Changing technology

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.

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.

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.