There have been numerous questions floating about the equipment chosen for the Army’s Asymmetric Warfare Group fielding of a battalion’s worth of lightweight COTS equipment to the 4th ID for their current deployment to Afghanistan. In an effort to dispel any rumors, we got a list of the equipment issued but have removed sensitive materials including any references to armor.
See the entire list after the jump.
According to Wired’s online defense journal Danger Room, InsideDefense.com broke the story earlier this week that the Army is going to field a “Brigade’s worth” of the Land Warrior II system now known as the Ground Soldier Ensemble or GSE at the request of a “Special Forces Commander” at Fort Bragg.
Gerber Legendary Blades
Gerber was handing out samples of their “new” Shard which closely resembles the Artifact but without the blade. Also, “new” is a relative term as they have been handing out samples at several shows over the last year but are just now releasing it to the market. Gerber claims it is airport friendly and I put that to the test. On my flight out of Salt lake City I put it in the bin with my other pocket litter and it went through security just fine. A simple pocket accessory, it features a bottle opener, nail puller, and phillips head.
Sea to Summit
While most products being shown at OR won’t be available until January 2010 at the earliest, there are a variety of products you can get now. One example is the Alpha utensil set from Sea to Summit. A more economical alternative to titanium flatware, the Knife, Fork and Spoon set is made from hard anodized 7075-T6 aircraft aluminum alloy in a smooth matte finish and comes with a mini carabiner to hold it all together. The individual utensils have hexagonal holes cut out of the handle to reduce weight which provide three different size hex wrenches (3 mm, 4 mm & 5 mm). Available from Sea to Summit.
Feelmax
A lightweight, conformal design with puncture resistant soles make this Finnish footwear a show in for use in wet environments although several athletes have been conquering marathon events in the shoes. The Panka (seen below) in men’s and women’s sizes as well as the men’s Niesa both feature a lace up design, heel strap to assist with donning and a removable liner for drying.
Feelmax footwear will be available soon through OTE.
Craghoppers
Based on the popularity of the television show Man vs Wild starring Bear Grylls, British outdoor clothier Craghoppers developed a clothing line a couple of years back. Earlier this year, they conducted a direct marketing campaign for fans which laid the groundwork for the release of the 2010 line here in the US and Craghoppers’ first time exhibiting at OR.
For more information Craghoppers on the web.
Fobbit or not, everyone deploys with a computer these days and some of us are more obsessive than others when it comes to cables and wires in the hooch. For the more organized out there comes the Cableox cable organizer. The 4×4-inch panels are self-adhesive and feature nubs to secure errant cables.
We haven’t identified a US distributor yet so if you are interested you will need to visit av-cables.dk.
Thanks to PhysicsWorld.com we know that MIT has developed a new fiber that would allow a soldier to detect threats by seeing in all directions at once or to collect information to feed a stealth suit that projects an image of the surrounding environment.
SEM micrographs of the resulting fiber cross-section, illustrating the uniform conservation of the cross-section structure from the macroscopic preform to the microscopic fiber.
CREDIT: Courtesy of the Fink Lab/MIT
“The individual fibers created by the MIT team consist of two separate sheets of semiconducting glasses — just 100nm thick — folded up like a Swiss roll. Electrodes are worked into the fibers and the resulting cylinder, which is 35cm long, is covered in an insulating cladding. The fibers can detect light because photons interacting with a semiconductor material can ionize the component atoms, thus triggering a current in the presence of a potential difference.”
As a follow up to our recent article on GPS software, one of our readers pointed out that Blackstar Navigation produces a GPS software for the Blackberry. What’s more, it’s free.
Cradle Software has developed GpsSpot v1.0.2, a GPS software that works much like electronic breadcrumbs. Using GpsSpot you can easily save any location as a known point and using your phone’s GPS the application will display a distance and direction to the saved point.
The software package provides your Windows based mobile device with capabilities similar to the Bushnell Backtrack. It relies on your phone’s GPS capability so don’t expect it to be as accurate, rugged, or reliable as a dedicated GPS device but it may be perfect for some applications where you want enhanced capability for your mobile device.
For more information visit their website.
As soon as 215 Gear released their Operator Retention Lanyard they were besieged with requests from air crew for a specialist design. The resulting lanyard has a finished length 46 inches and stretches to 85 inches (web to web). Versions are available with a snap shackle and climb rated Frog fitting or with fixed loops at the ends for user supplied carabiners.
For more information contact 215 Gear or to order contact Grey Group Training.
