Basic needs: Marine Corps' equipment wish list: more of the same.

• Author: Jean, Grace V.
• Position: Soldier Technology

The Marines' latest wish list has no surprises. They are asking for many of the same technologies they have been seeking for years--sensors that see through dust, precise weapons, lighter combat gear, portable power sources and mobile communications systems, among others.

At a recent Office of Naval Research conference, Marine officials identified some of their critical equipment needs, which have not changed much since the war in Iraq began more than five years ago.

The new commander of Marine Corps Combat Development Command, Lt. Gen. George Hynn, recently returned from Iraq where he was deputy corps commander for multi-national forces and the 18th Airborne Corps. He told conference attendees that the dust storms continue to be particularly problematic.

"I need a better way to predict the times I'm going to have them, because when the dust came up, the enemy knew that our [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] went down," he said. Insurgents learned that the sensors that U.S. troops use wouldn't work in the storms. "That was the time that they moved their rockets around. That was the time they set their rockets up on timers," he said.

Flynn also asked technologists to improve the precision of tactical weapons. "In the current conflict, precision was my best friend because I had to overcome the collateral effects," he said. "It doesn't do me any good to kill a target and then create 10 more enemies because I took their power out, I took their water out, or I killed their son or daughter."

The protective combat gear that Marines wear is extremely valuable but is way too heavy. Marines are carrying as much as 100 pounds around when they fight.

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"You can't be chasing down the bad guys if you're carrying around that kind of weight," said Dave Ungar, director for systems engineering at Marine Corps Systems Command.

The protective gear works, said Flynn, but it's also hot and it's heavy. "Each generation of body armor gets more comfortable, but it doesn't get much lighter," he added.

Small units also need portable power stations, he said. At forward operating bases in Iraq, troops must bring their own generators to keep all their systems up and running. If Marines are going to be scattered widely in remote areas in the future, there will be a tremendous need for generating power, he said.

Troops also will require robust communications to transmit large amounts of data, including voice, maps and streaming video...