The Army's New Land Warrior Gear: Why Soldiers Don't Like It

[bradclark1]

After spending 15 years and half billion dollars on R & D, the Pentagon is outfitting soldiers for a high-tech battlefield network designed to cut through the fog of war.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/tech...w/4215715.html

The soldier in the field didn't appreciate the tank at first. They certainly didn't like the airplane. Submarines were to referred to as pig boats.

Soldiers are not part of a democracy. You follow orders and try to survive.

[P_Funk]

I also think there was a time when someone said "What in blazes is this gunpowder non sense? Gimme my bent stick."

[SUBMAN1]

There is a golden rule to the soldier - he doesn't like anything that adds even an ounce of weight to whatever he has to carry around.

With that said, if you travel the marching roads of Fort Lewis and bother to look in the bushes, you can find whatever you like, from fully loaded M-16 magazines, to grenades. Soldiers apparently chuck em on their marches to lighten the load.

Also, while this system may have some issues still from old tech, consider it rev 1. The M-16 was good, but wasn't all that great a tool till the A1 version.

-S

[bookworm_020]

It sounds like they should have a couple of different versions. A regular for thoese who need the information and to send it (lieutenants, captains and senior sergeants) and a lite version for your standard grunt who just need to know where to go and to say they've found something / nothing.

That would reduce costs somewhat and **** down on complexity.

[bradclark1]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

With that said, if you travel the marching roads of Fort Lewis and bother to look in the bushes, you can find whatever you like, from fully loaded M-16 magazines, to grenades. Soldiers apparently chuck em on their marches to lighten the load.
-S

I very seriously doubt that. In a training area if a weapon is lost that whole unit will stay out till the weapon is found no matter how long it takes. Not to mention that squad leader, platoon sergeant, and platoon leader are going to have a major portion of their butt savagely bit off. Any other gear that is tossed they will have to buy it or get a statement of charges for it unless it's an expendable and gear or TA-50 is not expendable and none of it is cheap. And ammunition especially grenades are strictly controlled.

[August]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

There is a golden rule to the soldier - he doesn't like anything that adds even an ounce of weight to whatever he has to carry around.

Ain't that the truth. We even used to cut down the handles of our toothbrushes to save weight.

With that said, if you travel the marching roads of Fort Lewis and bother to look in the bushes, you can find whatever you like, from fully loaded M-16 magazines, to grenades. Soldiers apparently chuck em on their marches to lighten the load

This part i disagree with. Maybe on the battlefield but not in training.

[Heibges]

With that said, if you travel the marching roads of Fort Lewis and bother to look in the bushes, you can find whatever you like, from fully loaded M-16 magazines, to grenades. Soldiers apparently chuck em on their marches to lighten the load

This part i disagree with. Maybe on the battlefield but not in training.[/quote]

I agree. While on manuevers, I had a buddy who was stationed in Germany, whose driver took his knife and threw it into the snow, just to try to screw my friend. His whole unit stayed out there going through the snow until the knife was found. I don't remember if the driver was Article 15'd or Court Martialled. I have heard, although I never went there myself, that losing a weapon in Europe was a particularly big deal.

Still, I would also say that back in the old days it was a common practice to chuck unfired ammunition when returning from the range because it was a bear to turn back in.

The order always came down from the Battallion Commander that absolutely all ammunition was to be fired before you left the range. Generally it was expended, but sometimes you just didn't have time to fire it all because another Battalion needed the range, so I have seen ammo thrown into bushes and into streams.

Mostly .50 Cal Ammo and 7.62mm for the M-240, but also grenade simulators, artillery simulators, and the MILES simulators for the tank gun.

But when I was going in the Army was really clamping down on this, and I know a few units that spend weeks unbelting, cleaning, rebelting and turning in ammo that they got busted for discarding.

[Kapitan_Phillips]

But despite 15 years of work and nearly $500 million, the system still has bugs. And some of the gear seems outdated, even before it goes off to war. The 400-MHz processor running the system would have been bleeding-edge — in 1999.

I disagree with this. They're using it for one task, that requires little processor power. Its not like they're playing Full Spectrum Warrior as they storm a house. :p

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by bradclark1

I very seriously doubt that. In a training area if a weapon is lost that whole unit will stay out till the weapon is found no matter how long it takes. Not to mention that squad leader, platoon sergeant, and platoon leader are going to have a major portion of their butt savagely bit off. Any other gear that is tossed they will have to buy it or get a statement of charges for it unless it's an expendable and gear or TA-50 is not expendable and none of it is cheap. And ammunition especially grenades are strictly controlled.

You may be right, but that is not what I was told. Maybe they pick em up on the way back.

-S

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by bradclark1

I very seriously doubt that. In a training area if a weapon is lost that whole unit will stay out till the weapon is found no matter how long it takes. Not to mention that squad leader, platoon sergeant, and platoon leader are going to have a major portion of their butt savagely bit off. Any other gear that is tossed they will have to buy it or get a statement of charges for it unless it's an expendable and gear or TA-50 is not expendable and none of it is cheap. And ammunition especially grenades are strictly controlled.

Yeh, the same is in Finnish military. After each march, training etc. the equipment is checked and if something is missing the whole unit goes to search the missing equipment. If the missing item is dangerous, for example a grenade, or even a single bullet you are in deep s**t.

[Heibges]

Originally Posted by Kapitan_Phillips

I disagree with this. They're using it for one task, that requires little processor power. Its not like they're playing Full Spectrum Warrior as they storm a house. :p

I don't know. When the US Army deployed SINGARS, which changed Freq a few hundred times per second, England already had deployed radios that changed Freg a few thousand times per second.

[Heibges]

Originally Posted by SUBMAN1

You may be right, but that is not what I was told. Maybe they pick em up on the way back.

-S

A funny anectode is that during the first Gulf War ( I did not deploy but heard this from friends), combat units discarded much uneccessary equipment because during wartime you are not accountable, and this was standard practice in WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. But the war was over so quickly, the US Army decided to make folks accountable, and there were a lot of company commanders scrambling around the desert trying to find where their company had dumped their gear.