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Despite looming money woes, the head of the Army’s Land Warrior program expects that Stryker brigade soldiers will take the high-tech system to war next year.

“I’m very confident” that 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division — the Army's fourth Stryker Brigade Combat Team — will deploy to Iraq with Land Warrior next year as planned, Col. Richard Hansen, project manager for Land Warrior, said Dec. 12 at a Pentagon roundtable with reporters.

Soldiers from 4-9 recently completed a successful test of the high-tech ensemble of digital communications and navigation equipment at Fort Lewis, Wash.

The Army’s senior leadership has been tracking the program’s success, and program officials have been planning the endeavor with commanders in Iraq, Hansen said.

“They know we are coming,” he said, explaining that coalition headquarters already knows what frequencies 4-9 soldiers with Land Warrior will be using.

Soldiers wearing Land Warrior have a miniaturized radio at their fingertips for sending and receiving voice communications and text messages; a helmet-mounted display with a built-in computer screen for viewing digital maps, reading text messages and target identification; a Global Positioning System for precise navigation; and weapons optics for engaging the enemy day and night.

All of Land Warrior's components are wired to a small computer processor through a series of robust cables. When used together, Army officials say, these systems will give soldiers an unmatchable edge in battle.

“Navigation is not even an issue anymore — getting lost is not even an issue,” said 4-9’s executive officer Maj. Keith Markham, who was at Fort Lewis, Wash., speaking through a video teleconference.

As it stands, 4-9 soldiers will deploy with 230 of the 440 Land Warrior systems program officials paid for with fiscal 2007 funds, Hansen said.

Program officials and leaders from 4-9 have determined that only soldiers who are team leaders and above will wear the Land Warrior system. Testing has shown that not every soldier needs access to the system’s wide range of visual information.

“It’s not at the rifleman, the grenadier or the automatic rifleman” level, Hansen said. “It starts at the team-leader level and above, so all of those 440 systems were funded. We are going to deploy with 230; if you do the math, that leaves us with about 170 spare systems. That’s an enviable position to be in terms of logistics and maintenance.”

High-tech upgrades

In January, 4-9 will receive an upgraded version of Land Warrior that features improved voice communications, streamlined headsets that are more like ear buds than headphones, and tiny keyboards — similar in size to those on Blackberries — for faster text messaging.

The upgraded software will also give soldiers the ability to place visual icons on map pages that can be used to mark buildings that have been cleared or identify breach points, program officials said.

The Army is in its third major contract award since 1996, having invested about $500 million so far in the high-tech endeavor. But the success ground commanders have experienced using digitized warfare in Iraq and Afghanistan, combined with improvements in technology, has boosted the program's momentum, officials said.

Once viewed as twitchy and undependable, Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade and Below, the Army's tactical Internet, has matured into a proven tool for orchestrating formations of men and machines.

The system has made a significant leap in reliability since the program's third contract award in 2003 to General Dynamics for about $250 million, Hansen said.

Army officials are hoping to go into low-rate production in March and begin operational tests in January 2008, Hansen said. Another unit will be selected to participate in the operational tests of Land Warrior, which are scheduled to take about four months. If all goes well, the goal will be to go into full-rate production by late 2008.

The long-term goal is to refine Land Warrior over time so it meets the needs of the operational Army. In the short term, equipment officials want to field Land Warrior to all seven Stryker brigades — a $399 million effort, Hansen said. Currently, the Army has only $170 million set aside to equip three Stryker brigades.

Nothing is certain, however. The Army’s mounting war costs could threaten future funding for the Land Warrior program. Hansen also said he is not worried yet about recent reports that the Land Warrior could be canceled during the next budget process.

“Until the budget goes to [Capitol] Hill, ... I look at it as we have not lost Land Warrior,” Hanson said.