US soldiers hate high tech gear

US SOLDIERS do not like the shed-loads of high-tech electronic gear they have to use and tend to ignore the kiot which will prevent "friendly-fire" incidents.

In the good old days hand signals and shouting was the definition of battlefield communication, but now soldiers have to use advanced, encrypted radio transmissions with a range of up to a kilometre.

However, according to Popular Mechanics the soldiers don't bother checking their radios or look to find their mates on electronic maps. They prefer to shoot everything that moves.

As Sgt. James Young, who leads a team of four M-240 machine-gunners said to Popular Mechanic hacks, all this high-tech gear does not get used and is taking the place of "useful stuff" like guns.

He said that the gear just made you a bigger target.

Now it seems that the Pentagon is starting to wonder if there is a point giving the soldiers the "Land Warrior" technology.

One of the functions of the gear is to try to stop friendly fire incidents, as a soldier can know where his mates are and only has to shoot at everyone else.

While a vehicle-mounted system, Blue Force Tracker, is credited with reducing friendly-fire incidents in Iraq, the infantry equivalent does not seem to have been so useful. As anyone tyring to fight alongside the troops may have discovered. µ