, 62x5, 08 cm. One of the features of the radio station is that it can transmit voice messages and data at the same time.
Thales Communications' SquadNet radio, according to a spokesperson, “includes a GPS system that allows secure transmission of data over Bluetooth to an Android device. This allows users to see not only their position, but also the location of their co-workers. It also has an auto relay mode, which is especially useful in urban, forest and mountainous areas. You can use up to three passes, which increases the range from 2.5 km to 6 km. SquadNet's own display allows soldiers to see their location and automatically share this information with other military personnel over the network. The issue of power supply has also been resolved, since the radio station can operate on its rechargeable battery for up to 28 hours, which eliminates the need to carry a spare battery with you.
Display
Providing the soldier with the necessary information is also important. In the process of looking for ways to raise awareness of the soldier and present a wider tactical picture, it is easy to overload him from a cognitive point of view and, thereby, actually reduce his ability to perform basic combat missions. One of the developers of the outfit of the future soldier GladiusldZ-ES (Infanterist der Zukunft-Erweitertes System) for the German Bundeswehr from Rheinmetall commented: “The key issue in the department is to maintain the cognitive load of the individual soldier at a reasonable level in accordance with his role in the department. The focus here is on simple and intuitive soldier functions.” He explained that “Gladius, first, at the squad level should provide a common operational picture for each squad member and higher command. Second, it must provide reliable voice and data exchange. Data should include targets, intermediate coordinates, maps, orders, hand-drawn sketches, pictures and videos. Finally, it must provide access to a picture of the location of its own and enemy forces. The idea is to improve the soldier's understanding of the environment outside his immediate environment, but be selective enough not to overwhelm him with details that are not directly related to the events taking place.
Feedback from the deployment of the first systems made a great contribution to their improvement, it allowed us to identify many problems and shortcomings and propose new ideas and solutions. For example, thermal imaging weapon sights were originally created as simple optical sights, that is, the soldier had to bow his head and direct his gaze along the barrel. This limited the scope of general observation. The French company SAFRAN, as part of the FELIN (Fantassin a Equipement et Liaisons Integres - integrated infantryman equipment and communications) program, has developed a system capable of capturing an image from a sight and displaying it on a monocular mounted on a helmet. The soldier can now move his head freely, while observing in an extremely wide sector, at the same time, if desired, he can also see a thermal image. A SAFRAN spokesman said that “it also allows the shooter to observe and shoot from around the corner. FELIN equipment was put into service in 2010, after which the company developed a more advanced version. New technologies are implemented in the NeoFelis outfit and the comments of users are taken into account."
The US Army's Communications Electronics R&D Center is developing a bright, high-resolution 2048x2048-pixel microdisplay, about the size of a postage stamp. The ultimate goal is to have a practical head-to-head display. As the Nett Warrior System demonstrates, today's helmet-mounted microdisplays cannot read text and data properly. As a result, soldiers need to look down at the handheld display to obtain coordinates and other data. In this case, they can easily lose control of the situation in front of them. The new helmet-mounted microdisplay solves this problem. The microdisplay presents the soldier not only with a clear display of what is ahead, day or night, it can also display multiple layers, for example, maps and symbols showing the location of their units and enemy forces.
Based on the experience of deploying previous systems and user feedback, it was concluded that the soldier should have seamless control of his weapon. This meant that the radio station, sight and other systems must be installed on the weapon itself. In this case, the introduction of wireless channels of the BlueTooth standard may be a good solution. Wireless communication has the advantage over wired communication in that it eliminates cables that can cling to branches and get tangled underfoot. The combination of these wireless solutions with a helmet-mounted display can further simplify the shooter's ability to obtain information about his surroundings by viewing information without tilting his head while moving and observing from around a corner.
Integrated solutions
Achieving the proper level of situational awareness for the frontline soldier requires an integrated approach. The British Laboratory for Defense Science and Technology implements a similar solution in its DCCS system (Dismounted Close Combat Sensors). The modular DCCS system includes GPS, inertial navigation system and tracking subsystem. The system includes a helmet-mounted camera plus weapon-mounted lasers, a new thermal imaging sight and built-in magnetic sensors. The commander can not only see where the soldier is, but also where his weapon is directed.
DCCS is currently in the demonstration phase. However, the use of ready-made civilian technologies in it may well serve as a model for the creation of promising soldier systems. This would keep the cost of the systems at such a level that they could be purchased in sufficient quantity to be deployed in each department, right down to the equipment of an individual soldier. Affordability can be the biggest obstacle to the advancement of the individual soldier's situational awareness systems. The military leaders believe that the most advanced system, even released in limited quantities, will always be with those with whom it is necessary, in the right place and at the right time. This is, to say the least, a dubious assumption. It may be better to adopt less advanced and sophisticated solutions - those that can be provided to each individual fighter.
