Now this is my kind of porn!

[gridlore]

Future Combat Systems 2005

Watching this makes me wish I was 17 and just enlisting again. Seeing concepts that were science-fiction just a few years ago reaching the point of being deployable is just far too cool. Take the HUD display showing where all your friendlies are and their status. I first read that in Starship Troopers when I was eight, and now it is reality.

I've been reading up on the FCS program, and one of things they're trying to do is figure out a way to incorporate weapons status into the system. Say I'm carrying a M-4 carbine with seven 30-round magazines. (One in the weapon, six in pouches.) The system would be told what I'm carrying, and the weapon would know how many rounds it has fired. So my platoon sergeant or squad leader will be able to tell how many rounds every man has left for his primary weapon. Add in health monitors (like a simple pulse/blood pressure system) and both the chain of command and the medics will be alerted if something suddenly goes haywire (i.e. and sudden spike in pulse rate accompanied by loss of blood pressure.)

The use of robots is especially exciting. Skinny as I am, I was always the guy elected to crawl down the corridor and see what was going on in MOUT (Military Operations in Urbanized Terrain) situations. Having a little robot do the job would have been much easier on my nerves. Same thing for UAVs. Intelligence is everything in a firefight. You cannot imagine how confusing even a battle between two squads in broad daylight can be - even in training! Anything that increases our ability to know what is going on around us is a good thing.

Of course, all this has to pass the "kick test." (Can it survive being drop-kicked across a football field?) and is several years away from operational deployment, but the future seems to be arriving. Next step: powered armor!

Comments

[todkaninchen.livejournal.com]

"I've been reading up on the FCS program, and one of things they're trying to do is figure out a way to incorporate weapons status into the system. Say I'm carrying a M-4 carbine with seven 30-round magazines. (One in the weapon, six in pouches.) The system would be told what I'm carrying, and the weapon would know how many rounds it has fired. So my platoon sergeant or squad leader will be able to tell how many rounds every man has left for his primary weapon."

After reading "On Killing" by Grossman, I wonder if this might increase battle fatigue casualties...

Grossman

[speaker2packets.livejournal.com]

Are you thinking that the stress would be increased by the chain of command knowing whether anyone is not firing, or the aspect of making it much harder to miss deliberately?

OTOH, I wonder if this type of linkage would create the effect of a shared experience and responsibility. Remember Grossman commented that even in front-line infantry, soldiers on crew-served weapons were more likely to fire than people with individual weapons.

Yet another aspect: would killing be depersonalized, other than hand-to-hand, if you see the target only in a sensor? I remember reading various accounts from Desert Storm is how gunners were weirdly amused by apparent balls floating a little above an Iraqi tank -- those were heads (and their heat signature) as seen through thermal viewers.

[jeffreyab.livejournal.com]

Too bad the whole system is built around the M4 Carbine.

Any word on a replacement?

[kengr]

You realize, of course, that video is effectively a training film on TL 11 or better trrops against TL8 or troops, don't you? :-)

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Yup. The Gomers (our generic term for enemy troops) were pretty helpless.

Not the Three Laws of Robotics:

[speaker2packets.livejournal.com]

Clarke's Second Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Crowley's Corollary: Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.

Murphy's Variant: Any sufficiently advanced technology at a trade show is indistinguishable from a rigged demo.

Physiological monitoring

[speaker2packets.livejournal.com]

Add in health monitors (like a simple pulse/blood pressure system) and both the chain of command and the medics will be alerted if something suddenly goes haywire (i.e. and sudden spike in pulse rate accompanied by loss of blood pressure.).

You've had me thinking. Pulse isn't hard to measure remotely and noninvasively, using a pulse oximeter and possibly capnometer, which give you oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood. The latter two would be most relevant to prioritizing casualties, but would be interesting to see if you could infer acute injury.

Noninvasive and unobtrusive blood pressure measurement is fairly hard. You'd probably have to use a Doppler ultrasound sensor.

There are other useful parameters, though. Temperature would be very useful in high- or low-temperature environments, giving the chain of command warning of heat injury or hypothermia. There's now a noninvasive blood glucose skin electrode, just approved for children now, but would also give an indication of needing food.