In the spring of 2019, the USA presented their vision for the further development of the "Soldier of the Future" concept. The main emphasis of the US military is going to be on the human-centered concept. At the forefront is the fighter and the maximum relief of his life both in everyday life and on the battlefield. It is the human-centric approach that is declared as one of the main features of the development of this direction of military thought.
Soldier of the future
In many ways, the emergence of the concept of "Soldier of the Future" and related projects took place back in the 1960s in the United States during the Vietnam War. The development of the concept was associated with an increase in the losses of American servicemen, which were planned to be reduced in various available ways. In the USSR, similar work began actively against the background of a large-scale military conflict - the war in Afghanistan. This concept reached its greatest development already in the 21st century, and today in many countries of the world work is underway to increase the efficiency and productivity of both individual soldiers and small tactical units.
First of all, scientists and engineers are working to increase the combat effectiveness of each individual soldier who is directly involved in hostilities, mainly on foot in various theaters of military operations. Taking into account the technical advances that have become available to mankind in the 21st century, the concept has received a serious impetus to development, the informatization and computerization of both individual military personnel and tactical units began to play a huge role. Modern projects for the creation of the "Soldier of the Future" are necessarily focused on integrating fighters into a digital battle management system, which allows the command to receive a lot of useful combat information in real time and better coordinate and control entrusted troops, and set combat missions implemented in practice.
In many ways, the whole concept is built around the creation of new equipment and models of personal weapons for servicemen. The main purpose is to increase the combat effectiveness of soldiers and tactical units. This is achieved by increasing the information connectivity of the entire unit, as well as facilitating the coordination of servicemen among themselves and with higher command in combat conditions. A separate area is increasing the survival rate of servicemen in battle by creating new means of protection not only for helmets and body armor, but also for "dynamic armor", special thermostatic fabrics, and mine detection systems. Much attention is also paid to facilitating the physical load on the fighters and increasing their mobility on the march and in battle, this is achieved both through the use of modern lighter means of protection and materials, and through the appearance of exoskeletons. As part of the concept of creating a "soldier of the future", modern means of chemical and biological protection, electronic sights and weapons control systems are also being developed, which allow you to hit the enemy with minimal use of ammunition and reduce the risks associated with the human factor, for example, save from "friendly fire" …
New American Future Soldier Concept
An updated look at the well-known concept consists in just one word "human-centric" (the phrase human-centric is used to refer to this term). It is the person-centered approach that is the key feature of the project. The goal set by the Americans is formulated as follows: "the desire to ensure that our military personnel are the best in the world equipped, protected, fed and dressed." They are going to achieve this by reducing the load on the fighters, increasing combat effectiveness and improving living conditions. To this end, Doug Tomilio, director of the United States Army Soldier Systems Center (CCDC) Soldier Center, is proposing to change everything from exoskeletons to new boots and from conditions at forward bases to new materials. reports the newspaper "Izvestia".
In total, the US Army Combat Development Department (CCDC) has identified nine main directions for the development of the "Soldier of the Future" concept:
1. Food for the fighters.
2. Creation of new individual rations.
3. Development of technologies and systems of the soldier (all equipment and corresponding interfaces and infrastructure).
4. Technologies for supporting life in unforeseen circumstances and shelters for soldiers.
5. Landing of servicemen and cargo.
6. New fabrics.
7. Simulation and modeling.
8. "Advanced military technology" (involves the development and implementation of most modern technologies, for example, miniature UAVs, known as nano-UAVs).
9. Basing and logistics.
The concept of further development of the idea of the "Soldier of the Future" is now based on two main observations. First, a modern soldier should not “endure hardships and deprivation of military service” if there is a way to avoid it. The Americans are sure that practice unambiguously says that a fighter with "cola and conditioner" is more effective and poses a great danger to an opponent who fights not only with the enemy, but also with living conditions. Second, there should be no trifles in the army, especially in such a complex logistic complex as the interaction of soldiers with dozens of different services. This is explained by a simple example: one of the sub-items of the area "food for soldiers" is the work on saving water for washing dishes. The logic is simple and clear: reducing water consumption - reducing the load on logistics services - increasing the volume of delivery of goods for other purposes.
New "Soldier of the Future" helmet
In shaping the appearance of the soldier of the future, a helmet plays an important role, which has long performed not only protective functions. One of the benefits of the new helmet should be a 40 percent reduction in weight through the use of new materials. It is believed that new goggles with a thermal imager, a night vision device with "image intensifiers" (image intensifiers), will be integrated into the helmet, especially useful in low light conditions. It is reported that the new helmet will be linked to sensors mounted on the fighter's weapon, projecting everything that is visible in the scope.
An important feature of the new helmet should be an integrated visual augmentation system or augmented reality (Integrated Visual Augmentation System). Currently, the first HoloLens augmented reality glasses are already being tested in the American army, the development of which is the responsibility of the famous company Microsoft, which won the corresponding tender in December 2018. According to information published in the media, the amount of the contract between the US Army and Microsoft for this project is estimated at $ 480 million. In total, the American army expects to purchase up to 100 thousand of such devices, and their final adoption is scheduled for 2028.
