tsarkar wrote:Using the helmet in Craig’s picture, a person could strangle himself with all those wires around.
1. I am curious to know in sustained combat, where a person has to sprint, shoot, twist, turn and do a whole lot of calisthenics all the time, how does the wearer keeps all those wires untangled/un-torn/plugged?
2. How long does the battery/power supply last for a fully gizmo loaded guy?
3. What does one do when batteries run out, dump the gizmos or carry dead weight?
4. What the weight of a full set of gizmos, including batteries?
5. Optics get smudged and scratched quite easily and very frequently. Doesn’t cleaning them affect efficiency in the thick of combat?
6. Medically - How does a person, whose eyes are used to getting data from a screen - and - whose ears are used to getting data from an earplug – react when the equipment is no longer available? Are his eyes and ears able adjust to the natural environment immediately?
Chief - if you look carefully, you'll see that these wires are not "too loose" nor "too tight." Hence Strangling is out of the question, or else by now you'd have heard about a)soliders dying because of their helmets electrical cord or b) congress/army not approving the new helmets being supplied to GI's out in the Field. With that being said that should answer number 1, as the wires are thoroughly fitted inside and through their helmets to their pockets, and duffleg bags.
2) Normally the battery/power supply lasts for an entire mission ie. anywhere from 2 hrs to 12 hrs as these are designed to operate on a low power. These can later be charged inside their Humvv's or Bradley, or they have a back-up PS, if all fails they have additional sets of batteries which they can use.
3) Since they never exceed their mission profile time, they don't have to worry about carrying dead weight. In the event, the scenario turns ture, they can either swap it with their/plattons backup or take steps mentioned in number 2. If all fails then I GUESS it would be considered dead weight.
4) roughly 2-7 pounds.
5) they are designed keeping the rough enviornemnt they operate in mind. Further there is added protection built in for the sand dunes, sharpnel and some small arms fire protection. keep in mind these are still electornics and they cannot uparmor them so to speak, as they have to be within the weight requirements so they will eventually break down..
6) You bet'cha. These are meant to give them an advantage over their adversaires who say cannot see in the dark and hence their movement is restricted. In the event, all electornic equipment fails, they rely on their basic training and fight it out like they are trained too. Believe me when I tell you this, all GI's still carry a COMPASS and a PAPER MAP even though their is a GPS attached to each individually... Worst case scenario, if all fails you call in the big ol'bird. give them your co-ordinates and you will be rescued.