Infantry Combat Equipment (non-firearm): Vests, Body Armor, NVGs, etc.

by78

General
This is interesting. A smart soldier system (with HMD)? The company is one of the private military equipment manufacturers out of Guangzhou, not an Airsoft/cosplay outfit.

49890956752_20234059ca_k.jpg

49890960617_c941df7e3d_k.jpg

49890958502_4b238c36e4_k.jpg

49890645371_f3c26fbd71_k.jpg
 

PiSigma

"the engineer"
This is interesting. A smart soldier system (with HMD)? The company is one of the private military equipment manufacturers out of Guangzhou, not an Airsoft/cosplay outfit.

49890956752_20234059ca_k.jpg

49890960617_c941df7e3d_k.jpg

49890958502_4b238c36e4_k.jpg

49890645371_f3c26fbd71_k.jpg
Compared to the smart soldier concepts we saw out of pretty much every country 10 years ago... Damn the differences are huge. Miniturization of batteries/power and optics is probably the biggest contributing factor.

The armor portion doesn't seem to be any improvement. Guess this is more of a what's achievable now concept than a future deleveopment goal.
 

Aniah

Senior Member
Registered Member
This is interesting. A smart soldier system (with HMD)? The company is one of the private military equipment manufacturers out of Guangzhou, not an Airsoft/cosplay outfit.

49890956752_20234059ca_k.jpg

49890960617_c941df7e3d_k.jpg

49890958502_4b238c36e4_k.jpg

49890645371_f3c26fbd71_k.jpg
So I guess Ghost Recon Future Soldier is pretty realistic huh?
 

vesicles

Colonel
I’m aware of that. But one thing I couldn’t agree on is that why spending millions or even billions when they couldn’t be bothered to get the most basic thing (1 dollar worth) correct.

We've seen photos of NATO soldiers wearing fatigues but bright flags of their countries. It may be some kind of exercises, where soldiers need to be a little more visible for safety reasons.
 

AZaz09dude

Junior Member
Registered Member
Compared to the smart soldier concepts we saw out of pretty much every country 10 years ago... Damn the differences are huge. Miniturization of batteries/power and optics is probably the biggest contributing factor.

The armor portion doesn't seem to be any improvement. Guess this is more of a what's achievable now concept than a future deleveopment goal.
Still needs a few more years I guess, it obstructs the wearer's FOV on their left side by quite a bit.

Armor improvements, especially for plates, are probably going to be less visually obvious (materials and construction, protection level, weight savings etc.) unless they go for increased coverage like TALOS
Screenshot_20200513_180259.jpg
Screenshot_20200513_180317.jpg
I sure hope China is making sufficient improvements to armor behind scenes though, espeically with emerging threats like modern tungsten AP rounds (7N37 or even M1158) and the 6.8mm NGSW cartridges that the US is looking at.
 

TerraN_EmpirE

Tyrant King
Oh don’t you know TALOS is dead... well really it just wasn’t practical as a all in system.
to complicated. There are mature parts nearly read for prime time but as a whole it’s well still not ready yet. That’s because no one NO ONE has the technology yet. SOCOM concluded 10 “Subsystems” got farther developing as maturity.
  1. Lighter weight Polyethylene extremity armor offering 44% coverage protection vs 19% for standard
  2. Lightweight Polyethylene Ballistic Sheild
  3. Lightweight Polyethylene Helmet with improved NOD mount with system links to the rifle sight.
  4. Lower body exoskeleton
  5. Weapon stabilization and Counter UAS
  6. Virtual reality Tactical Assault Kit. basically it’s a VR shoot house that would let SF guys walk through before actually getting to work
  7. Augmented reality
  8. Improved Image intensification Tubes. Better Nod
  9. Medium range Fused sensor weapons sight in the LWIR and NIR
  10. Power management.
Although parts of this could be shifted to infantry it’s not likely before the start of the next decade. Much of this is targeted to SF units for a reason. TALOS wasn’t for the grunts it was the elites. Focusing on asymmetric conflict types. Parts 1,3,4,7,8, and 10 cold get to conventional infantry in spirals. NGSW however is targeted to conventional infantry forces and would come with its own #9 equivalent. This is as the SF element is more narrowly focused to Asymmetric conflict its current programs are tailored less to body armor and more to range. Favoring lighter longer range bullets in the 6.5mm class for reach and less ambitious changes.
As to Tungsten cored HV ammo types that would require significant weight and density. modern infantry fighting is the question. How much are you willing to spend on your Soldiers. The TALOS was targeted to individuals with high range skills and specialized ability. Rangers, SEALS, DELTA and MARSOC.
Regular infantry would be issued knocked down less specialized iterations.
So I guess Ghost Recon Future Soldier is pretty realistic huh?
the Ghost Recon games were created by a studio that was told from day one to study real US Army concepts and kit for the basis of their games. GRAW 1 and GRAW 2 were literally taking US Army Objective Force mock ups Land warrior Prototypes and concepts and back filling logical ideas. More modern titles of the series did the same. Taking Concepts from DARPA and building around them. As such it’s basically if NATICK made a video game. Ghost Recon’s first game (2001) was set in the then far off future of 2008 ironically telling of a Russian Georgian war... GRAW in 2006 was set in the then far distant... 2013. GRAW FS in 2012 set in 2024. With its successors taking place between now and then
As such they are based on more off the Shelf tech. Like guessing what a 2025 car will look like it’s a lot more accurate to guess today than it was in 1976.

