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Welcome to the Regimental History Section
Coldstream Future
Did you know that we have a dedicated section (including
images) for our Regimental History HERE
THE FUTURE OF THE COLDSTREAM GUARDS
The future of the Coldstream Guards cannot be seen
(obviously), but one thing that is a certainty is that
the history, traditions and customs will be upheld by
all members of the Regiment.
One thing that is also certain is that the Coldstream
Guards will move forward with modern technology and
advances in modern warfare, designed to give the
infantryman the upper hand in a hostile situation.
Kit that is known to be big and bulky will will no doubt
weigh considerably less and will be fitted with an
onboard computer, the success of advances such as the
PRR (Personal Role Radio) in theatres such as
Afghanistan and Iraq has been outstanding, allowing
soldiers Infantry soldiers to communicate over short
distances, even through thick cover or the walls of
buildings without shouting, hand signals or relaying of
messages.
Some of the technology that faces the British Army and
the Coldstream Guards is shown below. We are not
breaking any type of security classification as this
information has been 'sourced' from various internet
locations, all of which are listed below.
The Future
Integrated Soldier Technology (or FIST)
is a project by the British Army, which aims to
enhance the infantry's combat effectiveness in the 21st
century as part of the Future Soldier project. The
contract was awarded to Thales in March 2003.
The goal
The goal is to integrate a modular system of all
equipment, weapons and their sighting systems, radios
that the individual soldier carries or uses, in order to
increase his overall effectiveness on the battlefield.
The programme is being managed by the Dismounted Close
Combat Integrated Project Team at the UK Defence
Procurement Agency at Abbey Wood in Bristol.
Subsystems
A major part of the FIST project is the Bowman
communications system, which will for the first time
give secure communications to the troops on the ground,
allowing for simultaneous transmission of voice and data
and having a built-in GPS 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 LAW and Javelin anti tank weapons and
the new sights for the SA80. 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 geneation power cells.
The kit is also designed to be upgradeable with new
technology that the MoD looks at such as the new
CornerShot system (see image below).
Timescales
The project aims to deploy a whole suite of digitized
weapon platforms by 2008. First major trials of the FIST
system were completed on Salisbury Plain in January,
2005. In these trials at the Sailsbury Plain training
area. 70 soldiers were equipped with the new FIST
technology including GPS, communications and weapon
sights and compared to the effectiveness of 70
conventionally equipped soldiers. A further FIS T
V2 trail is scheduled for 2006.
35,000 sets of kits 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 SA80 (see
image left) and the soon to be 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 new
communications including Cormorant and Talon as well at
the UK UAV project called Watchkeeper.
FIST is sometimes incorrectly referred to as the
Future Infantry System Technology or Future Infantry
Soldier Technology.
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