Future Soldier

For the Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon video game, see Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier.

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. A Future Soldier is also a Soldier who has enlisted in the United States Military, but is delayed in shipping (previously known as "DEP" or Delayed Entry Program). Future Soldier is also name of the major international military exhibition for NATO and Partnership for Peace members.

Air Warrior of the United States Air Force, part of the Future Combat Systems.

Set-Up

Superiority to enemy ground forces will be achieved by equipping the average ground-based combat soldier 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 and combinations of technologies become viable for battlefield deployment.

Future Soldier Exhibition is an international exhibition mainly focused on the question of individual components of the "Dismounted Soldier" project, on the results of research, new technologies and materials, concepts and opportunities for international cooperation in the implementation of the integrated system of the soldier of the future and for the securing of the interoperability of its individual components in wartime and peacetime operations. The last Future Soldier Exhibition took place in October 2010 in Prague. The event is organized under the aegis of the National Armaments Director within the Ministry of Defense of the Czech Republic.

Requirements for Success

A German Army soldier demonstrates elements of the equipment of the IdZ program.

Vital to the success of the project will be the psychological and tactical preparation of ground combat soldiers for using their new capabilities. Various Futuristic Soldier programs are heavily funded and underway around the world, including

• FIST (UK),
• Land 125 (Australia)
• COBRA COmbatente BRAsileiro (Brazil)
• Félin (France)
• IdZ (Germany)
• F-INSAS (India)
• Soldato Futuro (Italy)
• Combatiente Futuro (COMFUT) (Spain)
• Soldier Modernisation Program (SMP) (Netherlands)
• NORMANS (Norway)
• Soldado do Futuro (Portugal)
• Advanced Combat Man System (Singapore)
• IMESS (Switzerland)
• MARKUS (Sweden)
• Projekt TYTAN (Poland),
• 21st Century soldier (Czech rep.),
• Integrated Soldier System Project (Canada),
• Land Warrior (USA)
• Individual Fighting System (Romania).

Success

Some of the early Future Soldier equipment was tested in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Other more long-term goals relating to exoskeletons, active camouflage and cybernetic enhancements of individual soldiers is unlikely to be achieved for some decades to come due to the relative immaturity of such technology.

See also

• Future Force Warrior, the United States Future Soldier program.
• IdZ, the German Bundeswehr Future Soldier project.
• F-INSAS, the Indian Future soldier program.
• FIST, the British analog to the Future Force Warrior program.
• Félin, the French Future Soldier program.
• Land 125, the Australian Future Soldier program.
• ComFut, Spanish Future Fighter Program (COMbatiente del FUTuro)
• 21st Century soldier, the Czech Future Soldier project.
• IMESS, the Swiss Future Soldier program.
• Projekt TYTAN, the Polish Future Soldier Program.
• MARKUS, the Swedish Future Soldier Program.
• ACMS, the Singaporean Future Soldier project.
• MKFUMKII, the Malaysian Future Military project.
• V Operation, the Japanese Self-Defense Forces Future Military program.
• Tek-ER(Standart Private), the Turkey Future Soldier program.
• ISSP, the Canadian Future Soldier program.
• Soldato Futuro, the Italian Future Soldier program