Norway: NORMANS

Norway’s efforts in this arena have focused on the NORwegian Modular Arctic Network Soldier (NORMANS) program as a conceptual approach developed by the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment (NDRE) to support the future Norwegian soldier system. The program concept covers all the five NATO defined capability areas – lethality, survivability, sustainability, mobility, and C4I – with significant improvements in situational awareness, protection, human factors, and weapon systems.

The program was reportedly designed to the needs and specifications of the Norwegian army’s “Telemark Battalion.” The design integrates existing soldier equipment with state-of-the-art information terminals and provides the soldier with a complete and integrated system. The system gives the soldiers superior situational awareness by providing blue force tracking, navigation, target hand-off, and text messaging. Moreover, the modular design also allows integration of a variety of sensors and capabilities depending on and being tailored to soldier roles and missions.

Thales Norway AS and key subcontractor Teleplan Globe AS have been supporting NDRE in initial design trials that began in late 2009. Following those trials, in early October 2011, Thales announced the Norwegian Ministry of Defense decision to purchase NORMANS based on the results of those trials.

Noting that the NDRE testing had “documented significant improvement in operational effectiveness and increased safety for the soldier with NORMANS compared to the current solution, which is based on paper maps and hand held GPS,” the supporting industry team highlights the net result as “10 – 40 – 20,” which they identify as years in development (10); percent increase in combat effectiveness (40); and percent of the weight (20).

Recent Norwegian government financial projections on “Future Acquisitions for the Norwegian Armed Forces 2012-2020” indicate that a notional follow-on “Digitalization 2” project is taking shape “to further develop the capabilities of the soldier equipment acquired earlier,” adding that “Operational experiences and technological development will determine the contents of the project.”

Projected milestones for the follow-on effort include project approval in 2016; contract in 2017; and completed delivery in 2019.

 

Switzerland: IMESS

The Swiss Army has also been exploring soldier modernization under its Integrated and Modular Engagement System for the Swiss Soldier (IMESS) program. In March 2011, Cassidian announced its receipt of a contract from the Swiss defence procurement authority, Armasuisse, for the advanced production engineering of IMESS.

Noting that the Swiss have been exploring and field-testing IMESS prototypes based on the company’s Warrior21™ system since 2007, the announcement characterized the 2011 contract as taking “this experience as a basis for upgrading the existing systems to production standard and supplementing them with further, production-ready IMESS soldier systems. To ensure command-and-control capability on high-mobility operations, the contract also provides for the equipping of combat vehicles – including the tactical military vehicle Duro and the armored assault vehicle Piranha – and their integration into the IMESS network.”

Although Russian Defence Ministry statements in December 2011 had indicated that talks had been conducted with France over the purchase of a small number of FELIN systems for evaluation, Chief of the General Staff Gen. Nikolai Makarov later said Russia would undertake its own soldier modernization program.

“The advanced production engineering contract will optimize various capabilities of the ‘Warrior21’ IMESS version by employing more efficient and powerful components, many of which are dedicated new developments,” it added. “It addresses tactical command-and-control capabilities from company level to individual soldier level, covering combat vehicles, the use of optimized communication media, a significantly improved weight and energy balance through the deployment of new and/or optimized components, enhanced situational awareness and navigation through the use of head/helmet mounted displays, and better night fighting and reconnaissance capabilities through such means as navigation aids and video streaming of night weapon sights (optronics).“

 

Russia: Warrior

Another representative example of recent soldier system modernization efforts comes from Russia, where the army announced its own testing of approximately 40 different elements of a future soldier system.

Although Russian Defence Ministry statements in December 2011 had indicated that talks had been conducted with France over the purchase of a small number of FELIN systems for evaluation, Chief of the General Staff Gen. Nikolai Makarov later said Russia would undertake its own soldier modernization program.

Recent press reports indicate that initial efforts, dubbed “Warrior,” will focus on improved soldier protection, with an aramid fiber suit design created by the Kirasa Company.

Highlighting its involvement in the design of “Combat Protective Complete Set for elite special units of [the] Russian Army,” Kirasa descriptions add, “This equipment for the soldier of the 21st century is produced from Aramid materials and provides all-round ballistic protection of at least 80 percent of the body from low-speed fragments, as well as protection from short-term exposure to naked flame. The basis of the complete set (depending on the version) is either overalls or protective jacket and trousers. Soldier’s torso is protected more securely with light fragmentation protective vest; to protect soldier’s vital organs from rifle bullets, the vest is reinforced with Removable Ballistic Plate (steel or ceramic). Other elements of ballistic protection included in the complete set are helmet and protective mask. Universal Combat Harness Unite provides convenient placement of ammunition and equipment. Scrupulous ergonomic development of the complete set construction and use of special underwear provides comfort even during operations in hot climate and high humidity.”

This article was first published in Defense: Spring 2013 Edition.