The Soldier’s Challenge And Future Weapons Requirements

By Major Bruce GilchristDLR 5-5 DND

November 23-26, 2009Toronto, Ont.

Soldier Systems Technology RoadmapWeapons: Lethal and Non-Lethal Workshop

Outline• Locating The Threat

• Rules Of Engagement

• The Shot

• The Shooter

• Lethality

• Current Weapons and Projects

• Ideas and vision of the future

DetectDetect

The Weapon Effects “Onion”(Lethality Chain & Overall System Performance)

Recognize / AcquireRecognize / Acquire

Identify / Hit Identify / Hit Defeat Protection(if required)Defeat Protection(if required)

Desired Target Effect(s)Desired Target Effect(s)

Locating The Threat

• Recognizing a threat– Weapon may not be carried openly– Camouflage may be civilian clothes– May have detailed local knowledge– May be one person or many– May use other persons as shields– May want to us to cause collateral damage

including casualties

Rules of Engagement

• International Laws Of War

• National Rules of Engagement– More restrictive than international law– Positive identification of a threat/hostile intent– May or may not require escalation of force

measures

The Shot

• Target – may appear with little or no warning– may be visible for 1 or 2 seconds at a time– may be obscured– may be only partially visible– may be moving between well camouflaged fire

positions– may not be concerned with surviving the engagement– Maybe wearing body armor (protected target)

• Error Budget– Shooting Accurately

5.56 NATO Error Budget

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

100 m 200 m 300 m 400 m 500 m 600 m

me

ter

Error in range estimation with +/-20 %

Target lead for one meter per second

Shooting uphill or downhill 10 degrees

20° C temperature difference

Drift due to rotation

Wind five meters per second

Firing from kneeling position (100 mm per 100 m)

Weapon and ammunition (50 mm per 100 m)

Courtesy of Mr Per G. Arvidsson

The ShooterAverage Canadian Soldier is 82 kg

Maximum weight carried should be

32% of 82 kg = 26.2 kgBut the equipment weighs • Ammo and Weapons – 9 kg • Ballistic Protection – 10 kg• Clothing, Indiv Eqpt, Load Carriage – 9 kg• Radio, NVGs, LAD, GPS + batteries – 6 kg• Water – 3 kg

TOTAL – 37kg + at temp above 40C

The ShooterSensors are critical but need power• AN/PVS-14 NVG (1 AA battery)• Maglite (2 AA battery)• PRR (2 AA battery)• GPS (3 AA battery)• EOTech Holographic Sight (2 AA battery)• AN/PVS-505 Kite Sight (2 AA battery)• AN/PAC-4C model 7500 Laser Pointer (2 AA battery)• Insight M3X Tactical Flashlight (2 Li-ion CR123A batteries)• BCID Beacon - TAG IR (1AA battery)• Spares – Mission duration dependant• TOTAL –At least 15 AA and 2 CR123 batteries daily

Op MEDUSA, one Infantry company used over 17500 AA batteries in the space of 2 weeks!

The ShooterDoes not want this:

LethalityNATO

A soldier is incapacitated when he is unable to carry out his main task, at the required level of performance, because of being wounded.

A soldier is suppressed when he is unable or unwilling to carry out his task effectively, because of the actual or perceived threat, or because of fear (in particular of being wounded).

Lethality results from• Disruption of the central nervous system• Blood loss• Infection

5 Important Factors• Shot Placement• Shot Placement• Shot Placement• Shot Placement• Everything Else – calibre, barrel length, etc

Lethality

Current Small Arms

Current CF Small Arms

Pistols

Target &

Training Rifles

Ranger & SAR Rifles

SignallingDevices

Sniper Rifles

Shotguns &

Less Lethal Weapons Assault

Rifles&

Carbines

Light Machineguns

Medium Machineguns

Heavy Machineguns

Sub Machineguns

Manufactured 1943 to 1945

Manufactured 1945 to 1953

Not compatible with new ammunition

Acquired for pest/wildlife control

Not compatible with modern night vision or other sensors

No foreign weapons for family training

No breaching weapons/ modern grenades

• Lethality: does not defeat increased personal protection

• Ammunition: Minimal multi-effects and few non-lethal capabilities

• Accuracy: Requires significant level of training for effect

• Inconsistent Visibility: Even with viewing aids, visibility by day/night is different.

