Russian Military News: Ratnik-2 Future Soldier Gear Includes New Machine Gun, Androids

Russian developers are creating plans for Ratnik-2, a future-soldier gear system, as the successor to Ratnik, its most recent form of advanced combat gear which was completed in 2015. Andrei Grigoryev, the head of the Russian government's Prospective Research Foundation, told Sputnik News Monday Ratnik-2 will be finished between 2025 and 2030, and a Russian military android that was previously shown in January would be ready by the end of the year.

The project is meant to envision and develop what will become the "gear of the 'soldier of the future," and the Prospective Research Foundation has been receiving proposals for how it should look, Grigoryev said. Russian gunmakers are currently developing new small weapons with a larger caliber along with a new machine gun for the Ratnik-2 second generation gear, and also will focus on maximizing the amount of ammunition soldiers carry while remaining mobile, Russia Beyond The Headlines reported.

The current Ratnik combat gear is equipped with a special kit that allows soldiers to connect to drones for intelligence and tactical data, Sputnik News previously reported. The chief designer of Russia's United Instrument Manufacturing Corp., Tatyana Ositskaya, said with the advancement, "the task of target-pointing is achieved within 30 seconds. This includes the time in which the target is detected and the transfer of the coordinates for the destruction of this target."

Russian military robots were capable of destroying enemy humans and machines as a group at a field exercise in May.

The military android is supposed to be capable of running and crossing obstacles by the end of the year, Grigoryev said, and would be used primarily for mine clearance and tasks that do not require precision. "Its mission is to work in very dangerous conditions where a human presence is needed, with the possibility of remote control," Grigoryev said.

The news of new Russian combat gear arrived soon after the United States announced new army uniforms and camouflage June 1.