The moral of this story seems to be...

Give the grunts what they want, not what someone thinks they want.

Paris, coz I'm sure they want her too...

Left someone out.

has been ordered into the war-torn south to fight alongside British AND DANISH troops who have been there in strength since 2005

Said this before, but...

Seems as though it's an example of procurement that's more or less worked; not in the way originally intended, sure, but it's worked. Hope it carries on working and keeps 'em safer as a result. Now, can we get this article printed onto a concrete slab and beat the MoD over the head with it, please?

@Tom15 and Land Warrior generally

Sure, if someone had asked them if they wanted to see round corners, they'd say "hell yeah". Of course you can't hit sod all like that, but at least it's useful for seeing who's out there without risking yourself. A camera on a stick would actually have been more useful, but never mind.

The big problem is adding 15lbs to a soldier's pack. That was stupid. Unless the kit is a magic force field, no-one's going to want to add another 15lbs to a pack that's already at least 40lbs. It's difficult to believe that anyone would fail to notice that.

One slight problem...

Not a bad system, until a unit falls in to the enemy's hands.

Then they can see your troops and send text messages to screw with you.

Of course I'm also going to assume that central control could take a specific unit out of the network and shut it down so it won't work until reactivated by a tech.

Military smartphone

"Yes, is this Osama bin Laden? I have a crate of Whoop-Ass to deliver, and it requires your signature. Can you give me your current address?"