The Land Warrior System is designed to limit fratricide by providing enhanced situationalawareness to the warfighter as well as addlethality and force protection.

Previously, Land Warrior connectors were made with shells machined out of stainless steel. This process required more than 15 minutes of machining time. The DefenseAcquisition Challenge Program (DACP) project significantly reduces manufacturing time andcosts for connectors.

Connector shells are made using the MetalInjection Molding (MIM) process in a few minutesper connector shell, drastically reducing the costand dramatically increasing the availability ofthese critical connectors.

Overall, the cost for each Land Warrior systemdecreases, while shorter production times enablequicker deployment of Land Warrior systems.This reduces the incidence of fratricide.

Manufacturing Process ImprovementUS industry has been utilizing metal injectionmolding for large volumes of small precisionparts for many years. ACI coordinated the effortsof five subcontractors in tailoring this process tothe special needs of the Land Warrior ensemble.

LAND WARRIORE L E C T R I C A L C A B L E / C O N N E C T O R

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ACI Technologies, Inc.

1 International Plaza, Suite 600 • Philadelphia, PA 19113

phone: 610.362.1200 • web: www.aciusa.org/aesc

Implementation and Technology TransferThe deliverable is the qualification of the new injection molded stainless steel and compressed titanium connectors for the LandWarrior ensemble. Four types of connectors were tested in two manufacturing variations.Connectors, fabricated and assembled into 40cable harnesses, have been thoroughly tested to MIL-STD-810 environmental testing. Stainlesssteel is utilized due to wear of aluminum for mating and de-mating. Powdered titanium connectors are 40% lighter than the stainlesssteel and significantly reduce soldier weight.