Army deploying gunshot detectors

ARLINGTON, Va., March 17 (UPI) -- U.S. troops in Afghanistan will begin receiving individual gunshot detection systems by QinetiQ North America this month, the US. Defense Department says.

The Individual Gunshot Detector consists of four small acoustic sensors worn by the individual soldier and a small display screen attached to body armor that shows the distance and direction of incoming fire.

The sensor, about the size of a deck of cards, detects supersonic sound waves generated by gunfire and instantaneously alerts soldiers to the location and distance toward the hostile fire, said U.S. Army Lt. Col. Chris Schneider, product manager for Soldier Maneuver Sensors.

"When you get fired on -- instead of trying to figure everything out -- you will have technology to assist you in knowing what happened and where the shot was coming from," he said.

The entire IGD system, procured by PEO Soldier and the Army's Rapid Equipping Force, weighs less than 2 pounds.

The idea is to strategically disperse the systems throughout small, dismounted units to get maximum protective coverage for platoons, squads and other units on the move, Schneider said.

Over the next 12 months, the Army plans to field up to 1,500 IGDs per month. In the future, the Army plans to integrate this technology with its Land Warrior and Nett Warrior systems. These are network-situational-awareness systems for dismounted units, complete with a helmet-mounted display screen that uses Global Positioning System digital-mapping-display technology.