A soldier’s after-action mission report can sometimes leave out vital observations and experiences that could be valuable in planning future operations. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is exploring the use of soldier-worn sensors and recorders to augment a soldier’s recall and reporting capability.
More of the Pentagon’s search for the perfect robot soldier. Or at least one who cooperates like a robot.
This week NIST [National Institute of Standards and Technology] is testing five different sensor systems at the United States Army Aberdeen Test Center in Aberdeen, Md. The tests, ending May 12, involve sensor-clad soldiers on unscripted foot patrol through simulated Iraqi villages populated with “bystanders,” “shopkeepers,” and “insurgents.” The sensors are expected to capture, classify and store such data as the sound of acceleration and deceleration of vehicles, images of people (including suspicious movements that might not be seen by the soldiers), speech and specific types of weapon fire.
A capacity to give GPS locations, an ability to translate Arabic signs and text into English, as well as on-command video recording also are being demonstrated in Aberdeen. Sensor system software is expected to extract keywords and create an indexed multimedia representation of information collected by different soldiers. For comparison purposes, the soldiers wearing the sensors will make an after-action report based on memory and then supplement that after-action report with information learned from the sensor data.
Isn’t it neat and compelling how our military is gearing up for more foreign wars? I think we should rid ourselves of outdated Cold War hype and return to calling it the War Department instead of the Department of Defense.
Jesus Christ…watching you write about anything military is like watching Bush talk. About anything.
Thanks for the heads up, Paul. At 4:30 AM, when I was cutting and pasting, it looked just fine. 🙂
It’s an age thing. The function was actually called the War Department before it became habit to employ Madison Avenue hucksters to sugarcoat crap before feeding it to the electorate.
One of the reasons our history includes big chunks of so-called isolationism — is that most people rejected Foreign Wars as benefitting only the big money boys. Regardless of the sell. I don’t hold that as perpetual, e.g., WW2 as an example. But, pretty damned consistent. Our military was supposed to be for defense — not aggression.
Referring to John’s post over the weekend, btw — General Smedley Butler wrote pretty thoroughly about his function on behalf of imperialism. Look up his quote sometime about Al Capone being small time.
“it seems to be working”? Isn’t that the elephants in the wheatfield in Kansas defense?
You know. The one where you set fire to stacks of dollars on the edge of the wheatfield — and claim the smoke keeps the elephants from raging through the grain? Because, after all, you don’t see any elephants in the field, do you?
Is it just me, or does the world look more and more like one of those Sci-Fi movies, where some ‘great external force’ imposes it’s idea of an ideal society at the point of the gun? One interesting parallel with today’s world is that the idea of ‘freedom’ that is being imposed always is for the direct benefit of the ‘great external force’, typically represented by a corporation.
The world now sees America as that ‘great external force’. People want to join the ‘great external force’ not in a search for freedom, but for personal enrichment and status. But the great masses hate the ‘great external force’, and eventually rebel and overthrow it.
Examples abound… one prime example is Iran under our lackey the Shah. Even the American revolution is based on the same principle.
Someday the countries of the world are going to start saying ‘Enough!’. It has already started, with all of Latin America having turned against the USA. And all they have to do is say ‘No oil for you!’ to bring us to our knees.
Many out there want to impose order through threats and force. It will not work, never has and never will. Only through cooperation will America survive the century.
Chuckle. You’re such a straight man for logical fallacies, Paul. Or is it phallicies?
Do-tell — elephants trampling through the wheatfield in your neighborhood? really? then, yes, you have an argument worthy of a debate — etc., etc.
Cause and effect relationships in military preparedness, counter-terrorism, homeland insecurity require more than a congressional budget and a thesaurus.
Even within the context of something as PR-based as the so-called War on Terror, Paul — there are military and [certainly] intelligence opportunities on foreign soil. But, I don’t see our government doing any better in Afghanistan or elsewhere in the 3rd World — than they are doing in Iraq. They just throw smaller amounts of dollar$ down the rathole of military procurement in those locations and consider that sufficient.
One of my buds who’s getting ready for his 3rd tour in Afghanistan tells me it’s starting to feel really familiar. Like Somalia all over again.
Looks like DV cams duct taped to a helmet. BFD?