Making Things Easier....

No matter how senior officers might want to regard them, soldiers have always been an individualistic bunch. And despite how or what regulations are forced upon them, soldiers will always find a way of either making things easier for themselves or adding the personal touch to somehow make themselves stand out from their fellows. Anyone who has ever attended an international field exercise cannot have failed to notice how what are supposed to be set standard, uniformed forces, can still display so many minor differences between what each soldier wears or carries.

These personal touches can be manifest in many ways, from additional or non-regulation personal equipment to small variations in dress, quite apart from traditional regimental distinctions. The main objective always seems to be that either the individual retains some form of personal identity, has discovered some way of making themselves more comfortable, or of carrying out some task more easily. These touches are usually small as they cannot extend to drastic alterations in what each soldier wears or which weapons they can carry.

Standardisation of clothing and equipment within organised combat forces has to be mandatory. The very appearance of any soldier can, for instance, be drastically altered by the wearing of a non-standard protective helmet or other form of headgear. In the heat of battle, anything observed as non-standard will be bound to attract friendly fire, with questions being asked only afterwards. Yet some nonstandard items may be acknowledged as universally useful and adopted on a wider scale.

Clothing

In contrast, most military personal load-carrying systems are the end result of prolonged development and testing by specialised establishments, the US Army Soldier Systems Center, Natick, being a prime example. The individual soldier is unlikely to make many innovative inroads in that area, other than hopeful suggestions, especially as the webbing basis involved is frequently intended to act as partial body armour as well as load carrying. Recent developments in woven aramid fibres have greatly improved the personal protection levels of many load-carrying equipments, and one can expect more to appear. One fabric in the US Special Forces pipeline from Natick uses an extremely thin permeable membrane layer to release body heat and vapours while keeping out moisture and NBC agents. It will be some time before such lightweight, high-tech materials become widely available.

Even so, many items of personal clothing that make up the combat uniforms of armed forces have sprung from the ranks. The post-Falklands furore regarding issue boots that emerged in the British Army is perhaps a prime example. The standard issue boot was found to be wanting under the wet and hard use conditions prevalent during that brief conflict. Once they had a chance, and despairing of receiving anything better in the short term, many who had experienced the Falklands campaign purchased, using their own money, their own footwear for field service, retaining the issue boots for parades and routine barrack duties only. Others followed their example. That situation has now been rectified but for a while British officers and NCOs tolerated numerous types and patterns of nonstandard field boots.

While dealing with the subject of load carrying, many soldiers would doubtless like to avail themselves of some form of `golf trolley' on which to carry some of their bulky and heavy equipment. While opportunities to utilise such items operationally may be limited, handy wheeled load carriers are available, such as the American-Austrian Kohlbrat + Bunz UT 2000. This is primarily intended to be a stretcher but is capable of carrying other loads, including when towed as a sledge. When necessary, the UT 2000 can be soldier-carried, stripped down into two backpacks.

Water

A universal aspect of military field service is the constant worry about water. Soldiers cannot function efficiently for long without a constant supply of clean, drinkable water. While finding and supplying potable water is a constant headache for military logisticians -- and most armed forces go to considerable lengths to ensure reliable supplies -- experienced soldiers know only too well that those supplies can be either delayed or break down altogether, leaving the soldier with an uncomfortable thirst. While water supplies are always a problem in desert or arid areas, they seem to be even more frustrating when natural local but suspect supplies are available, but cannot be consumed for elementary personal health reasons.

This is one area where individuals can go their own way. For a small penalty in carry weight and volume, soldiers can provide their own assured personal water supply from all manner of unattractive and turbid water sources. Typical of these are the products from PreMac International of Great Britain. One of them, the Model PWP (personal water purifier), is a high impact plastic filter unit that can be screwed onto any military standard water bottle. Untreated water is poured into the filter cup and left to pass by gravity through at least three cleansing stages to remove particulates and organic matter, finally disinfecting the end product with a resin-iodine stage; a further optional cleansing stage will remove the taste of the iodine.

