US deploys Land Warrior prototypes in Afghanistan

A whole US Army brigade has been deployed in Afghanistan fully-equipped with computerized combat warfare equipment collectively known as Land Warrior.

Soldiers of the 5th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division have been selected to field test the high-tech soldier system, consisting of a gaggle of geopositioning equipment, interactive realtime maps, radios and computers, all designed for the betterment of soldiers, especially in unfamiliar terrain. Each Land Warrior unit weighs in at about eight pounds, and costs $48,000.

The 5th Brigade is taking 895 Land Warrior packs to Afghanistan.

Land Warrior had been 15 years and billions of dollars into development when it was cancelled in 2006. However, as sunk costs go, money has already been spent developing certain units to use Land Warrior in Iraq, so it was deployed. Apparently, that worked out well.

So now, the US Military is wanting to try it out again.

However, skeptics among the ranks say that it might have been really useful in an urban setting like Iraq, but it won’t do much good in the environments of Afghanistan.