Raytheon Unveils Wearable Computer for Soldiers

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Raytheon Wearable ComputerRaytheon unveiled a 7-inch Panasonic tough pad wearable computer designed to provide dismounted soldiers with information on-the-move such as moving map displays and terrain data, company officials said Oct. 14 at the Association of the United States Army Annual Meeting and Exposition, Washington D.C.

The seven pound wearable computer is a MCM1 Panasonic Tough Pad mini-computer ruggedized for military use and designed to run digital maps and graphics using Army force-tracking software such as Joint Battle Command – Platform, or JBC-P.

“We’re giving the guy at the edge of the spear the ability to look at intelligence information,” said Brian Murphy, program manager for wearable situational awareness, Raytheon.

Murphy said the idea is to give soldiers and integrated battle-space picture including locations of friendly and enemy forces and key aspects of the surrounding terrain.

The tough pad is also designed as a two way system which can send and receive information to and from the Army’s integrated intelligence data based called Distributed Common Ground System – Army, or DCGS-A.

In addition, the wearable computer is designed such that it can quickly be upgraded or replaced as smaller, faster computers reach technological maturity and become available.

“DoD, Army and Air Force are looking to make stuff quicker and more powerful. This makes the form factor much smaller. You get a lot of information that you currently did not have at the tip of the spear that can feed information back to the command post,” John Bell, Raytheon project lead, wearable situational awareness.

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