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FELIN (French acronym for "infantryman with integrated equipment and communication") is a soldier system

Equipment currently available to dismounted soldiers displays a number of deficiencies (observation and use of day/night weapons, firing aids, means of communication and protection). However, it is not so much the individual performance of the equipment worn by infantrymen that penalises their efficiency in combat, as the lack of consistency and integration on the soldier.

The soldier system was thus born from the need to break away from this logic of equipment "add-ons" that has existed until now. Equipment must be designed as an integrated weapons system, arranged around the soldier and designed to optimise his natural capabilities.

This premise guided development of the programme: the challenge was not to make a significant improvement in a small but essential number of specific areas of performance (for example: firing further, faster and with greater precision), but to identify the technologies available to meet all functional requirements at a reasonable unit cost (as there is a large series of systems to manufacture) and devise the best way to structure the system to integrate these functions.

Preliminary upstream studies focused on:

  communication
  observation (day and night, by trying to increase range)
  protection (detectability: visual, acoustic and electromagnetic, protection against attack)
  a self-powered system
  mobility (system weight, ergonomics, location and navigation aid)

The programme’s demonstration phase was conducted between 1997 and 2000. Several operational trials were conducted during the first half of 2000 within the 110th and 35th Infantry Regiments, to test an ECAD (French acronym for "dismounted soldier’s equipment) demonstrator. This is made up of eleven individual systems, with specific equipment for the squad leader, and interior adjustments to an amphibious armoured vehicle in order to fit out a complete combat squad. Comparison of the efficiency of two combat squads (a "standard" group and an "ECAD" group) during multiple exercises revealed that the system provided a significant increase in operational capability, even though the demonstrator had not been optimised in weight or volume.