Future Soldier Programmes

[sakina]

I am quite interested in the different future soldier programmes out there. I have seen the Wikipedia page 'Future Soldier' and been through many of the links and looked at the programmes in:

USA
Germany
Switzerland
UK
France
Australia
Czech
India
Poland
Singapore
Belgium
Israel
Canda
South Africa
Italy
Spain
Netherlands
Norway
Portugal
Sweden

Does anybody know of any others around the world or any that are in the pipeline? I would expect that other countries would be following suit. Especially once some of the technology matures.

Also, some of these programmes are not very clear about what sort of quantities of soldiers they are intending to upgrade and the timescales planned to complete these programmes in. If anyone has any ideas about this sort of information, I would be grateful.

 

[Tavarisch]

The US Army has the upcoming Future Combat Systems. It's set to be ready by 2025, though some people suggest possible delays as the budget is high and given the recent economic recession, progress would be indefinitely delayed.

The FCS networks troops to a single channel, where the commander can easily relay operation orders to every unit on the battlefield. It would appear the use of Heavy Armor like the M1A2 Abrams would be no longer continued. However, these tanks are likely to remain in service until they have aged significantly. To replace mobile firepower is the XM series of vehicles. They range from Behind-Line-of-Sight artillery platforms to a mounted Combat vehicle with a 140 mm gun to a command vehicle to every other possible vehicle required to operate on the battlefield. UAVs are uplinked to this network as well.

Infantry are equipped with a standard 5.56 NATO Assault Rifle which is most likely modular, given their possible tasks. They have satellite intelligence and have sophisticated computers integrated into their helmets. A bit heavy, but I guess that's the cost a future soldier must bear. Body armor is standard, no changes there I think.

I am unaware though of the way the Airforce would be affected by this system. I would assume that they would be coordinated with ground forces via an Air-force controller.