As to body armor able to stop tungsten tipped small arms the best way to stop that is an IFV or not to fight

The set up above looks like a lot of off the shelf kit Especially the rifle Bushmaster ACR. The helmet looks like some of the Objective Force Warrior mockups. The uniform and armor from that old program were actually produced by Crye Precision. Systems like this are far more common these days. After all Objective Force Warrior was a late 90s-00s program targeting ideas for production in well Today. With farther more ambitious ideas targeted to 2025 and 2030. Basically it’s what you expect.
 

AZaz09dude

Junior Member
Registered Member
As to Tungsten cored HV ammo types that would require significant weight and density.
Don't really see what you're trying to say here. Of course tungsten cored rounds are going to be heavier, sectional density is how they can defeat modern ceramic body armor. In terms of weight for an overall fighting load, there's no significant difference. Comparing the 145gr 7N13 to the 185gr 7N37, if carrying 600 rounds total of each, there would only be around a three and a half pound difference, give or take.

The main arguments against tungsten ammunition I've seen are
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!


As to body armor able to stop tungsten tipped small arms the best way to stop that is an IFV or not to fight
When neither of those are an option, what do you suppose should be done?
The US for an example, has seemed to recognize a need for tungsten rated body armor, with examples such as:
-ESAPIs, rev G and onwards are rated for 5.56mm M995 protection on top of the APM2 requirements
-XSAPIs, rated for both 5.56mm M995 and 7.62mm M993
-later generation USSOCOM TSAs, which have requirements to stop M993
 

AZaz09dude

Junior Member
Registered Member
To the first part I was referring to the armor not the penetrator. This is sitting at the edge of demanding an armored car.
I see. Increased protection would be a trade off, but I dont see it as being too substantial if its only at the cost of prior advancements in weight savings. Though it might be (a bit or a lot) more expensive, which ties into the dilemma you stated regarding how much would be worth spending on each individual soldier.
 
Last edited:

MwRYum

Major
This is interesting. A smart soldier system (with HMD)? The company is one of the private military equipment manufacturers out of Guangzhou, not an Airsoft/cosplay outfit.

49890956752_20234059ca_k.jpg

49890960617_c941df7e3d_k.jpg

49890958502_4b238c36e4_k.jpg

49890645371_f3c26fbd71_k.jpg
If and when we see Chinese police SWAT teams decked out in this gig that'd be something..
So I guess Ghost Recon Future Soldier is pretty realistic huh?
Ghost Recon Future Soldier released in 2012, back then most of the stuff are still "far out" either due to power source+consumption issue (just ask yourselves this: those external battery you and I carried around everyday, for the same mAh capacity, what is the size+weight difference in the last 8 years?), or underlying physics (such as optic camo) not there yet.
But over the last 8 years let's see what we get...
  • DJI got drones that can be VR piloted;
  • wearable terminal (AR googles and smartphones that are light-weight and have usable endurance);
  • wide-bandwidth wireless network become affordable;
  • advances on optic camo has been made, short of a practical unit so far
  • We got robots that can be used this way...

So? In the context of 2020, we are fast approaching the tech seen in Ghost Recon Future Soldier indeed.
 
Top