Computer-Aided Warriors for Future Battlefields.

This paper describes a new perspective on discussions related to the Future Dismounted Infantry Warrior. The present approach is based on system optimization and on defining precise levels for the Warrior. Currently, world militaries are facing new threats while not being able to afford to provide all their Warriors with the newest gear. Equipping and training Warriors is a time- and money-consuming process, which means that it is useless and too expensive to equip every Warrior with top-gear. Thereby system requirements and system engineering provide the tools for determining the need of the novel tools for Command, Control, Communications, Computer, Intelligence and Information (C⁴I²) environment at each Warrior level. The level and versatility of Network Centric Operations (NCO) in battlefields have increased in the present wars. In order to increase Situation Awareness (SA) in all Warrior levels, versatile and optimized network solutions have been adopted. Computer-aided Warriors utilize all means available to enhance their SA to complete the mission tasked with minimum or zero casualties. This paper argues for the efficiency of the hierarchy-based Warrior system instead of the principle of equipping all the Warriors with the newest Commercial off the Shelf (COTS) gear. This study demonstrates that in Human Machine Interface (HMI) -based Warrior solutions the key relationship is between different Warrior levels and proposes that the Future Warrior is based on the three production line Warriors equipped with precise, task- and level-dependent gear. This paper, furthermore, discusses the interconnectedness of the trained Warriors and their gear in the light of the following three Warrior levels: 1) The basic Warrior at the bottom level, 2) the Readiness Brigade Warrior, and 3) the Special Forces Warrior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]