Soldiers at Fort Pickett wear the Integrated Visual Augmentation System, a head-mounted, high-tech goggle that gives soldiers a wealth of real-time battlefield information. Credit: US Army photo by Courtney Bacon.

US Army Chief of Infantry brigadier general David Hodne has said that the US Army is working with industry partners to equip soldiers with advanced gear to gain an edge in close combat.

Hodne said the service is on track to deliver items that include high-tech goggles, an advanced rifle, and night-vision binoculars.

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Hodne also leads the Soldier Lethality Cross-Functional Team of the US Army, which is working on the development of three technologies.

The modernisation efforts highlighted in the video are the Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), Next Generation Squad Weapons (NGSW) and the Enhanced Night Vision Goggle-Binocular (ENVG-B).

These technologies are expected to help fill gaps revealed in the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which was drafted under former Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

According to Hodne, the strategy recognised ‘a worrisome erosion in overmatch between US Forces and our near-peer competitors’.

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He said: “Nearly two decades of sustained combat operations continues to yield seasoned leaders and combat veterans skilled in small-unit action. However, near-peer competitors studied how we project power, how we fight, and what we fight with.

“Our current capabilities are not sufficient for battlefields distributed in urban and subterranean environments and we have to anticipate the implications of new technologies on the battlefield and foster a culture of experimentation and calculated risk-taking.”

He also stated that the Close Combat Force (CCF) is a major focus of the effort.