Overview of the
New Infantry Combat Weapons System

The New Infantry Combat Weapons System relates to an infantry-based weapons system of several components. More particularly, the NICWS (as in Like Us ) System describes weapons, transportation, and logistical approaches used to deploy a highly mobile and agile infantry-based army. This army can effectively operate in open-field or urban warfare environments against threats ranging from individual militants to heavy armor and aircraft.

Infantry-based combat weapons systems have evolved over thousands of years of human history. Well-trained foot soldiers equipped with state-of-the art weaponry provided ancient empires with the ability to prevail on every front from open battlefield to siege and assault. Augmented with highly mobile cavalries, the overall makeup of armies changed very little until the 20th century. Then with the advent of motorized vehicles and aircraft, advances in missile systems, and long-range tactical and strategic weapons, the modern armies of the emerging superpowers evolved into forces that relied primarily on heavy armor and aircraft engagement, along with long-distance missile and heavy weapon support. Accordingly, later in the 20th century, the planned role of the infantry began to diminish and was relegated nearly to a “mop-up crew” status.

Beginning in the jungles of Viet Nam, and progressing to the urban jungles that have challenged U.S. forces in Somalia and Iraq, it has become clear that advanced weapons systems and air supremacy alone are insufficient to prevail in today’s hostile engagements. As the Soviet Union’s dismal performance in Afghanistan demonstrates, and as the US’s challenges in Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan confirm, smaller, more agile, infantry-based opponents have proved extremely difficult for the cold-war-era armies to successfully defeat. Yet, since Viet Nam, it has become apparent that the civilian public has demonstrated a profound distaste for protracted engagements that result in many casualties with little overall success in achieving strategic or political objectives such as regime change.