Future soldier Equipped to win
In an era where close-quarter infantry combat in complex urban and semi-rural environments is on the rise, there has never been a greater need for enhanced fighting ability in dismounted soldiers. Tallha Abdulrazaq examines the history of the UK Ministry of Defence’s Generic Soldier Architecture (GSA) programme, where its trajectory is leading it and the importance of middleware in integrating new technologies for today’s soldiers.
F
rom counterinsurgency operations in Northern Ireland, to the battlefields and war-torn cities of Afghanistan and Iraq in the ‘war on terror’ era, British soldiers have increasingly found themselves engaged in close-quarter combat alongside their allies in difficult urban and semi-rural environments where they are not fighting a conventional force. Rather than being able to rely on traditional combined arms manoeuvres they have been compelled to engage in dismounted fighting – away from the usual
battlefield comforts of close-air support, concentrated artillery fire and massed armoured formations working in tandem to create breakthroughs in enemy lines and exploit operational opportunities.
While this certainly says something about the changing character of war, it also highlights the need for military adaptation and to reinvigorate efforts to create cutting-edge capability for dismounted infantry. This will allow armed forces to deal with the challenges of the modern battlefield while still being effective
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Defence & Security Systems International /
www.defence-and-security.com
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