Future Force Warrior

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The Army's Future Force Warrior system is one step closer to being fielded as the Ground Soldier System following a successful demonstration in August 2006 of its electronic networking capability.

Future Force Warrior is the name of a U.S. military initiative, part of the Future Combat Systems project. The FFW project seeks to create a lightweight, fully integrated infantryman combat system. It is the latest in a series of network-centric, next-generation infantry combat projects the U.S. military have developed over the past decade, such as the Soldier Integrated Protective Ensemble technology demonstration program, Land Warrior, and Transformation of the United States Army.

The Future Force Warrior concept envisions the radical use of technologies such as nanotechnology, artificial powered exoskeletons, and magnetorheological fluid based body armor to provide the infantry with significantally higher force multiplier than the opposing force, similar to the overwhelming advantage American aircraft such as the F-16 have over the older Soviet designs used by many nations of the world. However, the stated concept is not U.S. Army doctrine, and is not intended to answer every situation that Army After Next (the Army's buzzword for future fighting forces) would face; rather, the concept is meant to serve as an end goal to strive to reach or to compromise with current technologies and to stir imagination and dialogue on how these technologies and concepts can help soldiers in the near future.

The first phase of the project involves a development of the technologies to help reduce the soldier's fighting load and power requirements and improving the soldier's protection, lethality, and environmental and situational awareness, with planned deployment in 2010, to serve the Army's short-term needs. The Army's plan is to introduce the subsystems in "spirals" every two years, instead of one large rollout every ten years. The U.S. military hopes to develop a fully realized end product sometime in 2032, incorporating research from U.C. Berkeley's BLEEX exoskeleton project and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies into a final design.

[edit] Basic Features

Soldiers of the United States Army test FFW systems at Fort Benning in November 2006.

[edit] Headgear Subsystem

The Headgear Subsystem, described in the Concept by FFW development team at Natick as Information Central, is the situational awareness hub of the system. It would include integrated tactical processing by providing maps, routes, and data with a 180° emissive visor display, high bandwidth wireless communications, microelectronic/optics combat sensor suite that provides 360° situational awareness, and integrated small arms protection.

In the current development program, the FFW Advanced Technology Demonstrator (ATD), this subsytem is labeled Sensors & Communications (C4ISR) Vision. Its current capabilities would provide networked FFW-equipped small units with robust team communications using JTRS Cluster 5 Soldier Radio Waveform, state-of-the-art distributed and fused sensors, organic tactical intelligence/collection assets, enhanced situational understanding, embedded training, on-the-move planning, and linkage to other Future Combat System assets.

[edit] Combat Uniform Subsystem

The FFW project aims to help protect the soldier by providing full-body bullet and fragmentation protection. In the original concept, the Combat Uniform Subsystem, also known as Survivability Central, is subdivided into three layers, the Protective Outer Layer, the Power Centric Layer, the Life Critical Layer.

Currently, under the Survivability Vision given by the Army's ATD, bullet-resistant armor provides protection to the upper arms, the upper legs and the chest and abdomen. These are currently made from bullet-resistant fibers such as Kevlar and hard ceramics but a joint Army-MIT subprogram is developing a ferrofluid smart material composed of iron particles suspended in a silicon oil that harden within milliseconds when a current is applied. However, the development team at MIT has said that it will likely take five to 10 years before the substance is made truly bullet resistant. They are also looking in to a material called M-5 Fiber which is much stronger in the fields of slash, ballistic,and fire protection and is much lighter than kevlar.

In addition, Armor Holdings Inc. has developed a product that is similar to the Army-MIT program, a "Shear-Thickening Liquid" armor additive produced from a mixture of polyethylene glycol, a polymer found in laxatives and other consumer products, and nanobits of silica, or purified sand. When struck with a significant impact, the armor stiffens instantly into a shield, then reverting to its liquid state just as fast when the energy from the projectile dissipates. The new armor, originally envisioned to be spread on like peanut butter, is instead sprayed onto Kevlar in ultrathin coats. Armor Holdings plans to begin promote this new armor in 2007, but it is not sure if this will be used as a substitute for the Army's Survivability Vision.

