The 21st Century warfighter is an electronics soldier as his/her equipment will rely on chips and batteries that will help shoot, navigate, communicate, gather intelligence, and perhaps soon even be brought back to base when wounded with the support of some exoskeleton that is designed to help in load bearing when going into the field, and can go on autopilot to bring the soldier for medical treatment. But all of these will require power, and the present set-up of powering up various devices for the soldier are actually problems rather than solutions.

One of the biggest weight issues for any warfighter is carrying batteries, and the devices, ranging from laser sights to radios have various power requirements, and that also means different battery sizes. One battery size may not fit all devices, and thus soldiers go into field with different types of batteries that are spread out in various pouches and bags. Keeping track of them is also a chore since one may just forget where a certain type of battery is placed under the heat of battle.

And the British aim to change of all that through the use of uniforms that will power up most, if not all, of devices that a soldier will carry.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) will soon be issuing uniforms to British Soldiers with Intelligent Textile Limited's fabric that would allow. Also called as "e-textiles" it's not only just a uniform that's turned into a power supply, data can also be routed through it without risks for the wearer. Even if there is some tear in the fabric, data can be rerouted and power can still be used.

The concept is simple, the combat uniforms' fabric have conductive yarns woven unto them and they are redundant enough to continue servicing the soldier's data and power needs under wear and tear. Even a computer keyboard is also woven into the fabric to use with computers or heads up displays in helmets to send and receive information.

In a report by BBC, Intelligent Textiles received £234,000 from the Centre for Defence Enterprise (CDE) to provide solutions for the British soldiers' power needs without comprimising their safety when these smart uniforms get issued.

Trials will start next month and if successful, widespread use is seen in two or three years' time.

If issued, equipment suppliers may also have to retool their devices to adapt to connectors that will come with the smart uniforms. This will mean minimizing the sizes and configurations to achieve a bare minimum for cables and wiring in connecting electronic devices to these.

Some are even looking beyond the battlefield with Intelligent Textile's technology. The uniforms can provide backup power in humanitarian missions where the soldiers can help charge cellphones or provide some lighting to disaster stricken areas while waiting for generators and other power supplies to handle the more power-hungry devices such as medical equipment, larger communications devices, and computers.  For daily uses, once these become available to the civilian market, can provide backup power for laptops, tablets, mobile phones, gps devices, and media players.

That means that airsoft players can also benefit from using such e-textiles when they become widely available for use outside of the military.