The Future Integrated Soldier Technology (or FIST) sometimes incorrectly referred to as the Future Infantry System Technology or Future Infantry Soldier Technology is a project by the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...

, which aims to enhance the

infantry Infantry is a military specialization which engages in ground combat on foot. Infantry generally consists of light infantry, mountain infantry, motorized infantry & mechanized infantry, airborne infantry, air assault infantry, and m ...

combat Combat (French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict meant to physically harm or kill the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is sometimes resorted to as a method of self-defense, o ...

effectiveness in the 21st century as part of the

Future Soldier Future Soldier was a multi-nation military project by the United States and its allies launched in the late 1990s. Set-up Superiority to enemy ground forces will be achieved by equipping the average ground-based combat soldier with an integ ...

project. The contract was awarded to

Thales Thales of Miletus ( ; grc-gre, Θαλῆς; ) was a Greek mathematician, astronomer, statesman, and pre-Socratic philosopher from Miletus in Ionia, Asia Minor. He was one of the Seven Sages of Greece. Many, most notably Aristotle, regard ...

in March 2003.

The goal

The goal is to integrate a modular system of all equipment,

weapon A weapon, arm or armament is any implement or device that can be used to deter, threaten, inflict physical damage, harm, or kill. Weapons are used to increase the efficacy and efficiency of activities such as hunting, crime, law enforcement, ...

s and their

sighting Discovery is the act of detecting something new, or something previously unrecognized as meaningful. With reference to sciences and academic disciplines, discovery is the observation of new phenomena, new actions, or new events and providing ne ...

systems,

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transm ...

s that the individual

soldier A soldier is a person who is a member of an army. A soldier can be a conscripted or volunteer enlisted person, a non-commissioned officer, or an officer. Etymology The word ''soldier'' derives from the Middle English word , from Old French ...

carries or uses, in order to increase their overall effectiveness on the battlefield. The programme is being managed by the Dismounted Close Combat Integrated Project Team at

Defence Equipment and Support Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) is a trading entity and joint-defence organisation within the UK Ministry of Defence. It began operating on 2 April 2007, following the merger of the MoD's Defence Procurement Agency and the Defence Logistics ...

MoD Abbey Wood MoD Abbey Wood is a Ministry of Defence establishment at Filton, Bristol, United Kingdom. The purpose-built site houses the MoD's Defence Equipment and Support and Submarine Delivery Agency procurement organisations. It was opened by Queen Eli ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city i ...

Subsystems

A major complement of the FIST project is the '' Bowman''

communication Communication (from la, communicare, meaning "to share" or "to be in relation with") is usually defined as the transmission of information. The term may also refer to the message communicated through such transmissions or the field of inqu ...

s system, which gives secure communications to the

troop A troop is a military sub-subunit, originally a small formation of cavalry, subordinate to a squadron. In many armies a troop is the equivalent element to the infantry section or platoon. Exceptions are the US Cavalry and the King's Tro ...

s on the ground, allowing for simultaneous

transmission Transmission may refer to: Medicine, science and technology * Power transmission ** Electric power transmission ** Propulsion transmission, technology allowing controlled application of power *** Automatic transmission *** Manual transmission ** ...

of voice and data and having built-in

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of the global navigation satellite sy ...

equipment, as well as sending visual information direct from personal cameras. The kit is aimed to cover 5 main areas: * Command and Control * Lethality * Mobility * Survivability * Sustainability Command and Control is aimed to improve fire team and local commanders' awareness of the situation. Lethality is as the name suggests and includes new weapon systems such as the new

NLAW The Saab Bofors Dynamics NLAW (pronounced: ''"N-LAW"'', ), also known as the MBT LAW or RB 57, is a fire-and-forget, lightweight shoulder-fired, and disposable (single-use) line of sight (LOS) missile system, designed for infantry use. The ...

and

Javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon, but today predominantly for sport. The javelin is almost always thrown by hand, unlike the sling, bow, and crossbow, which launch projectiles with t ...

anti tank weapons and the new sights for the

SA80 The SA80 (Small Arms for the 1980s) is a British family of 5.56×45mm NATO service weapons used by the British Army. The L85 Rifle variant has been the standard issue service rifle of the British Armed Forces since 1987, replacing the L1A1 Se ...

. Mobility includes areas such as route planning and GPS locations, survivability includes armour and stealth and sustainability includes areas such as power supplies with the system aiming to run off new next generation power cells. The Surveillance and Target Acquisition (STA) element of FIST was contracted to Thales to deliver a range of sights, target locators, periscopes and digital cameras in 2010-14 at a cost of £150 million. They equip nearly 11,000 troops from all 3 services.

Timescales

The project aimed to deploy a whole suite of digitized weapon platforms by 2008. First major trials of the FIST system were completed on

Salisbury Plain Salisbury Plain is a chalk plateau in the south western part of central southern England covering . It is part of a system of chalk downlands throughout eastern and southern England formed by the rocks of the Chalk Group and largely lies w ...

in January, 2005. In these trials at the Salisbury Plain training area. 70 soldiers were equipped with the prototype FIST technology including GPS, communications and weapon sights and compared to the effectiveness of 70 conventionally equipped soldiers. A further FIST V2 trial was scheduled for 2006. 35,000 sets of kit are expected to be bought and issued between 2015 and 2020. This equipment is designed to bring the British infantryman up to standards and link with new technology currently employed, including the new underslung grenade launcher for the

and the deployed Bowman communications network. It is not intended that every soldier be equipped with FIST: instead unit commanders will request FIST kits as necessary and so they can be tailored to the situation and mission aims. As well as linking into the new technology for the soldier it is designed to link in with other communications systems as well as the UK UAV project called Watchkeeper.

Dismounted Situational Awareness

As of 2016, the MoD publicised plans to replace the existing Bowman with a system named

Morpheus Morpheus ('Fashioner', derived from the grc, μορφή meaning 'form, shape') is a god associated with sleep and dreams. In Ovid's ''Metamorphoses'' he is the son of Somnus and appears in dreams in human form. From the Middle Ages, the name ...

. Morpheus "will deliver the next generation of Tactical Communication and Information Systems (TacCIS) capability. It will address critical system obsolescence and introduce a more agile TacCIS solution (both technical and business).". The element of Morpheus that handles communications for the infantry soldier is known as Dismounted Situational Awareness (DSA).

External links

British Army Infantry FIST site

References

{{Future soldier programmes United Kingdom defence procurement British Army equipment Future soldier programs