For a weight penalty of 500 grams one litre of raw water can be rendered ready for drinking in about eight minutes by employing the reusable Pre-Mac Model PWP. The same cleansing level can be attained within a shorter time when employing the Model MWP or SWP. Both of these have small hand pump units that screw onto a water bottle to force direct-from-source untreated water through the same cleansing processes as on the Model PWP. While the Model MWP can be re-used to process 200 litres of raw water before filter maintenance is needed, the Model SWP is more of an emergencies-only unit, discarded after 50 litres have been processed. Both are small, light and simple units, the Model MWP weighing only 180 grams, the Model SWP a mere 60 grams.

There are many other personal water purifiers, one of them being the Swiss Katadyn PF (pocket filter), available for well over 30 years. This hard-wearing device is another hand pump, one that forces untreated water through a ceramic filter containing silver to help remove the impurities. The Katadyn PF can be used repeatedly, the filter unit requiring cleaning with a stiff brush after use. Another similar device, the SRTI-Sodeteg individual water treatment equipment, is available to the French armed forces. It weighs 1.5 kg compared to 535 grams for the Katadyn PF.

All these water-purifying equipment manufacturers can also provide water-cleaning systems with much higher volume processing capacities, although they are not likely to appeal to individuals anxious to have a personal water source for their own consumption, without accepting any significant weight or volume loads.

Two companies are well known for their backpack-style water carrying devices for military and law enforcement special units (although the idea originated with the camping/bicycling crowd). Both Camelback and Hydrastorm produce a wide range of hydration systems designed to help the soldier replenish his body fluids when stopping and fiddling with a noisy, cumbersome canteen is just not practical. Most of the units have a sturdy polyurethane reservoir with a large-mouth filling port, a drinking tube with bite valve and secondary drip-proof lock, all wrapped in a protective canvas style camouflage backpack that either fits under one's webgear or uniform, or has pockets, pouches and accessory straps and is worn outside one's kit. The volume range floats somewhere between 1.5 and 3 litres but is always tucked away in a low-profile pack designed to be as unobtrusive as possible.

Knives

Every soldier will carry a work knife at some time or another, although many regard officially-issued examples as of dubious utility and quality. The knives obtained by soldiers, usually at their own expense, may vary from lethal-looking combat knives to multi-purpose tools, soldiers usually opting for the latter as in any military environment they can have numerous useful roles compared to the highly specialised combat knife.

The multi-purpose knife market has for long been dominated by two manufacturers, Switzerland's Victorinox, and Leatherman of the USA. In recent years the widespread acceptance of the plier-jawed Leatherman mulitiple-function series of tools has been acknowledged by the introduction of a similar Swiss Tool design from Victorinox, although the latter continue to offer their multi-blade knives to provide for almost any requirement. Typical of the latter is their recently introduced `one handed' knife set, with the usual mini-saw, screwdriver, tin opener and the always-essential bottle opener.

Many soldiers continue to favour the blades from Masters Of Defense (M.O.D.). Their product range includes fearsome-looking combat knives to practical little folding blades, intended to be carried unobtrusively around the user's neck in an all-enclosing scabbard. One of their folding knives, the Duane Dieter CQD[R] (ordered by several US military organisations) even has a carbide edge and a protruding stud suitable for breaking through windows (see Armada International issue 3/2001, page 82). All M.O.D. knives are computer machined to tolerances one thirtieth the width of a human hair and were designed by a team of specialists consisting of some of the industry's foremost defensive fighting experts and special forces operators in either self defence, close quarters combat, martial arts or lethal force.

One striking example, no pun intended, comes from the famous Graciela Casillas-Boggs, a Black Belt Hall of Fame inductee, who has designed one M.O.D. series named the Lady Hawk. Casillas is a certified Defensive Tactics Trainer and is an instructor of the Franco method of Defensive Edged Weapons and Within Arms Reach (W.A.R.). The bladed weapons from Masters of Defense are clearly made by specialists, for specialists, yet are being found in the kit of many a regular soldier the world over.

Less assuming in appearance but just as specialised is the British Wilkinson Survival Knife. Compared to many other offerings, this is a rather large proposition for, in addition to its multi-use heavy blade, the Survival Knife has a hollow handle that contains all manner of useful items ranging from fishing gear to wet weather matches. There is even a small compass in the top of the hilt. Another multi-purpose example is the German Eickhorn-Solingen RT-III. Described as a rescue tool, the RT-III has a surprising number of functions designed into its once-piece blade, including a saw edge that can cut through laminated glass.

