Future Combat System - Definition

Future Soldier is the overall name given to a multi-nation military project by the United States and its allies. Launched in the late 1990s, it is aimed at providing the same overwhelming superiority to ground forces as is enjoyed by air forces. This will be achieved by equipping the average ground-based combat soldier of 2025 with an integrated set of high-technology uniforms and equipment. These will be linked to an array of real-time and archived battlefield information resources. Soldiers will require not only enhanced versions of existing equipment (rifle, pistol, knife, helmet, armour, clothing), but also new forms of equipment that will become possible as new types & combinations of technologies become viable for battlefield deployment (such as exo skeletons, micro robot vehicles, surgery-enhanced vision, invisibility shrouds, and others). Vital to the success of the project will be the psychological and tactical preparation of ground combat soldiers for using their new capabilities. Various Future Soldier programs are heavily funded and underway around the world, including FIST (UK) and Land Warrior (USA). Some of the early Future Soldier equipment was tested in the 2004 invasion of Iraq.

The 3rd Annual Future Soldier Conference was held in London, England, in April 2004 and will be held there again in 2005.

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