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Army's Cut of 'Future Soldier' May Impact Med-Tech
Posted by
Zonk
on Sat Dec 09, 2006 04:27 AM
from the we-have-the-technology dept.
from the we-have-the-technology dept.
docinthemachine writes "The U.S. Army has decided to axe its $500 Million 'Land Warrior Soldier of the Future' program. If this goes through, the loss of future medical technology will be enormous. Many do not realize the enormous amount of medical technology that trickles down from the military. The program was working on develops new HUDs, 3D vision systems, and bioarmor. Surgeons today are using this technology (via DARPA) to develop new robotic surgery, bioimplants, intelligent prosthetics and more." That's the downside. The reason for the program's cutting is fairly obvious: "Unfortunately, land Warrior is part of the Army's Future Combat System (FCS) Initiative. This is the roadmap for an unprecedented hi-tech modernization of the Army. What new? How about an air force of completely unmanned remote controlled fighters- it's in the budget! Unfortunately, the entire project is so far over budget it becomes a target for cuts. Originally at $60 billion, then $127B, recent estimates have balooned to $300 billion total cost (yes that's billion with a B) and some are calling it the biggest military boondoggle ever."
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chris-chittleborough writes "The Wall Street Journal reports that 'a Marine officer in Iraq, a small network-design company in California, a nonprofit troop-support group, a blogger and other undeterrable folk designed a handheld insurgent-identification device, built it, shipped it and deployed it in [Iraq] in 30 days.' Compare this to the Automated Biometric Identification System, a multi-megabuck Pentagon project now 2 years old. With bureaucracy increasingly strangling innovation, will agile smaller businesses be able to accomplish what once required a sprawling government project?"
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not quite.. (Score:5, Insightful)
At I believe it's still at least 100 billion short of the iraq invasion, which currently holds the record as the biggest military boondoggle. ever.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:not quite.. (Score:5, Insightful)
The key mistake in this argument is the assumption that the people we're fighting in Iraq are people who would, if not so occupied, be flying planes into US buildings. Now, some of them probably are, but the best evidence -- given how al-Sadr, bin Laden et al are using the war as a recruiting tool -- is that most of them are people who, before the war, may not have liked the US very much, but didn't actively hate it enough to go out and try to kill Americans; even if those Americans were right next door, not halfway around the world!
Before 9/11, there were plenty of Americans who didn't have any warm'n'fuzzy feelings about the Middle East, but they weren't in any rush to go and enlist to sit out on some chunk of sand in Saudi Arabia either. After 9/11, recruiting stations had lines around the block. If you can't see the parallel here, you're blind.
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
The military has done and is doing a fantastic job. The political ramifications of the invasion and subsequent nation building haven't been managed well. No this isn't Bush bashing exclusively, it a general condemnation of all of our elected federal officials and the way they naviga
Re:not quite.. (Score:4, Insightful)
It's based around the (debatable) idea that 9/11 was a one-shot with no follow-through. I think that part of what made 9/11 so horrible was that everybody was expecting it to be part of a campaign, one which was easy enough since the country is full of soft targets. I don't know if it didn't materialize because of the toppling of the Taliban, or increased enforcement (including Guantanamo and wiretapping), or just because they didn't plan well.
At this point proving causation is just impossible. They have a lot of bones to pick with us, but the rhetoric is often obtuse and bragging. The real question is not what got us here, but where we go from here. Most people are agreed that simply dropping the Iraq war is not an option, including (I suspect) the grandparent poster. But "winning" in the usual sense may also not be an option, in which case you're kinda stuck between a rock and a very difficult policy decision.
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Not a boondoggle, that's far too kind a word (Score:3, Insightful)
The attacks have happened in Spain and Britain instead. Both had troops in Iraq. Fighting in Iraq does not prevent terrorist attacks.
It was one of our allies who acknowledged that the current President is "the best recruiting sergeant ever for al-Qaida".
bin Laden's second in command, Zawahiri, publicly thanked God for the situation in Iraq.
AQ strategist Yusuf al-Ayeri published a book arguing that the b
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
These guys don't respect weakness. They live by the sword and will not quit until they die by it.