The above-mentioned are but a few examples of the many knives suitable for military use.

Reflections

The field of optics is another where individuality can reign. While items such as binoculars or optical sights are usually standard issue items, there always remains scope for soldiers to supply or acquire their own choices. For many armed forces the large-scale supply of optical devices can be an expensive exercise. Most optical devices are vulnerable to rough usage, damage or simply going `missing' due to their often attractive nature, so not every potential user will receive such items, even if they feel they need them to observe or search for enemy activities and targets.

Soldiers tend to acquire (or `borrow') their own optical devices, ranging from the handy little Minox pocket monoculars up to powerful binoculars with all the military trimmings, such as the Austrian Swarovski Optik range or their Swiss/German Leitz equivalents, to mention but two widely favoured sources. Full military specifications now include headings such as shockproof housings, artillery observation mil graticules, laser-proof eye protection filters, and sealed interiors filled with nitrogen to keep out the insidious moisture that will fog optical surfaces.

But there is an operational problem when any form of optical device becomes involved. The outer lens surfaces of binoculars or sights create `glint' and other `flash' reflections that will reveal their presence and position to an astute observer. This can occur even when there is no sunlight present. Over the years soldiers, and especially dedicated snipers, have attempted to overcome this `glint' factor by several measures, usually by covering the offending lens with stockingette or some similar material. While this can work, there is almost always some loss of light in the sight picture and sometimes even image distortion. Makeshift lens hoods tend to become easily damaged or dislodged.

The US Army has for some time been investigating the techniques of flash-free optical surfaces although, despite all their efforts, one solution has emerged from the private sector. Tenebraex has developed what they term Anti Reflection Devices (ARD -- also known by the proprietary name of killFlash) that permit optical systems to be deployed without fear of their being observed, even under extreme lighting conditions.

The ARD employs clusters of honeycombed miniature 'tunnels' or baffles, through which incoming light can pass unaffected. Each tunnel will permit the passage of incoming light without any loss of image brightness, but their narrow dimensions and overall length means that none of the incoming light is allowed to be reflected back out of the ARD. Glint and flash are therefore eliminated. The honeycomb ARD is a secure push fit over the lens involved and they can be produced in any size, shape or form, usually manufactured using a light alloy or hard plastic that will readily absorb the knocks of everyday use. They are also relatively inexpensive.

Items seemingly widespread throughout the military world but retaining the give-away glint factor are sunglasses in all forms. For specialist soldiers, such as ski troops, Sunglasses may be a necessity -- the spectacle kits produced by Ruag Electronics of Switzerland for that role are widely admired. However, it seems that many soldiers sport sunglasses for little other than appearance or self-assurance reasons.

Lighting

An individual light source is essential for soldiers in many tactical situations, from night operations to reading orders or maps in gloomy dugouts. The battery-powered torch, the MagiLite series in particular, has found a place in many military knapsacks.

MagiLite torches range in size from massive security beam emitters that can double as clubs, down to pen-sized, single-cell pocket models. Yet even the smallest torches can produce enough light to attract enemy attentions on a dark night. The snap-actuated Cyalume light sources rely on less brilliant chemical reactions to produce their illumination and have many military applications.

Cyalume Lightsticks have been used in many ways, including as minefield and defile markers. For the individual soldier they can have several applications. One instance is the Combat Light -- a plastic tube containing a Lightstick that provides a variable light output, operated using a simple rotating shutter slot. It may be worn as a direction approach or position indicator to others or to provide light to read maps. When the Combat Light is not needed the slot can be kept covered. The Compact Light is another alternative, intended to be worn on a uniform or the back of a helmet as a personal indication signal for friendly forces. The Combat Light is small enough to be virtually invisible to others, unless they are very close at hand, but they produce sufficient light to be easily detected by night vision devices.

Saunders-Roe Developments produces a similar portable light system, but based on a Betalight. One of the items in the Saunders-Roe range is the small, 40-gram Soldier's Personal Illuminator (SPI) that can be worn or emplaced for at least five applications; route marker, torch, personal marker, map reader or as an aiming post indicator for weapons such as machine guns. The green light output can again be varied using a rotating shutter slot. Compared to Cyalume lightsticks, which have a practical light-producing life of about twelve hours (depending on size), the SPI has a life expectancy of over five years.

