ASSOCIATION OF THE UNITED STATES ARMY

The items soldiers carry into battle today and into the future are being identified and developed with more precision, thanks to at least one new process that has emerged through the Army’s modernization initiatives.

Refining an early modernization idea of the “soldier as a system,” the Soldier Lethality Cross-Functional Team at Fort Benning, Georgia, said it has adapted and codified a new way of approaching soldiers’ needs, through a process called “soldier-centered design.”

Unmanned systems on the battlefield are an inevitable consequence of the rise in lethal, precision weapons that make human survival unlikely, said former Deputy Defense Secretary Robert O. Work.

Speaking April 24 at a Mad Scientist Conference in Austin, Texas, Work said the U.S. won’t be able to recruit or afford a force large enough to fight in future megacity combat and won’t be able to protect soldiers who could be deployed.

Army systems using artificial intelligence will require battlefield security to prevent information from being altered or blocked, says the U.S. Army Research Laboratory director, who specializes in sensors and electronic devices.

Speaking at the Army Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence Symposium and Exposition in Detroit, Philip Perconti cautioned that data can be hacked, and signals and information in the field can be altered. If that happens, soldiers will lose trust in the systems and turn them off. 

The application of artificial intelligence to solving battlefield challenges runs a risk of making it harder on commanders, warns Peter Schwartz, the lead enterprise systems engineer for the MITRE Corp.

The U.S. Army Futures Command is the service’s “scout into the future,” and what it does “will determine victory or defeat on future battlefields,” Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley said Aug. 24 as the new organization was activated in Austin, Texas.

Agility will be the key to meeting the logistical challenges of providing for the warfighter on a more dispersed battlefield, DoD’s chief logistician says.

Army Lt. Gen. Darrell K. Williams, director of the Defense Logistics Agency, said support for the U.S. military’s global mission has moved from that of a regional static supply chain to one that can respond more quickly through strong partnerships with all the services across the globe.

The Army needs to think big when preparing for future combat, a former DoD policy and force structure planner told a House committee.

“We need to field armed forces that possess depth and resilience, to be able to fight, accept damage and recover,” said Tom Mahnken of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, who worked on the 2006 and 2010 Quadrennial Defense Reviews and on the National Defense Strategy Commission. “Today our forces lack readiness and are in dire need of modernization.

New industry designs to enhance soldier protection are one of the key exhibit hall themes during this week’s Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting and Exposition.

Saab Defense and Security, for example, is displaying its new Barracuda Mobile Breakaway camouflage system. According to Brian Keller, president and general manager of Saab Barracuda, the new system is already being fielded to U.S Special Operations Command (USSOCOM).

The system combines some mobile camouflage elements with traditional static camouflage designs.