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FORT LEWIS, Wash. – Stryker brigade soldiers here are learning how to fight with the latest prototype of Land Warrior – a futuristic ensemble of high-tech gear designed to improve how soldiers shoot, move and communicate on the digital battlefield.

The 352 soldiers from 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division (SBCT) are training with the prototype through October as part of an assessment to help the Army’s senior leadership decide if Land Warrior can be perfected and fielded to the brigade by the end of 2008.

The goal is to ensure the system has the reliability to function effectively on the battlefield, then make changes and improvements based on soldiers’ comments and start fielding it to Stryker brigades, said Col. Richard Hansen, project manager for Project Manager Soldier Warrior.

Since the program’s beginnings in the early 1990s, Land Warrior has endured several challenges such as being too heavy, unreliable and difficult to power over extended time periods.

But the success of Stryker vehicles equipped with Force XXI Battle Command, Brigade and Below, or the Army’s tactical Internet, has convinced the Army that it’s time to equip the foot soldier with the same capability, program officials say.

With Force XXI, leaders can track the movements of their forces by watching computer icons on a digital map. They can also send secure text messages and navigate more effectively with an embedded global positioning satellite technology.

Land Warrior brings that technology to the individual soldier. It is equipped with a wearable computer that’s connected to a “heads-up” eyepiece display soldiers can pull down to check the positions of their fellow soldiers, download maps and graphics and send text messages. The prototype is also equipped with a radio for communicating inside the squad and platoon as well as with higher level commands.

If all goes well with the limited user test scheduled for this fall, the prototype could go into low-rate production in 2007 and enter the operational test phase in 2008, program officials say. The goal is to field the system to the 172nd at the end of 2008.