Time Keeping

Despite being essential for myriad military purposes, time pieces are rarely issued to land forces, and then only to a selected few. Yet few soldiers seem to mind obtaining their own, and they have a wide selection to choose from. Military standard watches now abound, for just about every watch manufacturer seems to have suitable models on offer. They can vary from the complex, multi-function chronometers produced by Breitling of Switzerland to the less costly models offered by Citizen.

The latter produces a rugged wrist watch at a very reasonable price, the Promaster. A quartz watch, the waterproofed Promaster is powered by an Eco-Drive, with ordinary light constantly recharging a small battery that does not need replacing. The mechanism is protected within a titanium case and even the wrist strap is wear-resistant woven Kevlar. Functions are basic but accurate, and include the second hand that is so necessary for many military purposes.

No matter what watch is selected by the individual, it will always benefit from the inclusion of MB-Microtech Traser self-activated light accessory that allows any watch face to remain illuminated and easy to read under the most demanding of conditions, including underwater. The glowing Trasers have many other possible uses away from watches, including sights, LCD displays and similar illumination requirements. Trasers are standard throughout the US Army.

Camouflage

Opportunities for the individual soldier to add to the concealment and camouflage measures normally supplied, as and when needed, are few and far between. Non-standard camouflage patterns or colours on combat uniforms are further examples of personal touches likely to attract reactive friendly fire under combat conditions, so are not encouraged.

Almost every soldier is familiar with the small camouflage net that can cover the head and shoulders, doubling as a neck scarf when not needed in its primary role. Such measures can be extended to the US Army's Small Area Camouflage Cover (SACC), small enough to fold into a uniform pocket yet capable of covering a soldier from head to foot, but here the concealment is extended way beyond the visual.

These days, concealment and camouflage can be extended to the near infrared and even radar spectrums. Thermal imagers and the like can convert body heat-producing soldiers, or heat-retaining hardware, into observable images under night or poor light conditions, so the individual is presented with more of a challenge if he wants to remain concealed. Normally, high tech materials intended to reduce infrared contrasts or radar reflections are not easy to come by, other than through official channels. Camouflage has been extended to a personal appearance level. Although a coating of dirt was once deemed sufficient, over recent years it has become apparent that soldiers are almost automatically covering their faces and exposed areas of skin in camouflage creams before going into action. Various colourings may be applied in cream or `lipstick' form to break up the outlines and colours of the face. The number of suppliers of such materials is legion, many of them well established in the cosmetics industry.

And while camouflage patterned clothes have been mandatory for several decades, surprisingly, and in view of the proliferation of thermal vision devices worldwide, not much has been made to conceal the soldier on foot after sunset. Oddly enough, vehicles have started to benefit from such cover, but not those who dismount them. Thus, a vehicle with thermal camouflage might go unnoticed at night only to have its presence revealed as soon as its occupants dismount. Barracuda is already second to none in vehicle signature management but has recently addressed the problem of the man on foot with a suit that renders him completely invisible at night. Armada's Editor in Chief was almost shocked by his recent experience in Sweden: in spite of the fact that he was told where to look for people during a night time demonstration he couldn't spot anyone through the thermal camera; however when the men out there removed their hoods, the sudden vision of their spectre-like faces through the eye-pieces had his heart miss a beat or two. Named after a contraction of `special operations tactical suit', the recently introduced Barracuda Sotacs is currently being produced for a number of forces, which, for the time being, wish to remain as discreet in daylight as the signature their suits affords them to be at night. One other reassuring feature of this oversuit is that it is extremely lightweight (2.7 kg), well ventilated and water-repellent (it thus does not absorb humidity).

Digging In

Digging in is one of those tasks that soldiers hate to carry out, that is until the shooting starts and they then wish they had dug deeper. The personal entrenching tool is usually capable of being called upon to double as a close quarter weapon, but the main feature of the tool is that it requires effort from the individual soldier to make it function. In addition, thanks to the low carrying weight demanded, most examples are too flimsy to make much impression on hard or rocky ground.

