Photo: Safran/FLIR
If you take a quick look at what's going on with military hardware, you'll notice that a lot of research is going into developing new vehicles: airplanes, ground vehicles, drones, you name it. With very few exceptions, no one seems to be thinking about the dismounted soldier, the one that's actually doing the fighting there in the dirt.
One of those exceptions is something called ACHILE. With a name inspired by the legendary Greek warrior that made a myth of his name during the Trojan War, ACHILE is a European effort to come up with "innovative solutions for next-generation dismounted soldier systems."
The project involves several major European defense companies, including Safran, Rheinmetall, Indra Sistemas, and Leonardo, and was backed last week by the European Union with a 40 million euros (about $44 million) grant.
ACHILE is, naturally, an acronym (a forced one, if you ask me, but it had to sound cool), and stands for Augmented Capability for HIgh end soLdiErs. And it covers almost everything a soldier would need to get a better shot at surviving combat.
First up, the companies involved will look into making equipment that is lighter and more ergonomic, but also modular, as to allow the inclusion of new pieces of hardware.
New tech for visual and sound perception is to be developed as well, in a bid to increase the soldier's situational awareness. At a team level, augmented capabilities will be helped by network connectivity, and shared situational awareness.
Soldiers will also be able to interact differently with the vehicles and weapons deployed during missions, and the project also targets mission planning and even training.
All of the above are at the moment generic goals, and we don't have any specific hardware to discuss yet. That's because work on ACHILE is just about to begin, and will spread over the course of the next four years. We do know the tech being considered includes everything from navigation units and head-up displays to weapons sights and even exoskeletons meant to truly enhance a soldier.
The companies involved in the project (and there are 30 of them in all) will work on anything from initial studies to demonstrators and prototypes. Then all will be said and done, the systems being developed under ACHILE are to become harmonized across the Old Continent.
At the time of writing there is no official timeline for when the new ACHILE tech will be ready, but if we take into account the four years needed for development, and if we assume all will work as advertised, a new breed of European soldiers should be born by the end of this decade.
We'll keep an eye out on developments concerning ACHILE and update every time we learn something new.
The project involves several major European defense companies, including Safran, Rheinmetall, Indra Sistemas, and Leonardo, and was backed last week by the European Union with a 40 million euros (about $44 million) grant.
ACHILE is, naturally, an acronym (a forced one, if you ask me, but it had to sound cool), and stands for Augmented Capability for HIgh end soLdiErs. And it covers almost everything a soldier would need to get a better shot at surviving combat.
First up, the companies involved will look into making equipment that is lighter and more ergonomic, but also modular, as to allow the inclusion of new pieces of hardware.
New tech for visual and sound perception is to be developed as well, in a bid to increase the soldier's situational awareness. At a team level, augmented capabilities will be helped by network connectivity, and shared situational awareness.
Soldiers will also be able to interact differently with the vehicles and weapons deployed during missions, and the project also targets mission planning and even training.
All of the above are at the moment generic goals, and we don't have any specific hardware to discuss yet. That's because work on ACHILE is just about to begin, and will spread over the course of the next four years. We do know the tech being considered includes everything from navigation units and head-up displays to weapons sights and even exoskeletons meant to truly enhance a soldier.
The companies involved in the project (and there are 30 of them in all) will work on anything from initial studies to demonstrators and prototypes. Then all will be said and done, the systems being developed under ACHILE are to become harmonized across the Old Continent.
At the time of writing there is no official timeline for when the new ACHILE tech will be ready, but if we take into account the four years needed for development, and if we assume all will work as advertised, a new breed of European soldiers should be born by the end of this decade.
We'll keep an eye out on developments concerning ACHILE and update every time we learn something new.
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