Army News, news from Iraq, - Army Times

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 4th Stryker Brigade Combat Team — will deploy to Iraq with Land Warrior next year as they have been planning to do, Col. Richard Hansen, project manager for Land Warrior, said Tuesday 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.

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

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 as we have not lost Land Warrior,” Hansen said.