Something of a minor design breakthrough in entrenching tools can be seen with the Field Spade manufactured by Glock (the same people who produce the Glock pistols). Their Field Spade has been the subject of much thought and troop testing. The hardened steel blade can be locked into one of four positions, configured as a shovel or hoe, while it is strong enough for a sharpened edge to cut through timber. A telescopic extending handle provides the best handling length for the task involved, also allowing the Field Spade to be folded down into a compact unit for carrying (total weight is 680 grams). The hollow polymer handle also contains a steel saw blade with a screwdriver tip.

Combat engineers will go to considerable lengths to employ their special vehicles and diggers to provide trenches and foxholes for other arms, but experienced soldiers know only too well that the sappers will always be somewhere else when it is their turn to start digging, and that the ground will always be impenetrable and stony. One method of reducing the effort and time involved in producing foxholes in such terrain is the introduction of small explosives-based kits that allow the necessary small emplacements to be formed.

Soldiers are unlikely to provide their own personal explosive devices but they are happy to utilise them whenever they can. The principle is to use a stake or pipe that is hammered or drilled down into the ground to the required depth. Once the stake or pipe is removed a small explosive charge is lowered into the cavity and detonated from a safe distance. This creates a large hole into which another charge can be placed to make the hole larger, or the initial charge alone is relied upon to shake up the local soil area sufficiently for entrenching tools to be employed without excessive effort. The result is, at the least, a one-person foxhole.

Atlas Copco Berema of Sweden produces such a system and so do many others, including Alliant Techsystems (ATK). ATK has secured several domestic and international orders for its M300 Fighting Position Excavator, known as the Badger. M300 operation involves drilling two holes with a manually operated auger (supplied) and lowering in small quantities of a travel-safe binary explosive, mixed on the spot, to be ignited by a standard detonator. The resultant explosion loosens the surrounding soil for an excavation capable of accommodating two soldiers, to be completed and finished using standard entrenching tools in far less time than needed for manual efforts alone.

For more complicated digging tasks, Rafael has developed its Diggerock lightweight, portable demolition kit capable of creating holes in structures or even rock surfaces. The kit has three components. An initial shaped charge that creates the starter hole in the target surface. A second `pusher' charge forces the main charge into the starter hole, where the main charge then explodes at the bottom. The Diggerock kit can be employed individually or in multiples to carry out a variety of functions in addition to rapid foxhole creation. Alternative roles include demolitions and cratering roads to render them impassable.

Foxholes provide little cover from air bursts or mortar bomb effects, so anything that can provide overhead protection is always welcome. Traditionally, this has been provided by corrugated iron sheets covered by soil, or ground sheets with their protective qualities confined to keeping off the weather. Various alternatives are now available, one of them produced by Cnim of France. The Soldier Fighting Cover (SFC) is hardly an individually acquired item but it is one that makes the life of the front line soldier much easier and safer. The SFC consists of a light and portable, two-part, glass fibre arch structure that can be erected in a trench. Once emplaced in the trench to a depth of about 1.25 metres, the top can be covered by earth or sandbags up to a depth of about 600 mm, sufficient to provide protection against 155 mm artillery air bursts. A single SFC arch weighs 17 kg.

Final Thought

A final indication of how the individual might care to conduct warfare in his own way comes with the ubiquitous mobile telephone. The public telephone has had its influence on warfare since the Spanish Civil War, leading to today's secure radio communication networks that cover huge areas. However, there is still room at small unit level for the individual's mobile telephone to have some minor role to perform. Mobiles have become so rugged, small and light that they will easily find a permanent place in a commander's pocket, while acceptance of their constant use seems to have become a part of normal behaviour.

Why not utilise mobiles for routine within-unit purposes, or perhaps even for tactical applications? Fears of eavesdropping by an enemy have already been at least partially overcome by the first commercially-available automatic encryption models, such as those from Rohde and Schwarz of Germany. How long will it be before the usual reduction in electronic unit costs allows the mobile telephone to find a secure place within the military?

In short

* "Soldiers, however uniform their main gear is, retain their individuality through nonstandard equipment extras"

* "Personal equipment is geared toward cutting time, lightening loads and providing safely"

* "High-tech pocket miracles once reserved for agent 007 are now considered field essentials."