[edit] Weapons Subsystem

In the original FFW Concept, the Weapon Subsystem, nicknamed Lethality Central, is pistol-like combat weapon used for both indirect fire and direct fire. Weighing 5 pounds and using Metal Storm firearms technology, the pepperbox weapon fires 15 mm cold-launched, guided rounds stacked in 4 tubes with another tube loaded with high velocity 4.6 mm projectiles as a close combat personal defense weapon.

Recently, the Crye Associates Modular Rifle - Caseless (MR-C) caseless rifle has been revealed as the standard infantry weapon to be used as in conjunction with the Future Force Warrior system. By most accounts, it is likely to be chambered in 6.8 mm caseless ammunition and a 45 round magazine. At this time, no actual working model has been produced and Crye has only produced mockups for usability testing and demonstration.

The H&K USP or the Sig Arms P220 may become the new sidearm in the next 2 years

The FFW will also have a new experimental weapon called the ElectroDart. It is a type of gun which delivers electric shocks to the opposing enemy through wires when the gun is fired. The voltage of the gun is roughly 50000 volts.

Under the FFW ATD, the Army's Lethality Vision proposes an integrated, advanced, lightweight weapons system with fire control software and hardware that is optimized for urban combat. The infantryman would be able to synchronize direct and indirect fires from Future Combat System and other networked platforms.

[edit] Warfighter Physiological Status Monitor Subsystem

WPSM is an on-board physiological and medical sensor suite that would collect and monitor information regarding vital signs such as body temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, hydration and stress levels, sleep status, body positioning and workload capacity of the warrior. If necessary, the WPSM can notify medics and commanders if the soldier has been wounded or has become fatigued.

Under the Advanced Technology Demonstration program, the physiological sensors of the WPSM are part of the Mobility, Sustainability and Human Performance Vision. The Army's overall vision for this unit would be to provide "On the Move hydration" and hydration monitoring, as well as monitoring of the soldier's cognitive states, health, and wellbeing.

[edit] Micro-climate Conditioning Subsystem

The Micro-climate Conditioning Subsystem, built into the Life Critical Layer, is a network of narrow tubing that would provide 100 watts of heating or cooling to the soldier.

Currently, the Future Force Warrior Cooling System (FFW-CS) being developed, circulates chilled water through a special heat-transfer garment. The cooled circulating fluid pulls metabolic heat from the soldier's body and transfers it into the environment through its condenser. The main condenser unit can provide 120 W cooling power in a 95 °F environment, with an average power consumption of 35 W and weight of 3.5 pounds, excluding the power source. A fully functional demonstration prototype is expected to be exhibited in 2008.

[edit] Power Subsystem

The Power Subsytem, built into the Power Centric Layer, would be fed by the Duration Central, a 2 to 20 watt Micro Turbine fueled by a liquid hydrocarbon fuel cell. According to the concept, ten ounces of fuel would power the soldier's integrated electronics ensemble for up to 6 days. Polymeric nanofiber battery patches embedded in the headgear and weapon provide back-up power for three hours.

Listed under the Power Vision in the Advanced Technology Demonstrator, the current specifications ask for 24-hour autonomous individual operation and 72-hour continuous autonomous team operations, with a high density, low weight/volume, self-generating/re-generating, reliable, safe power source.

[edit] Popular culture

A speculation of the Future Force Warrior project can be seen in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter video game, for the PC and the Xbox 360.

Robert A. Heinlein's science fiction novel Starship Troopers has served as inspiration for many of the scientists and developers working on the Future Force Warrior concept throughout the years.

In Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell series, the micro-climate conditioning subsystem is worn by Sam Fisher, and an optical active camouflage system is used by the spies in multiplayer mode.

In Act of War: High Treason, Task Force Commandos can be upgraded to Future Force Warriors, armed with an XM-29 and heavier body armor than any other infantry unit (excluding the S.H.I.E.L.D. unit).

[edit] See also

• Future Soldier for other similar international infantry modernization programs.
• FIST, the British analog to the Future Force Warrior program.
• Félin, the French Future Soldier program.
• Land 125, the Australian Future Soldier program.
• IdZ, the German Bundeswehr Future Soldier project.

[edit] External links

• The Future Force Warrior initative overview at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center
• HowStuffWorks Article on the Future Warrior Program
• http://nsc.natick.army.mil/media/photo/ffw/FFWINC2LDRFacing.jpg - Photo of Future Force Warrior (Leader Variant)