The USMC has Gruntworks and the Australian Army has their Diggerworks. In the UK, it’s TommyWorks and they are seeking to develop the Future Soldier System for the British Army.

Working in conjunction with the Infantry Trials and Development Unit (ITDU), they have a goal to develop and field the capabilities seen in the graphic below which are referred to as the 24 Hour Integrated Digital Soldier.

In the interim, they are fielding some updates to their Infantry. In addition to a few upgrades to the SA80 Rolfe, the biggest increase in capability include radios and fused, binocular night vision, similar to systems recently fielded to the US Army and Marines.

The British Army is forming a Special Operations Brigade which many are referring to as “Ranger” but when asked about it say it will be like the “Green Berets.” Obviously, the British are doing a poor job of explaining what this new unit will do, as the Special Forces Support Group, consisting of Army Paras, Royal Marines and RAF Regiment specialists will remain in place.

At any rate, they’ve got some idea of how they’ll outfit the unit, even if there’s some question as to what it will be doing. This display depicts how they expect the Special Operations Brigade Soldier to be equipped.

He is wearing a Crye Precision GB4 uniform, a slight modification made in Europe and recently adopted by the Royal Marines. However, I am told the Army variant will be in Multi Terrain Pattern, rather than MultiCam like the RM version. The boots, helmet, and armor displayed here are all COTS items and I expect something similar to see final fielding of not these exact items.

A tender was released for a new Special Operations Brigade Rifle, which will be an “Armalite” pattern rather than bullpup like the general issue SA80.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 23rd, 2021 at 13:00 and is filed under DSEi. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.