Thursday, February 15, 2001
San Jose, CA--In what may be a trade show first, the San
Jose Police conducted a raid at the San Jose Convention Center during the
Wireless Portable Symposium & Exhibit, where Pacific Consultants, Mountain
View, CA, is exhibiting its Land Warrior soldier weapon system. Police officers
checked the Land Warrior rifle, determined it had no firing capability, and left
the show -- only to return later in the afternoon when they were off-duty to
evaluate the technology for possible use by SWAT teams.
What's so hot about Land Warrior? In U.S. Army field exercises
held last fall, a platoon of 42 soldiers equipped with only a partial Land
Warrior system showed superior capability when fighting more experienced and
better-trained infantrymen. Developer Pacific Consultants engineered Land
Warrior in just over a year.
Land Warrior consits of an Intel 2000 computer and radio subsystem
tied to a wireless LAN and global positioning system (GPS). The communications
system enables conference calling, email, and image (both still and video)
transmission. WIth a range of over 2.3 km unobstructed, other features include
thermal imaging capabilitiesto allow detection of hidden or moving targets,
amultifunctional laser, and a video sight with which the soldier can fire around
corners without exposing himself. The user accesses these systems by means of
helmet-mounted display and control equipment. Despite all these capabilities,
though, Land Warrior's equipment vest weighs 16.4 pounds and the associated
helmet weighs a mere three pounds.
Pacific Consultants wrote over 300,000 lines of code for the
software subsystem that drives Land Warrior's voice/data/image communications
systems and tactical and mission data support. It also supports MS Windows for
compatibility with commercial applications.
Because Land Warrioruses flexible circuitry extensively, it can be
adapted to smaller, lighter vests for non-military applications --as evidenced
by the keen interest by the San Jose police -- such as SWAT Teams.
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