FUD (Score:5, Insightful)
If the U.S. didn't get into wars all the time, then wouldn't that both save lives and cost less money?
Re:FUD (Score:4, Insightful)
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Re:FUD (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re: (Score:2, Funny)
Re:FUD (Score:4, Funny)
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FUD by the Opponents (Score:5, Informative)
The US Army has been very much at the fore front of modern medicine. Obviously the future list of benefits isn't in yet but here is a short list of a few benefits I can think of right off the top.
Coumadin - Primary anticoagulation and colt prevention drug used in medicine -- Developed as Sodium Warfarin to kill RATS.
Most Skin Grafting and venous grafting technology arose from combat surgery and recovery. This includes the modern advances heading towards organ replacement that began as tissue replacement efforts under US Army funding.
Most Rehabilitation technology (No comment needed here)
Most Nutrition Research -- Yeah folks they were from the 1860's on the primary research effort into human nutrition
Vaccinations of nearly all types. -- Yes I know there is some history before and outside the Army but most of the efforts to contain disease are US Armed Forces based this is world wide.
Water Purification -- Most of the efforts at good potable water development are US Armed Forces developments.
Mapping - Not just GPS folks the US Armed forces have been involved in this to the limit and it benefits all mankind including those around the world who use the Satellite technology for such. This is cheaply available because of the US Armed Forces.
Weather -- The US Armed Forces provide a very large part of the weather research around the world and millions owe their lives to it. This is on going research
Electrical and Magnetic Technology advances. -- Funny how those typing on computers can complain so about the US Armed Forces. Computers wouldn't be hear and that famous OS Microsoft sells wouldn't be here either.
Education -- You know all those kids from the far East who are knocking us Americans out of a job because their schools work? Well they learned in schools largely patterned after US Armed Forces Schooling technology. The contribution of the US Armed Forces to Human Learning is very deep.
I know it may not be popular to say so but the US Armed Forces have done a lot of good.
To be fair, in this "Free Trade" world, the new technology is more likely to displace an American from his job than it is to make him one. But that is a matter of US Tax and Trade policy it is not one of the US Armed Forces. The US Armed Forces are in their R&D beyond belief. Here is a short list of what is coming: [1] Cars that drive themselves saving millions of lives and billions of barrels of oil and stopping much damage to the environment. [2] Faster and better computers. [3] New Energy Technologies. [4] More disease control. Are there bad things? I am sure some things will always go wrong. But on the whole, the loss of US Armed Forces Research is nailing the lid on the casket of the USA in future generations.
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
This is much ado about nothing. One system sucked, so the Army is dumping it in favor of a better one.
If the US didn't go into UNJUSTIFIED wars... (Score:2, Interesting)
We wouldn't have had an enourmous display of incompetance and uneffectiveness in Vietnam.
We wouldn't have attacked Saddam in 93...our ally a few years previous...because he invaded Kuwait who were friends of our NEW ally Saudi Arabia which oppresses women and backed the 9/11 terrorists.
We wouldn't have lost 3k people, wounded 40k and blown $400Billion chains WMDs,,,no wait, stopping Saddam from getting Yellow Cake for nukes, no wait to st
Re:If the US didn't go into UNJUSTIFIED wars... (Score:4, Insightful)
Since 9/11 the US has helped Bin Laden achieve his major war aim (US troops out of Saudi), destroyed Iran's enemies and given control of Iraq to Iranian allies.
Maybe you'd better learn to look before you leap.
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Re: (Score:2)
It make no sense, sènior (Score:5, Insightful)
1. why aren't companies like Pfizer investing in it? (probably they are?)
2. why doesn't the US Government have the sense to invest directly in such things?
Do we really have so little influence over the State, and the State is so stupid, that our best hope is to encourage the State to invest indirectly in such research by funding military development and hoping we get the sort of spin-off we're looking for?
And even more significantly, have we ACCEPTED this state of affairs?
This is OUR money that's being spent.
Re:It make no sense, sènior (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:It make no sense, sènior (Score:2)
The fact of the matter is the americans are in favor of having a large and powerful military. It makes us feel like men.
