It’s Time to Give the Infantry the Tools Needed to Win on the Modern Battlefield
256 Shares
By James King
November 23, 2016
A platoon is on patrol in a far-off land. Each of the platoon’s three squads is operating several miles apart from the others. But despite this physical separation, the platoon’s soldiers feel the connection to those around them—indeed, they areconnected. Each soldier has a radio that creates a link to every other soldier in the unit. They all wear body cameras so leaders see what they see. They move lightly and quickly through rough terrain, their packs and heavy equipment hauled not far behind by a load-bearing unmanned vehicle. In the air above each team has a small unmanned aerial system (UAS, or drone) using human detection sensors to search ahead of the platoon’s movements.
The enemy has established an L-shaped ambush along their path, but the platoon is prepared for it. The soldiers have never been surprised by their enemy’s actions. A UAS spots the ambush. A squad leader calls in a fire mission and uses the UAS’s laser designator to identify the target for the precision munitions dropped by a fighter aircraft high above. The bomb destroys the ambush and the patrol moves on, the threat neutralized without a platoon member firing a shot.
http://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2016/11/23/its_time_to_give_the_infantry_the_tools_needed_to_win_on_the_modern_battlefield_110377.html
