Future Infantry/Soldier

Army Field Tests Lightweight, Flexible Solar Panels: Solar Powered Soldiers?

by David Crane david@defensereview.com Back in June 2004, DefenseReview reported on the U.S. Army’s development of photovoltaic tech to power U.S. Army tents and even soldiers themselves by integrating lightweight, flexible solar panels with tent and combat uniforms/BDU fabric.  The article was titled, "U.S. Army Develops Lightweight, Flexible Solar Panels to Power Troops", and it contains a host of relevant links to the …

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ATK XM25 25mm Grenade Launcher for Future Infantry. Will it fly?

by David Crane david@defensereview.com On April 27th (2005), Alliant Techsystems, Inc. (ATK) issued a press release on their semi-auto XM25 25mm "advanced airbursting" MGL (multiple grenade launcher) through PR Newswire. ATK calls it the XM25 "Air-Burst Assault Weapon". DefenseReview has known about the XM25 development program for awhile, now, but we never quite got around to writing about it. So …

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LPS Teams with Major U.S. Defense Contractor to Develop DREAD Centrifuge Weapon

by David Crane david@defensereview.com Ever since DefenseReview first ran the exclusive on Leader Propulsion Systems’ (LPS) DREAD Weapon System/MPDS (Multiple Projecile Delivery System) centrifuge weapon system (or, centrifuge gun) it has attracted wide interest from both the military and private sectors in the U.S. and overseas. Leader Propulsion Systems (LPS) just informed DefRev that it has signed up with… a …

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Intermat Stealth Anti-Thermal/IR Camouflage Tech for Infantry and Special Operations Forces

by David Crane david@defensereview.com April 22, 2005 Remember what Arnold Shwarzenegger’s character, Major Dutch Schaeffer, accidentally stumbled onto towards the end of "Predator" (1987), that allowed him to defeat the alien hunter’s high-tech thermal/IR (infrared) vision–you know, right after Dutch’s entire team had been systematically butchered by said alien? If not, I’ll tell ya’. It was mud. Simple grey Amozonian …

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Metal Storm 40mm Weapon System/Talon Robot Live-Fire Demo for U.S. Military

by David Crane david@defensereview.com A 16-round Metal Storm prototype 40mm grenade launcher system attached to/mounted on a Foster-Miller Talon Robot/UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle) apparently successfully completed a series of live-fire tests in front of approx. 100 senior scientific and technical personnel from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and selected military defense industry representatives at a U.S. Army’s firing range …

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Next-Gen Modular Wearable Computer Systems Being Developed for US Marine Corps

by David Crane david@defensereview.com Below is a press release that DefenseReview recently received from Symbionics, Inc. and Icuiti Corporation about a U.S. Marine Corps contract they just won to develop modular wearable computer (MOWC) systems for Marine Corps infantry personnel. Symbionics and Icuiti are working with the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory (MCWL) in this endeavor. These integrated technologies are actually …

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More iRobot Packbot Robotic Infantry Soldiers Headed to Afghanistan and Iraq

by David Crane david@defensereview.com On March 17th, 2005, it was announced that iRobot (headquartered in Burlington, MA) has won an $18.4 million Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) contract to provide 150 of its PackBot EOD Hazardous Duty Mobile Robots to the U.S. Navy by the end of 2005 for the purpose of explosive ordanced disposal operations. These robots, already battle-proven/combat-proven …

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V-RAMBO ‘Wrist Video’ System Puts Real-Time Video Right on Soldiers’ Wrists

by David Crane david@defensereview.com An Israeli company called Tadiran Spectralink Ltd. (Holon, Israel), a member of the Elisra Group, has just advanced the military combat application of telepresence a step further with their wrist-mounted Video Receiver And Monitor for Battlefield Operations, or V-RAMBO, for short. Tadiran Spectralink refers to the technology that V-Rambo utilizes as "Wrist-Displayed Vital UAV-Derived Intelligence". Basically, …

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Robo-Soldier Ready for Combat Deployment to Iraq for Urban Warfare/CI Ops

by David Crane david@defensereview.com This article contains the first digital photo of a camouflaged/combat-ready/field-ready Foster-Miller Armed/Weaponized Talon Robot/UGV (Unmanned Ground Vehicle), a.k.a. SWORDS robot of which DefenseReview is aware. The weapon attached to the Talon Robot/SWORDS robot in the pic would appear to be an AT4 anti-armor/anti-tank weapon (ATW) (i.e. rocket launcher), which is produced by Saab Bofors Dynamics, Weapon …

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New Tech: 24th Army Science Conference (ASC 2004) Articles and Pics

by David Crane david@defensereview.com DefenseReview is going to be publishing articles along with hi-res digital pictures from the 24th Army Science Conference (ASC 2004), this week. These will include pics of a functional electro-magnetic rail gun built by the Institute for Advanced Technology (IAT) at the University of Texas at Austin (and the projectile it fires, which DefenseReview has), the …

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