Army shifts focus to dismounted soldiers.

• Author: Beidel, Eric
• Position: Army Technology

The Army's acquisition chief carries old battle scars.

During a mission in Vietnam, a young Malcolm O'Neil didn't realize he had come so close to an enemy fighter who was waiting in the weeds.

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"I hadn't seen the guy and about 10 feet away he hit me through the side of my helmet out the top of my helmet," said O'Neill, assistant secretary of the Army for acquisition, logistics and technology. "I'm still suffering the consequences of that. If I don't take my medicine every day, it's goodbye. That's the kind of thing you have to learn to live with as a soldier, and it's idahe kind of thing that I don't want my soldiers to have to live with."

But not much has changed for dismounted soldiers since Vietnam. They continue to sketch battle plans on paper maps the way they did in the 1960s and during World War !1, and they are still are too vulnerable to enemy fire when they step out of their aircraft and tanks, officials said at the Association of the U.S, Army's annual winter symposium in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Army leaders say soldiers are the service's greatest weapon, and they are asking industry to shift their focus from platform to person and consider the infantryman first as it plans investments in new technology. The Army wants to ensure every soldier is lethal in any kind of battle.

The Army has spent billions of dollars on the platforms used to deliver the soldier into battle. Leaders in the service's science and technology community' say it's time to flip things around and start spending big on small units. They say they want to "reinvent" their science and technology' research efforts around the foot soldier and to redirect investments that traditionally are made for big-ticket weapon systems.

No enemy wants to go up against the Air Force's F-22, O'Neill said. "If you're the pilot of an F-22, the U.S. government wraps about $200 million around you," he said. "You can engage [the enemy] before he ever sees you. You can be an ace in the Air Force and never have seen an enemy fighter plane. All you see is the radar display that says there's a bogey 60 miles out ... and you shoot him down. That's what we call a decisive advantage."

While the Army has its own powerful arsenal of high-tech weapons, the individual soldier continues to be vulnerable in one-on-one fights.

"Unfortunately if you're not fighting a buttoned-up war, you're going to have to get out of that vehicle and get into intensive combat for about the last...