A feature of the glasses, into which it is planned to integrate the night vision system, is the user interface (augmented reality), which is superimposed on the picture of the real world seen by the fighter. Various useful additional information is superimposed on top of a picture usual for the human eye. The display of the glasses can display a compass, time, important dynamic notes and images, informing the soldier about which side allies and opponents are. It is assumed that such glasses will become indispensable not only in battle, but also in the training process.
It remains only to decide how exactly to integrate all the elements of the new helmet with each other. After solving this problem, it will be possible to focus on solving new ones, which include work in the field of reducing the negative impact on soldiers of excessive pressure and noise, as well as the negative impact of bright flashes of light (the simplest example is during explosions). If we talk simply about the helmet itself, then the most perfect at this point in time is the IHPS (Integrated Head Protection System) protective helmet, which is already being tested in the 82nd American Airborne Division. According to the developers, the helmet weighs less than the 1, 51 kg ESN (Enhanced Combat Helmet) in service, provides the same level of ballistic protection, but copes 100 percent better with impacts to the head area. We are talking about blows with blunt objects. First of all, this minimizes not the consequences of hand-to-hand combat, but the impact of debris and elements of buildings, stones, clods of earth raised by the explosion, arriving at the soldier.
Transition to caliber 6, 8 mm
According to the development of the concept of "Soldier of the Future", the US military should receive new models of small arms. In this case, the entire complex is subject to replacement, from the famous M4 automatic carbine and its modifications to the M249 SAW light machine gun. The American military made a difficult but fundamental decision - they are going to transfer the army from cartridge 5, 56x45 NATO to a new cartridge of 6, 8 mm. Promising small arms in a new caliber are already being developed as part of the Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) program, it is planned to begin replacing existing samples from 2025. And testing of the first images of small arms under the new cartridge is planned to begin in the summer of 2019.
Little is known about the 6, 8 mm cartridge itself. There is not even information about whether the new cartridge will be built on the basis of the previously repeatedly considered replacement for the.280 NATO cartridge or will become a completely new ammunition. From the statements of the American military it is known that they expect to retain all the best qualities of the heavier 7.62 mm ammunition while reducing the weight of the cartridge by 10 percent. In this case, the sleeve of the new cartridge will not be made of brass, a special polymer is called a possible material.
If we talk about the prospects of the weapon itself, then its improvement within the framework of the concept of a soldier of the future presupposes following the previously repeatedly voiced features: the use of lighter materials; decrease in recoil; improved ergonomics; electromechanical descent; increase in the range of aimed fire. Also, the weapon is supposed to be equipped with an ammunition counter so that the fighter always knows how many cartridges he has left. Separately, we can highlight the creation of new sighting systems, which should become adapted fire control systems, usually standing on heavy models of military equipment, but miniature and meeting the capabilities and tasks of a simple soldier.
Situational awareness and UAVs
One of the directions of the development of the concept of "Soldier of the Future" is to increase the situational awareness of soldiers and the growth of intelligence capabilities. At the same time, it is planned to increase the growth of not just small tactical units of the squad-platoon link, but also of each individual soldier on the battlefield. Currently, work is underway in the United States to create modern tools that should help fighters work in conditions of suppression of the enemy's GPS navigation system and communications. In the future, each fighter will have to be able to "look into the next room and around the corner."
At a base in Fort Breg, North Carolina, where the first augmented reality goggles are already being tested, the US military is testing new miniature drones known as nano-drones. The training of fighters is carried out according to a variety of scenarios that soldiers can face in real combat conditions. The drone should be the first such device to be available to the military at the squad level and below. In fact, an individual soldier will be able to use the information from it. The emergence of an unmanned aerial vehicle at such a low level should in the long term reduce losses, injuries and injuries on the part of military personnel, since the drone will significantly increase their situational awareness of the combat situation by taking over reconnaissance functions. Instead of real fighters, it will be possible to send a small drone for reconnaissance.
New individual diet
The modern army is not only new materials and technologies related to personal weapons of fighters, personal protection, clothing and footwear, communications and intelligence equipment, but also food, which plays a very important role. Insufficient or poor-quality nutrition leads to a loss of working capacity, fatigue, a decrease in endurance, and has a bad effect on the psychological state of a soldier. At the same time, modern individual diets are moving in the same direction as the rest of the system of the soldier of the future. The creators of the IRP are working to reduce their weight, which should reduce the burden on the military.
New individual rations are currently being tested in the United States, designated Close Combat Assaut Ration (CCAR). According to experts, if at present a detachment of soldiers requires about 128 kg of food in the form of dry rations for a week, the new rations have been reduced by 39 percent by weight, by 42 percent by volume and by 35 percent in cost with the same calorie content. as in previous MREs. The new diet is currently at the prototype stage. But already now, the creators have managed to achieve that the daily ration weighs 1.5 kg, it was possible to do this through the use of vacuum microwave drying technology. In the long run, it should take up 75 percent less space than a set of similar MRE diets with the same calorie content. This is especially important for fighters who have long field trips ahead. For example, on a five-day mission, instead of 15 packs of MRE, soldiers will be able to take only 5 packs of CCARs of lower weight and volume, getting the 3000 kcal per day they need. The space saved in the backpack can be used more profitably by taking more ammo, medicine, equipment or water.
