The soldier as nucleus: the surfeit of electronic gear carried by today's warfighter has given birth to the wearable electronics concept. Restricted to having only two hands to hold his kit, and confined to the limited space on his belt and vest web gear, the obvious expansion is to go up and down his arms, wrap around his head and neck and sew the electronics into his clothing.

Summary

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Soldier systems

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The soldier as nucleus: the surfeit of electronic gear carried by today's warfighter has given birth to the wearable electronics concept. Restricted to having only two hands to hold his kit, and confined to the limited space on his belt and vest web gear, the obvious expansion is to go up and down his arms, wrap around his head and neck and sew the electronics into his clothing.

The tactical radio has undergone a metamorphosis over the last 40 years, from being a relative behemoth carried and operated by one soldier to a tiny squad radio--one on every soldier's shoulder.

In comparison, the late-1960s 6.2-kg AN/PRC-77 large manpacked radio with ungainly whip antenna manufactured by Associated Industries provided voice communication to US soldiers operating in Vietnam, transmitting across the 30 to 75.95 MHz frequency range--today's 395-gram Raytheon Microlight DH500 offers mobile, ad hoc self-forming, self-healing networking ELPRS data, voice and video communica...

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