u.s. army

Go ahead, call it a boondoggle--you wouldn't be the first. The U.S. Army's massive, ambitious Future Combat Systems project aims to create a fully networked military force of robotic aircraft, hybrid-engine ground vehicles, ultra high-tech weapons systems, and battlefield sensors to bring soldiering into the 21st century. Faced with the Herculean effort of getting everything together for deployment in the middle of the next decade (maybe), the Army is just now starting some low-level spin-outs of some of the technologies it's been working on for years now already. Yes, it's costing a lot of money.… Read more

In 2004, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld famously told a National Guardsman serving in Iraq, "As you know, you have to go to war with the Army you have, not the Army you want." The soldier had been inquiring about the readiness of Humvees for combat conditions--specifically, the need to "up-armor" the vehicles to provide better protection against enemy fire.

But even if a nation's military has to do the best it can with the gear it has, it can also plan ahead for the gear it knows it will need. That's the dual … Read more

The Brits are using a simulated combat environment developed by the University of Southern California, to treat soldiers suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

By bringing to life a "virtual Iraq," complete with the realistic thumps and bumps of battle, the program allows troops to "relive and confront psychological trauma." All this takes place in a graduated manner so as not to re-traumatize, according to the University of Reading's Visualisation Centre.

The Iraq simulation experience is "fully immersive," meaning that patients wear VR goggles that transport them to the virtual battlefield. There, an attending … Read more