Re:It make no sense, sènior (Score:4, Insightful)
You can mod me down now.
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Re:It make no sense, sènior (Score:4, Insightful)
1. why aren't companies like Pfizer investing in it?
The trouble with investing in government programs is that the entire project can be ditched overnight for the benefit of someone's political agenda
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Re:It make no sense, sènior (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, libertarian or not, you're going to have to accept that just because a technology is really cool, doesn't mean the private sector wants to invest in it, even if they got guaranteed patent rights to it. The risk/return/time horizon profile may not be justified compared to other investments.
2. why doesn't the US Government have the sense to invest directly in such things?
I suppose you could ask the same thing about the space program.
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Why (Score:2)
It would probably be cheaper to invest in peace and avoid war all together.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
But you have to realize that this really was psychological.
And it works both ways.
If you have nothing but money to go against will power then you will eventually go broke.
Think of a suicide bomber as a very cheap and very smart self guided missile.
Compare this to the millions of dollars a single cruise missile costs.
If you want to win modern asymetric wars, then you will have to do what is necessary.
Not what you fancy.
htt [exile.ru]
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
The US government wants to load up the soldiers with more and more expensive hardware, while the 'bad guys' can kill them with a few bucks worth of explosives and a cheap cell-phone. Like managers everywhere, they have an expensive solution to the wrong problem.
"So, you're suggesting the ability to acquire targets more reliably and quickly"
Will allow them to kill more innocent civili
Steve Austin: astronaut. A man barely alive. (Score:2, Funny)
Damnit. (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
That's why it's being axed.
It's a load of horseshit.
Have you seen the sorts of prototypes they've been showing off? They don't look like battlefield systems. They look like toys. Few looked actually deployable, a
How about this? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
no it's not... (Score:5, Funny)
No, that's billion with a 'b'. You mean 'Billion'; that's billion with a 'B'.
Waste of money (Score:4, Insightful)
Remember that Monty Python quote: "But what have the Romans given us?" "Roads" "Ok, besides that, what have the Romans given us?" "Sewerage systems." And so on.
How would an extremist go about recruiting people to his cause when the country was the source of their food, water and etc. (not meaning to sound condescending).
Re: (Score:2)
I don't know but they could check and see what worked in the United States.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, Martin van Creveld, one of the most famous recent military historians, called the invasion of Iraq "the most foolish war since Emperor Augustus in 9 BC sent his legions into Germany and lost them". More recently he's taken to calling the US military in Iraq "stupid" and "totally incompetent"... if that's any help.
But then he's an Israeli, so he'll have to deal with the
Robots? (Score:2)
How about running these robots on Linux? That should cut the cost down to a mere price to download the robot parts....
fix funding (Score:5, Insightful)
In the end, the best way of funding medical research is by giving funding to medical research, and the best way of making advances in computers, semiconductors, material science, nutrition, etc. is to fund those areas. We just need to figure out how to make that work politically without wasting money on gimmicks like the military or manned space exploration.
nerds (Score:3, Funny)
Verizon (Score:3, Funny)
Look at net benefits, not just benefits (Score:2)
Should have x-prize style competitions... (Score:2)
wise decisions, humans are obsolete anyways. (Score:2)
Look this is supposed to come online in what... fifteen to twenty years? By that time, ''soldiers'' will be sitting in Pods in Idaho, controlling swarms of robots walking around Iraq (Yes, they US will probably still be there
We've got robots driving themselves ( http://www.grandchallenge.org/ [grandchallenge.org] ) and many, many robots that are starting to walk effectively, and simultaneous transla
duh! (Score:2)
Government Jobs/R&D Programs (Score:3, Insightful)
We want more jobs, basic science and healthcare R&D. We clearly want to fund and operate it through the government, socialism, because we want everyone in the country to benefit equally from access and results, regardless of money and position. So instead we should spend that money directly on job creation and R&D. Simply offering more scholarships to med students, especially researchers, with most of that money would make most of the difference. Scholarships for recertifying mostly qualified foreign doctors would bring more foreign expertise, techniques, even whole theraputic systems into the country. Rather than throwing them away like we do now in order to maintain our artificially low supply vs increasing demand, just to keep privileged doctors rich and worshipped like gods. And much more could be spent increasing the National Guard for coping with increasing natural disasters like hurricanes / floods / wildfires and manmade toxic spills. Or invested in highschool level training and entrepreneur grants for locals to start re/construction companies, possibly trained with rotations through the Army Engineer Corps, or a more civilian one.