• Signature Management: Noise/flash are distinctive.

• Integration/Networking: No direct link to the Soldier System

• Adaptive Dispersed Operations (ADO): Difficulty in integrating current small arms into the net-enabled and dispersed concept of ADO

• Ergonomics: Poor weight, compactness and operating commonality

• Ancillaries: Ancillaries available but not integrated.

Current CapabilityCurrent Capability DeficienciesDeficienciesCurrent CapabilityCurrent Capability DeficienciesDeficiencies

Snipers Systems Project

• Will provide a complete and fully integrated system of sniper equipment from clothing, camouflage, sensors, communications, weapons, night vision equipment, to transportation.

Snipers SystemSniper Systems Project• Will integrate the 8

sensors/devices used by the sniper spotter into 1 system

• Laser range finder• Night vision system• High power telescope• GPS• Inclinometer• Compass• Weather station (air pressure,

humidity, air temperature, wind speed)• IR thermometer (ammunition

temperature)• Ballistic calculator

• The system output, the ballistic solution, will be inserted directly into the sniper’s weapon sight

Snipers Systems Project

Will also acquire• Additional medium & long

range rifles• A sniper short range semi-

automatic rifle• New ammunition• Specialized light weight

clothing• Specialized light weight

protective equipment (helmet, frag vest etc)

• Special individual and collective camouflage

• Transportation system• Lightweight communication

equipment• Battle management system

SARP II Program

• SARP 2 will modernize or replace the CF small arm capability

Small Arms Replacement Project 2

• Value $1.0 Billion to 1.4 Billion• Three phases • Phase 1 (Tentative 2012-2015)

– Pistol, Ranger Rifle, Grenade Launcher, Shotguns• Phase 2 (Tentative 2015-2018)

– PDW, Boarding Party Weapons, Breaching systems, Grenades

• Phase 3 (Tentative 2018-2022)– Infantry Assault Weapons & Machineguns

SARP 2 Major Issues • Coordination with Integrated Soldier

System Project (ISSP)– What parts of the soldier system are to be

weapon mounted & why

• New operational concepts - ADO• US Army/NATO decision on calibers• Evaluation of Terminal Ballistics

performance• Reducing the training requirement

• The weapon is already the location for sensors and electronic devices

• Pointing with a weapon is natural for a soldier– Export information used by accurate pointing

– Use the Battle Management System to help the soldier locate the tgt in the weapon sights

• Accurate pointing can be used to enhance the squad SA if the EO devices export information & images to the network– Need to be geo-referenced

– Time stamped

Weapons and the Network

Allow the soldier toselect what information is displayed

1 or 2 default configurations That can be tailored

Information from the network

IFF

Direction to an assigned target

Remaining Ammunition

Enemy

Unknown

Friendly

The Scene

The Squad Commander’s view

Fire team on the balcony

Suspicious activity is noted

Using the EO on the weapon the squad commander tries to identify the threat but the view is obstructed

How can the squad commander direct the fire team to confirm the identity?

How do they know they are looking at the same person?

The Squad Commander’s view

The Scene

The Fire Team’s view

The Scene

With networked weapon mounted sensors

With Blue InformationFrom the BMS

The suspicious person is noticed, lased and the information is passed to the Fire team

The Commander also passes an image of the person with the location information

The information is injected into the fire team weapon sights

They use their EO to rapidly locate, confirm and remove the threat

The Scene

With networked weapon mounted sensors

Any squad member can now quickly locate and bring accurate fire against a threat or put extra eyes on a potential threat

Requirement on the precision capability: Concept – Automated engagement of the target

Or in a machinegun

Define the target area

Position sensors stops weapon from firing if shots will be outside of the box

The Vision?• The future vision is to develop a portable and

integrated weapon system for the soldier and the section which will increase weapon effectiveness, provide scalable lethal and non-lethal effects, against a variety of targets at the desired range/conditions (night & day) while minimizing system weight, i.e. :– Enhanced target acquisition and hand-off through

networking with ISSP– Enhanced target identification– Greater accuracy– Enhanced hit probability– Suitable target effects

• For lethal cases: Rapid incapacitation• For non-lethal cases: Target neutralisation with reversible

effects