Technology has changed the world. Technology has transformed
the military immensely. Technology has changed the way we operate in
radiotellocommunications, it’s changed the way we use radios in the field and
the way we operate tactically. Communications via radio has changed from using
our voices to radios attached to our helmets.
Nikola Tesla experimentally demonstrated the transmission
and radiation of radio frequency energy in 1892 and 1893 proposing that it
might be used for the telecommunication of information. In 1897, Tesla applied
for two key United States radio patents, US 645576, first radio system patent,
and US 649621. Tesla also used sensitive electromagnetic receivers that were
unlike the less responsive coheres later used by Marconi and other early
experimenters. Shortly thereafter, he began to develop wireless remote control
devices. The radio and invention of radiotellocommunications created a boom in
the military. They realized that radios can be used on the battle field, for
transmitting coordinates, communicating with each other, the radio also filled
out other applications for the military. With the development of the radio they
could communicate from sections to sections to platoons, to companies, to
battalions, to regiments and to brigades. Countless lives have been saved due
to radios. For example, if you’re a soldier in the field and you come under
fire and you find yourself ‘pinned’, and you can’t get out. Today’s date you
would call for artillery, ordinance or an attack helicopter using a radio, back
in the civil war, over in America, they didn't have radios to communicate, they
had one person running to and from each other. Radios have revolutionized the
way in which we operate tactically as a body of troops.
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| US soldier with Land Worrier |
There’s been development in the heads-up-display units on
each section leader, starting in 2007. Land Warrior is a US army program,
cancelled in 2007, but restarted in 2008, its off-the-shelf technology and
current-issue military gear and equipment designed to, integrate small arms
with high-tech equipment, provide communications and command and control at the
infantry soldier level, look at the individual infantry soldier as a complete
unit rather than as a segment of a larger force. The systems and technology of
the Land Warrior program are to be rolled into the Future Force Warrior
program.
While technology had long been a primary focus of the U.S.
Armed Forces, very little of it had actually been used by the U.S. Army
infantry soldier. With growing concerns of urban warfare and the amount of infantry
actions, the U.S. Army recognized the need to upgrade an individual
infantryman. The Land Warrior program drew upon many wearable computer
concepts, and maximized existing technologies.
The SI (Stryker Interoperable) version of the system
completed U.S. Army testing as of November 2004. Due to limited resources, and
issues with the overall weight of the system, Land Warrior was cancelled by the
Army in February 2007, but restarted in July 2007. Despite the initial system's
cancellation the 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team (SBCT) was deployed to Iraq as
part of the spring 2007 "surge" of U.S. forces, and used the Land
Warrior, on which they had trained for the previous few years.
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| US soldier with Land Worrier Heads-Up-Display |
The unit its self is like wearing a hi-tech computer. The bulk
of the unit is located to the beck of the soldier, it is attached to a Modular
Lightweight Load-carrying Equipment (MOLLE) load- bearing system this unit also
includes body protection armor. The Helmet Subsystem (HSS) combined with a
lightweight advanced helmet with a computer and OLED display that provides
various information from digital maps and troop locations down to his
weapon-mounted video camera. This is what would have allowed the soldier to see
and fire around corners. The HSS also incorporated a microphone as well as a
headset. The original system was built around the M16 rifle or M4 carbine, both
with modular rail mounts to allow customization as needed for each mission. It
included the weapon itself, plus components such as a daylight video sight,
thermal weapons sight and MFL (Multi-Function Laser). The MFL provided range
and direction information, as well as IR, visible, and MILES lasers, while the
cameras provided a video feed and theromographic capabilities, plus allowing a
soldier to shoot around corners or behind cover without actually exposing
himself to enemy fire. This is highly effective for confirming kills without
exposing one's position. The Navigation Subsystem (NSS) provided positional
information, it integrates a GPS receiver that maintains accurate location when
GPS signal becomes unavailable. The Communication Network Radio Subsystem
(CNRS) provided communications capabilities for the Land Warrior. Land
Warrior's software system was powered by a variant of the Linux operating
system and has a modular, open architecture for further improvement.
Reliability in recent testing at Fort Benning has been extremely high. The Land
Warrior software suite contains six main software packages for weapon sights
and for data. They have now built a Land Warrior Vehicle unit for vehicles. With
this combat capability unit, you could be the perfect soldier in any
environment, whether it could be suburban, urban or desert, at anytime and
anywhere.
Technology has changed my life for when I go out field. Although we have new hand- held radios sometime
when we go out on field exercises we still use AN/PRC- 77 sets, which were old radios
used in 2008. It’s good to still use a piece of history to complete objectives.
If we did not have radios in the field we would do a lot of running around not
knowing what to do, so thank you to Nikola Tesla and everyone else who
contributed to the invention of the radio.
