quote:

---

The Army's Natick Soldier Systems Center is currently supervising a seven-year, $250 million "Future Force Warrior" program, set to be rolled out in 2010, which will outfit soldiers with new, lighter body armor, an on-board computer, "e-textile" clothing (with wiring for computer systems woven into it), and a helmet with built-in night-vision, a computer screen monocle, and bone-conduction microphones.

Add a decade onto the Future Force Warrior and the military aims to be rolling out "The Vision 2020 Future Warrior system," an all-black, sci-fi, storm-trooper outfit that looks like it came from a B-movie prop trailer.

In a world where many still lack access to adequate clothing, despite it being decreed a basic human right in 1948, DARPA is pouring massive sums into building costly robotic suits.

In a world where 800 million people suffer from malnutrition and 1 billion lack access to potable water, food and water are only made "sexy" when DARPA researchers figure out how a few (well armed) people in the global North can do without them on military missions (generally in the global South).

---

It strikes me that what the US military really needs is to reorganize its spending a bit. Trim plenty off the R&D, since the US is already waaaay ahead of most other nations, combined, spend much more on hiring new personnel, and plow the balance into social programs.

Edited:
Yeah, like *that'll* ever happen.

But don't the artist's conceptions, etc, look COOL? Click and scroll down

There's a discussion at the bottom of the page about the potential drawbacks of the proposed new uniforms. Remember also a relatively recent simulation exercise where the OPFOR, armed with high-tech devices like bonfires and aluminum foil, had great success against a group of US soldiers armed with various prototypes of these new systems.

[ 18 October 2004: Message edited by: aRoused ]

quote:

---

Soldiers will be able to chat online with each other while they are walking down a jungle trail.

---