The former is wearing a really heavy Kevlar helmet, a very basic and ineffective armour vest, Vietnam-era gear, a standard M4 gun — if he’s lucky — with no aiming aids whatsoever. The latter is using a lightweight helmet, a rifle with laser and IR aims, high end mountaineering boots, and armour plates all around his light-weight fire resistant combat shirt — everything configurable depending on the needs of the mission.
As Christian puts it, the Vietnam soldiers have turned into Starship Troopers warriors. [KitUp]
Andrew
Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 8:11 AMActually I think it’s the other way around. Old on the left, new on the right?
Judging by the original article. Very cool stuff.
simon
Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 8:26 AMactually, i think this whole article is a bit stupid… the one on the left is clearly in a winter wonderland, the one on the right in afghanistan
EckyThump
Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 9:00 AMActually the whole article is a pile of garbage! Read or watch any subjective article about the soldiers who are out in the field, and you will see, pants that split down the backside, kit that falls apart, equipment that requires batteries that are not available. These guys are literally either buying, begging or stealing equipment that works! The stuff that they let you see in house may well be state of the art, but the poor buggers dodging bullets and IED’s are most certainly surviving the best they can with whatever they can scrounge! #[
Nick
Saturday, September 10, 2011 at 9:45 AMYeah, you’ve got left and right mixed up. The rest of the article is also very silly: there wasn’t much commonality between the equipment used by US soldiers in 2001 and those of the Vietnam War era(!) 30 years before.
Magnetic motors
Tuesday, September 13, 2011 at 3:01 AMWe were using IR laser sights in 1999 in East -Timor, the yanks had them before that.