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According to one estimate, the Army expects to install 1,200

Aug. 21, 2018 by Paul Fletcher

According to one estimate, the Army expects to install 1,200 of these units in Iraq and Afghanistan by 2022, with a further 1,200 more expected in Afghanistan by 2028. The military will then expand to include the United States and other countries, and this process could take years.

The Pentagon's plan is to provide $500 million over five years to the Army to purchase or upgrade the technology and equipment needed to support the system. "The goal is to get the capability, a price tag that's reasonable for a small amount of hardware," says Tom Hodge, a senior research fellow at the Rand Corp.

Military-technical cooperation is another major concern. The Pentagon's plan is to use a $5.6 billion contract with Boeing to develop an integrated visual defense system for the Army, which is supposed to include a system "that can detect the moving target with the visor and have it react autonomously in the event of an incapacitating situation." The $4 billion will be split between the Army and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Office of Naval Research (ONR), and the DOD.

In addition to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the DOD is offering $10 million for a program to develop the system. And Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta has been working to find the right partner for an integrated vision system. A joint venture with the Department of Defense to design a system is expected soon for the military to use to monitor the battlefield and monitor the operation of an unmanned aerial vehicle.

The U.S. Army is expected to use an integrated visual defense system in training units to counter enemy infiltration through infrared, infrared light, and video feed, among others. But the technology was already deployed to Afghanistan in 2014 when the U.S. Army's 6th Brigade Combat Team moved to the country to train and deploy the system against a Taliban threat.

"An integrated visual defense system could allow troops to see enemy assets in more ways than ever before, including in the context of their operational needs," Panetta told reporters last year at the Defense Department press briefing.

The Pentagon wants the integrated system to be able to monitor soldiers moving in their positions without any kind of eye movement. It would also allow troops to "read, see and understand" the battlefield and the enemy's movements.

Some analysts have called the integrated visual defense system a "first step" toward a real military integrated-system. "We will be the first to use it to track military operations and operations in