But just spending $BILLIONS, $TRILLIONS on a military jobs/R&D program is a huge waste. We want to buy those things for our country's security. Better to do it without bloating our unaccountable military further, and actually get more productive, healthier citizens. Instead of more dead/wounded people and a higher bill.
Call me heartless, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
I think our medical technology in the fields of blunt trauma and prosthetics are "good enough" at this point. The Army can develop ways to better help you cope with getting shot or getting into a car collision, but they haven't touched the field of disease since they figured out how to avoid malaria and promote hygene. I don't see the Army curing cancer or AIDS or anything of the sort.
Besides, a lot of the treatments developed by the Army nowadays are so expensive you'll need the budget of the Department of Defense to pay for it.
And now, this word ... (Score:4, Funny)
And now, this word from the Military Industrial Complex ...
Did you know that war is good for you? That's right: think of all the amazing medical benefits which trickle down like a warm, red rivulet of blood from today's mechanized battlefield! Artificial limbs, artificial skin, artificial eyes ... just thank a disfigured soldier!
But that's not all! Thanks to military development, you can buy a combat-sized humvee just like the ones you see smoldering on TV (armor not included -- see dealer for details). Your police department's armaments have never been deadlier. And coming soon: pain-causing crowd control devices guaranteed to put the "obey" back in "civil disobedience."
You U.S. citizens are fortunate to live in a nation which has been continuously at war somewhere in the world for over sixty years. Nothing benefits the homefront more than the front line. So call your legislator now, before the new Democratic congress, and tell him or her you demand the rich benefits of bloated defense appropriations. Because there's no bigger buzzkill than stopping the killing.
War ... what's it good for? It's good for you!
Re: (Score:2)
How direct do you want to get? People killed per day by American troops? Or people killed per day by American weapons - regardless of who is wielding it? Or people killed per day by weapons that may be derived from American military research?
Let's say we count weapons that American dollars R&D'ed directly. I'm willing to bet that medical technology that are a result of American military R&D saves more lives per day than American guns and weapons can take away; by a wide margin.
Take the math further (Score:2)
And how many more lives would have been lost if the US hadn't used the bomb, and tried a land assault against a Japan unwilling to surrender? It could be (and has been) argued that it would be in the neighborhood of a million. So, you could say that n
Re: (Score:2)
Re:problem (Score:4, Informative)
1. Body armor. First, make sure there's enough of the current generation to go around; then put R&D money into developing lighter, better armor that will offer the same level of protection without adding so many pounds to the already killing load the modern-day soldier has to haul around the battlefield.
2. Medevac choppers. Nothing new, nothing fancy, just the same Blackhawks that have been quite successfully pulling wounded troops off the field for the last couple of decades. And, of course, the medics and equipment to turn those choppers into first-class air ambulances. One of the major reasons we lost so few people in Desert Storm (trust me on this one; I was one of the people doing this job) is that we had so much surplus medical capacity in the air that any soldier, injured anywhere in the theatre, combat or non-combat, was guaranteed to be on a chopper within minutes and at a hospital within half an hour. That was the first war in history (and so far, the last) where this was true, and it shows in the casualty reports.
3. A goddamn rifle that works. The M16 and its variants have been failing American soldiers on the battlefield for forty years, for fuck's sake! Either it doesn't shoot at all ("Okay, this thing doesn't work so well in the jungle. So let's make it work really well in the jungle
All of the above are a lot cheaper than trying to turn our troops into something out of an anime, you know? And last but certainly not least:
4. The State Department, so maybe we can stop putting our troops into wars we never should have had to fight in the first goddamn place.
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