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 Western militaries. He may yet get an opportunity to put that vision into practice – but if so, it may ironically be via a centralized “big-budget package” program. Petah Tikva-based ITL Optronics Ltd. and its Mikal Ltd. “subsidiary”[1] recently won an initial $1 million grant from the US Marine Corps to develop “future battledress,” as part of a competition against General Dynamics Corp. for a $50 million tender. General Dynamics is currently the lead integrator for the US Army’s “Land Warrior” future force program So, what is “future battledress”? Required equipment in the “future battledress” reportedly include a wearable computer with a GPS navigation system, C3 (Command, Control & Communications) software for that computer, directional video, a target acquisition kit and laser rangefinder that can ‘paint’ targets for attack, and a helmet-based screen that includes video for receiving transmissions and displaying command-and-control information. At any rate, the first stage of the competition involved comparison tests between […]