Networked Infantry Systems Slowly Improving

Danger Room explains how the military's "Land Warrior" soldier-based network program, once written off as a cumbersome boondoggle, is now seeing some support from those to whom it matters the most: the soldiers.

A red dot suddenly pops up on Moore's monocle screen: 3rd platoon has found a pair of improvised bombs -- black boxes, filled with homemade explosives. Other troops will circumvent the scene.

As the other platoons move south to north, green lights blink on Moore's map. Each of these "digital chem lights" represents a house checked and cleared. It keeps different groups of soldiers from kicking down the same set of doors twice.

A year ago, these chem lights weren't even part of the Land Warrior code. But after a suggestion from a Manchu soldier, the digital markers were added -- and quickly became the system's most popular feature. During air assaults on Baquba, to the northeast, troops were regularly dropped a quarter or half-kilometer from their original objective; the chem lights allowed them to converge on the spot where they were supposed to go. In the middle of one mission, a trail of green lights was used to mark a new objective -- and show the easiest way to get to the place.

Without missing the obvious differences, I'm reminded a bit of team-based online shooters and how the gameplay evolves. Most of the games ship built around a rough set of player behaviors, based on play-testing and design from the game creators. But as the games are played by tens of thousands over the course of several months, new tactics and techniques will often emerge. A throwaway gameplay element, like a smoke grenade or a certain way to jump, might be combined with something else, leading to powerful - and occasionally game-breaking - new ways to play.

The lesson seems to be that the only real way to develop these enhanced soldiering systems is in the field, where those actually using the system will be able to quickly determine what's worthwhile and what is risking their survival.

Those helmets really are ridiculous, though. They can't make that stuff any smaller?

Soldier of the Future Goes to War

[#1 posted by Sarah , September 26, 2007 2:54 PM]

Heh -- cheap, good, and durable. Pick two.

[#2 posted by Anonymous , September 26, 2007 10:50 PM]

I could swear I saw a CHP officer with a HUD eyepiece on the 10 Freeway this afternoon in Los Angeles. It was much smaller than the getup the soldiers use.

[#3 posted by Davin , September 27, 2007 12:19 PM]

You can develop good systems for soldiers without much field testing, you just need to follow good usability guidelines and -make sure- to get soldier input! Then anything terribly wrong comes out in small trials.