IdZ-ES components(click to view full) The German Bundeswehr's 21st century IdZ (Infanterist der Zukunft, or "Infantryman Of The Future") project, is part of a wider global trend in advanced militaries: fully integrated sets of weapons, computing, and sighting systems...
Infantry-21: Switzerland’s IMESS
Swiss militia(click to view full) A number of countries are currently developing "future soldier" kits that attempt to give soldiers the same kind of advanced technologies now going into vehicles, aircraft, etc., including wearable computers, helmet displays, video...
Infantry-21: Land Warrior’s Reviews – And Resurrection?
Land Warrior(click to view full) In the Pentagon's April 2007 Selected Acquisition Report, the US Army's $4 billion "Infantry-21" program - Land Warrior - lists as terminated. Which is true; Federal Computing Weekly has more. Noah Shachtman at WIRED's Danger Room...
Infantry-21: Spanish Future Soldier Contract to EADS
Spanish soldier: now(click to view full) In September 2006, EADS Defence & Security Systems Spain received a EUR 24.5 million contract for the system design and development of the "COMbatiente FUTuro" (COMFUT) program. EADS-DS Spain will lead a group of Spanish...
Infantry-21: ITL Bidding on Marines Future Battle Dress
ITL TactNet In our August 24, 2006 article, ITL Optronics CEO Eli Venezia set out his vision re: the future of infantry equipment - which tended toward a far more decentralized and incremental model than the all-in-one "future force" initiatives under way in several...
Australia Turns to Elbit for its Battle Management System
BMS display(click to view full) Battle management systems are designed to cut through the "fog of war" by tracking unit location and passing data, so friendly units and command centers can keep track of what's going on. These BMS systems-of-systems change the kinds of...
Slimmer, Trimmer US Army Land Warrior System Moves Ahead
Slimmer and Trimmer(click to view larger) A couple of years ago, it looked like the Land Warrior program was dead due to soldiers' concerns that the equipment was too heavy and complex. However, after trimming down the system from 17 pounds to 7.2 pounds, the Army is...
Bureaucracy $ = Battery $: QinetiQ Gets Contract to Fix This
Carry that weight...(click to view full) DID has discussed the growing importance of batteries to modern troops in the field, and the escalating power requirements of the new "Infantry-21" future equipment sets. The British government has QinetiQ working on that...
Germany’s FuInfoSys C4I System
(click to view full) Rheinmetall and KMW both issued releases recently, discussing contracts they've won as part of Germany's FuInfoSys Heer (FuInfoSys H) program. DID has discussed FuInfoSys briefly in the context of the IdZ "Infantry-21" program. Now the working...
European R&D Aims at Interoperability for Software-Defined Radios
Britain's new FIST(click for labeled view) DID has covered the trend toward integrated high-tech infantry ensembles before, and also noted the European Defence Agency's concerns re: lack of interoperability between the various national programs. As software-defined...