Aerial drones – especially small commercially available drones – have become a unique and ubiquitous challenge on the modern battlefield and pose a major threat to traditional military assets. Such small drones can be used to provide real-time reconnaissance, and/or be rigged with explosives and used as loitering munitions for remote kamikaze attacks. Such weaponized […]
The US Army’s “Next Generation Squad Weapons” (NGSW) Program has certainly been an interesting project to watch, and despite the delays in publishing the promised final announcements, it has also progressed much quicker than many expected. Of course, many (including myself to be honest) were rather skeptical to begin with that the program would in […]
They might not be as sexy as new guns, or as controversial as new camouflage and uniforms, but these days batteries are just as much an essential part of a Warfighter’s equipment as food, water, and ammunition. Carrying your body armor weight in spare batteries has also become the new normal, and when those batteries […]
The Infantry’s job is to find, fix, and finish the enemy on the field of battle. It is also only the infantry that can secure, occupy, and defend the ground captured as a result. But the job of the boots-on-the-ground is now more complex than ever – whether its combatting asymmetric threats and insurgents, or […]
FLIR Systems, Inc. has announced winning an additional $15.4 million contract to deliver its cutting-edge Black Hornet® 3 Personal Reconnaissance Systems (PRS) to the U.S. Army. The advanced nano-unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are being used to augment squad and small unit-level surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities as part of the Army’s Soldier Borne Sensor (SBS) program. […]
The Android Team Awareness Kit (or Awesome Team Awareness Kit for non-Android versions), ATAK for short, is a software driven technology originally developed by Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) scientists and engineers. You’ve probably seen photos of military personnel using a chest-mounted tablet computer or smart phone and wondered what software or app they were […]
Soldiers assigned to 4th Battalion, 23rd Infantry Regiment, 2nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 7th Infantry Division, recently conducted a platoon live fire using the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binoculars at Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binocular (ENVG-B) provides the U.S. Army’s close combat forces with the capability to observe and maneuver in all weather […]
Have you been tracking this program? What seemed like a far-fetched science fair project only a couple of years ago is now going into production and rapid fielding. This in itself is an amazing rate of speed for just about any Army acquisition, let alone for one so revolutionary! The Integrated Visual Augmentation System […]
Airborne Soldiers of the 1st Battalion, 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), 82nd Airborne Division, recently completed almost two weeks of field testing the Army’s newest leader radio (LR) communications systems. The Handheld, Manpack and Small (HMS) Form Fit/Tactical Radio variants are two-channel handhelds, used at the company and platoon levels by squad and team […]
The Dutch Armed Forces are finally starting to receive new camouflage uniforms and personal equipment. But how did this come about, and what is the history of Dutch camouflage uniforms since 1945? Thanks to our friends at Dutch Defence Press we are able to bring you this exclusive English translation of an article by Major […]