Urgh, they’re threatening to deploy the Land Warrior System in spite of the reservations of the men in the firing line.
The problems with Land Warrior are seemingly obvious:
- Having every soldier trackable individually is simply going to overload the command and control system. We have our armies broken down into units under a hierarchical structure for a reason which is to strike a balance between overload and oversight.
- Being able to peer around a corner without exposing oneself (because of the “clever” camera on your gun) is all very fine but consider this: your enemy is smart enough to hide until you and your buddies do expose yourselves allowing for a more effective ambush.
- Advanced signalling breaks – hand signals are by far the best way of directing people under these extreme conditions.
- Soldiers won’t have time to gaze at their heads up display to check on where everyone in their unit is positioned before taking action. Put simply, the enemy is not going to sit still whilst you plan out the perfect attack ["No battle plan survives contact with the enemy" - Moltke]
Perhaps more worrying is that the US military has had warnings about their excessive focus on technology previously.
This whole debacle is a classic example of what happens when those not at the sharp end invent things they think are a good idea and foist them on the hapless individuals they intend to “help”. It is a mistake repeated daily in IT projects around the world. For the enterprise this is merely serious, on the battlefield it’s quite possibly lethal.
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