Pages

5 April 2015

INFANTRY OVERHAUL: HOW DARPA’S NEW EXPERIMENTS COULD SHAKE UP GROUND WARFARE

April 1, 2015 

This artist’s rendering shows how the Persistent Close Air Support program allows ground troops and air crews to jointly select and employ precision-guided weapons from aircraft. (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)

As Libya spiraled into chaos last year, U.S. Marines deployed there used a little-known computer application called KILSWITCH to map their routes and emergency plans. The program gave them not only detailed GPS-guided maps on handheld devices but targeting information and detailed maps of nearby compounds in case they came under fire.

The application – spelled out as Kinetic Integration Lightweight Software Individual Tactical Combat Handheld – is part of a broader high-tech program known as Persistent Close Air Support (PCAS) launched to improve how U.S. troops under fire call for and receive close air support. But it hints at something larger: The Pentagon is rethinking how U.S. ground troops operate, with plans to push more information and technology on the battlefield to lower-ranking enlisted soldiers and Marines than ever before.

No comments:

Post a Comment