NEWTOWN, Conn.: Recent contract awards seem to indicate that the transition of the sidelined U.S. Army Land Warrior program to a more manageable effort, called the Ground Soldier Ensemble (GSE), is well under way.
General Dynamics C4 Systems, on April 20, was awarded a $12 million contract from the U.S. Army’s Tank-automotive and Armaments Command (TACOM) Contracting Center to design a new information-systems ensemble for soldiers to use during combat operations. Raytheon and Rockwell Collins also received contracts for GSE work of over $5 million each.
GSE will feature built-in equipment that allows Army team leaders to quickly access critical information about each other and their surroundings during a mission. This enables more effective decision-making during tactical operations.
The reduction of Land Warrior has long been in the works. As early as 2005, Army planners merged the Land Warrior with a next-generation “Future Force” warrior effort to combine the real fruits of the older effort with the new technology requirements of the follow-on program. A major sticking point had been the communications system.
The official line now is that recent evaluation will be used as lessons learned and effective technology from the current Land Warrior will be incorporated into the GSE.
