ACI and the Navy Mantech Center of Excellence in Electronics (EMPF) is currently executing a Defense Acquisition Challenge Program (DACP). The goal of the DACP is to provide improvements to electronic hardware that is currently being acquired by the Department of Defense (DoD), for the Land Warrior System (See Figure 3-1).

The Land Warrior System is a computer, navigation, and communication system worn by the combat soldier.  It requires a set of twelve interconnection cables and electrical connectors to interconnect the various LRUs (Line Replaceable Units), such as the computer, batteries, weapon, Local Area Network radio, weapons sights, and others (See Figure 3-2). The Land Warrior system is currently deployed in Iraq with a Stryker battalion.  The Land Warrior Ensemble (the hardware and interconnections) enables the soldier to communicate with, locate, and designate as friend or foe various entities on the battlefield, thus preventing fratricide while increasing soldier combat effectiveness through vastly improved situational awareness.

Another key feature of the Land Warrior system is the interconnection of the weapons daylight and/or infra-red sights with the Land Warrior monocular heads up display, so that the soldier can “see” wherever the weapon is pointed.  This allows accurate firing “around corners” by allowing the soldier to sight and fire accurately without fully exposing himself to enemy fire.  Before Land Warrior, this was a more risky, and inaccurate way to engage an enemy in close combat.

The primary objective is to conduct research into the potential for cost and/or weight reduction to the currently acquired Land Warrior system by improving the electrical connectors and cable/connector assemblies in the Land Warrior ensemble. This is being accomplished with the partnerships shown in Figure 3-3.  An ancillary benefit will accrue for the future embodiments of the automated combat soldier, called Future Force Warrior (FFW) and Ground Soldier System (GSS), to which some of these improvements could potentially apply.
The first of the improvements being considered is Metal Injection Molding for the “connector shells” of the connectors. These are the parts of the connector that house the connector pins, or alternatively, receptacles and have the rugged machined alignment keys and keyways.  Glenair is the current supplier of the connectors used in the Land Warrior cables, and will be inserting the new connector shell technology developed in the DACP.

Metal Injection Molding (from Smith Metal Products) is a process that is used for many small precision consumer items, such as for cameras and watches.  It is a potential method for reducing the cost and simultaneously increasing the availability of the Land Warrior connectors.  The EMPF will be testing these components, connectors and finished cables using the connectors.  Should the more affordable, more easily available injection molded connector shells prove as rugged as the machined parts currently in use, a significant cost reduction and availability for the improved cables will be realized.

A second potential improvement, being evaluated in cooperation with DuPont Titanium Technologies,  is to change the material of the connector shells to titanium rather than stainless steel.  This would lighten the connector shell and therefore the connector.  This in turn, would lighten the entire Land Warrior ensemble, consisting of some 40 connectors, including both the plugs on the cables and the receptacles in the LRUs.

While the cost of the titanium parts are expected to be no less than the current machined stainless steel ones, the lighter weight advantage of the titanium over the stainless steel material would be attractive.

All of the test cables for the DACP will be assembled by Aerospace Systems division of  Nortech Systems, who is the current Land Warrior cable vendor.

During the Defense Acquisition Challenge Program (DACP), initial testing of the improved cables will be conducted in partnership with General Dynamics C4S, the prime integrator for the current Land Warrior System.  The final test of the improved cables durability will be conducted by deploying the improved cable product into Land Warrior ensembles and tracking any field returns in actual combat use for a period of time.

Initial results from field testing of existing cables have suggested manufacturing process changes that are expected to improve yield at the cable manufacturer, and thus lower costs of the present Land Warrior ensemble, even before the materials changes of the DAC are fully investigated.