Land Warrior plans evolve

Lieutenant Colonel Brian Cummings, Product Manager Land Warrior discusses how the programme is taking its experience from deployment in Iraq and feeding that into next and future generations of fielded systems

Land Warrior is at a turning point after the hiatus caused by the programme’s cancellation in 2006 and parallel decision to field a Land Warrior equipped battalion in Iraq, where it continues to operate successfully. The Army’s leadership is now seeking over $100m to fund a Land Warrior equipped Brigade Combat Team (BCT) in 2009 and is about to embark on the Future Combat Systems (FCS) aligned Ground Soldier System (GSS) programme later this year, with testing for GSS being initially supported by sets from the Manchu battalion as it returns from theatre.

MODERNISATION OVERVIEW

“Our main focus is focusing on cutting weight and real estate on the soldier’s body.” © DoD

The 4/9 Manchu Infantry battalion, part of the 4th Stryker BCT, has been in Iraq for over a year. They will shortly be returning home with their Land Warrior systems, the design for which will be improved for the next generation of users explained Lt. Col. Brian Cummings, Product Manager Land Warrior at Program Executive Office (PEO) Soldier. “They have been able to give us great insight and the systems have given enormous benefit to the soldier in battle. The Army has approved an Operational Needs Statement (ONS) to field a brigade and it is still looking to resource that in the near future to build up a next generation of equipment for a complete BCT. Land Warrior is already a winner with the soldiers, so the capability is already good enough for what they need. However, everyone wants the next great human factors design and that will be the next big change we will make to the system.”

The overall capability will essentially be the same between the current and the new Land Warrior equipment sets. Lt. Col Cummings commented, “You will still have the same tactical awareness capability. Essentially, other than software updates the biggest change that will take place is in human factors engineering; cutting down the number of boxes and the weight of the system from 10lbs (4.5Kg) to about 7.2lb (3.2Kg).”

“Our main focus is focusing on cutting weight and real estate of the soldier body,” Lt. Col. Cummings explained. For the last two years, the PEO Soldier engineering team has been undertaking reviews with the Manchu’s leadership and the soldiers in the unit in four – six month cycles. This has already prompted a series of new software updates and integration with other platforms, all the way from testing at Fort Lewis in 2006 and throughout the battalion’s deployment. Lt. Col. Cummings said, “We have reduced weight and given back real estate, in part by getting rid of some of the capability that hasn’t been used as much as others.”

Much of this reduction was in eliminating capability that wasn’t being used. Lt. Col Cummings explained that soldiers hated additional cabling and weight on their weapon if they didn’t use it, citing the Weapon Sub-System as an example.

The need to equip a brigade rather than a battalion has prompted other changes in the system, as have the specifics of the Iraq mission sets, such as personnel from field artillery units undertaking ‘infantry’ patrols. This has already prompted the roll out of Land Warrior ensembles to several non-infantry units working with the Manchus. “One of the best success stories that we have in Iraq is outfitting the 2/1 Cavalry Troop, who have done really well with the system,” explained Lt. Col. Cummings. Other recipients include the brigade personal security attachment and in February this was extended to the 1-38 Infantry Time Sensitive Target team, tasked with air assault missions. Ultimately however, the roll out had to be limited, “We had to turn off getting any more systems out because we had only built so many to bring over there, to sustain it and that is where it had to stop, but demand continues to grow.”

Numbers of Land Warrior in service will self evidently rise in absolute and proportionate terms from the current 200 plus with the Manchus, when the BCT is equipped. “We plan to give the system not only to infantry battalions across the basis of issue but throughout the brigade to include the anti-armour, engineers, field artillery and the cavalry – anybody who could potentially in be the close fight with the

enemy. Individual soldier’s role within that unit will determine what portions of the equipment they actually get.” Lt. Col. Cummings said, “If you ask the Infantry School what the perfect basis of issue is, across the brigade spectrum for everyone who will be in the close fight, you are up around the 900-980 range for the next generation of Land Warrior.”

“We plan to give the system not only to infantry battalions across the basis of issue but
throughout the brigade to include the anti-armour, engineers, field artillery and the cavalry –
anybody who could potentially in be the close fight with the enemy.” © DoD

Other systems will be more deeply integrated into Land Warrior brigade, notably the Boomerang countersniper detection system already deployed with Land Warrior on a limited basis in Iraq from late last year. Lt. Col. Cummings commented, “The lesson learned from that is that we now need to move the sensor down to the individual soldier so that he can pick up the direction and distance of the sniper fire and the distance from his display.” Other improvements to ISR will also be added, “We want to be able to capture images from UAVs. All the things we either weren’t able to do or could do but in a limited capacity in Iraq, we plan to do on a larger scale when we get back to Fort Lewis.”

GROUND SOLDIER SYSTEM

The GSS is the Army’s system of the future scheduled to begin development work shortly. Lt. Col. Cummings said, “We are looking to begin GSS this year and we are in the final throes of the planning with the Army Staff about how we go about doing that but everything looks pretty good so far.”

The two main features of GSS will be increased competition to supply modules, subsystems and equipment via the introduction of open interfaces and secondly, to ensure that the soldier becomes the centerpiece of FCS. Addressing the latter, Lt. Col. Cummings said, “We are trying to take different portions from the FCS life cycle and we align ourselves to them, so that both programmes go through the same things at the same time.”

Current equipment will provide immediate help in reaching these goals according to Lt. Col. Cummings, “We plan to reuse some of the current systems from the current Manchu configuration which has a lot of the same capabilities as GSS and learn how to apply it to how the FCS and their suite of systems will fight at the Army Experimental Task Force at Fort Bliss, Texas. There is no sense in waiting for the first version of GSS to get down there to begin that process.”

The Army, explained Lt. Col. Cumming is currently mulling a broader decision on what do with the Manchu configuration when it returns home. Fort Bliss won’t be the only recipient. “We are going to put some others in another capacity like with the Army Expeditionary Warrior Experiment (formerly Air Assault Expeditionary Force), going from Fort Monmouth down to Fort Benning, Georgia, to focus a lot on light forces’ Tactics Techniques and Procedures. We will also look at other potential reuses which the Army still has to weigh off on and give me direction on what they want to do.”

INTERNATIONAL LINKAGE

Start up of formal soldier modernization work on GSS provides an opportunity to renew international connections that have lapsed somewhat as a consequence of the project being terminated in 2006. Links with international such as NATO LCG/1 have continued throughout the interregnum, as have bilateral meetings as Lt. Col. Cummings recounts, “At the last AUSA, for example, we made a lessons learned presentation to Italy’s Soldato Futuro programme. General Brown [Program Executive Officer Soldier] and myself will both be at Eurosatory and I plan to brief a couple of vignettes on how Land Warrior fought in Iraq and why and how it is changing the battlefield in Iraq. We haven’t got any formal international agreements or relationships with the programme right now, but that’s because the formal programme of record which will be GSS is only standing up now.” ■