Future Force Warrior

Future Force Warrior was a United States military advanced technology demonstration project that was part of the Future Combat Systems project. The FFW project sought to create a lightweight, fully integrated infantryman combat system. It was one technology demonstration project 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 program, Land Warrior, and Transformation of the United States Army.

The Future Force Warrior concept envisioned the use of technologies such as nanotechnology, powered exoskeletons, and magnetorheological fluid-based body armor to provide the infantry with significantly higher force multiplier than the opposing force. However, the stated concept was not U.S. Army doctrine, and was not intended to answer every situation that Army After Next (the Army's buzzword for future fighting forces) would face; rather, the concept was 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 could help soldiers in the near future.

The first phase of the project involved 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 was to introduce the subsystems in "spirals" every two years, instead of one large rollout every ten years. The U.S. military hoped 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. This was one of the most important parts. The Army Combat Shirt was developed from this program.

Basic Features

thumb|right| U.S. Army Rangers of 3rd Battalion 75th Ranger Regiment from the Future Combat Systems, Evaluation Brigade Combat Team, at a live demonstration February 1, 2007 at [[Fort Bliss, Texas]]

Nett Warrior

Nett Warrior – named after Col. Robert B. Nett – replaced Land Warrior. Future Force Warrior was a futuristic research project with real deliverables folded into the Nett Warrior program. Situational awareness including the Rifleman Radio on every soldier, helmet-mounted display (similar to a HUD), location and Physiological Status Monitoring were the basic building blocks being implemented in increment 1.

Headgear Subsystem

The Headgear Subsystem was the situational awareness hub of the system. It was intended to 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.

Combat Uniform Subsystem

Described as "Survivability Central", was intended to contain a trio of layers, "the Protective Outer Layer, the Power Centric Layer, and the Life Critical Layer."

Warfighter Physiological Status Monitor Subsystem

WPSM was intended to be 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.

References

External links

Future Force Warrior, defense-update.com
The Future Force Warrior initiative overview at the U.S. Army Natick Soldier Center
Future Force Warrior System, armedforces-int.com
FFW Project Horizon Updates, rangermade.us
HowStuffWorks Article on the Future Warrior Program