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#14363918
http://rt.com/usa/real-life-iron-man-armor-746/

Real-life Iron Man armor to be ready by June – US admiral

In an attempt by fact to imitate fiction, the US military’s “Iron Man” armor will take an important step towards reality in June, when multiple prototypes will be revealed and tested.

According to a report by Defense Tech, Navy Admiral William McRaven said three prototypes of the TALOS – Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit – are currently being put together in the hopes that they’ll be ready for testing this summer.

If everything goes according to schedule, McRaven said the TALOS could become operational by 2018.

“That suit, if done correctly, will yield a revolutionary improvement in survivability and capability for special operators,” McRaven said Tuesday at a military conference in Washington, DC.

Although the prototypes scheduled for June will be unpowered, the military’s wish list of TALOS features is ambitious to say the least. As RT reported last year, the suit is being designed primarily with defense in mind and will likely include liquid armor, a synthetic substance being developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This material has the capability to shift from a liquid state to a solid within milliseconds, making the suit’s wearer essentially impervious to gunfire.


Should an operator suffer an injury anyway, the suit will be capable of monitoring the individual’s health vitals and other information using a built-in system that rests against the skin and provides its own supply of heat, air, and oxygen. There are additional plans to incorporate a “wound stasis” program that could stop bleeding by spraying some kind of medical foam onto an injury.

In addition to boasting new technology that would enhance the operator’s awareness on the battlefield, TALOS could also be equipped with offensive capabilities, such as the “full-body ballistic projections” noted by the military last year.

According to Defense Tech, these Iron Man suits are currently being developed by a wide range of organizations: about 56 different corporations, 16 government agencies, 13 universities, and 10 national laboratories.

If successful, McRaven believes TALOS could potentially give the United States a “huge comparative advantage over our enemies and give our warriors the protection they need.”

This isn’t the only futuristic suit being developed by defense companies, though. Lockheed Martin has also been hard at work on an exoskeleton dubbed HULC (Human Universal Load Carrier), which grants increased mobility and the ability to transfer up to 200 pounds of weight off the user’s body.


Looks like the future of war is coming closer.
#14363925
Equipping and maintaining a single soldier will simply grow much more expensive. Replacing the parts in these suits will grow tiresome during heavy combat activity. So one of three things have to happen-pump even more cash into defense (unlikely) or have fewer troops (more likely) or keep this confined to small experimental numbers (most likely). Ultimately, no opinion on this yet, we have to see it perform but my guess is initial designs will perform poorly at a huge cost; it will take time (i.e many iterations) for this to reach viable status as a mass produced piece of kit.

However, if your goal is simply to increase survivability in an urban zone against small groups of irregulars, then I see this as highly valuable to reduce those asymmetric threats. It seems this is best suited to maintaining occupations/policing actions abroad, not really to fighting regular opponents.
#14363926
Well, the Yanks are looking more like sci-fi villains by the day...really not a good idea to use them in occupations, because this automatically speaks "faceless enemy".
Also, a regular soldier's life isn't worth that much anyway...

Anyway, I don't think these are meant to be mass produced - probably used by special forces only.
#14364020
Igor Antunov wrote:However, if your goal is simply to increase survivability in an urban zone against small groups of irregulars, then I see this as highly valuable to reduce those asymmetric threats. It seems this is best suited to maintaining occupations/policing actions abroad, not really to fighting regular opponents.


Surely the opposite is the case? These suits be used as some sort of shock troop, because they'll not be able to power them over an extended period. They'll be spearheading offensives where traditional armour cannot go.
#14410490
Lockheed Martin: HULC
[youtube]p2W23ysgWKI[/youtube]
Office Of Naval Research: Free Electron Laser Weapon.
[youtube]fWdGkb7r1iA[/youtube]
Electromagnetic Reactive Armour
[youtube]o7rxBifd0cY[/youtube]

Image

Note: Armor suits: The goal is not to make an invulnerable man-tank it is to give a soldier that needs it enhanced and more complete armor protection against standard infantry weapons that sling 5.56mm to 7.62mm projectiles, and fragments, and not encumber the soldier with extra weight. The soldier still provides the bulk of the motive power but the weight of his gear is transferred to the suit or exoskeleton not the soldier these things only augment the soldiers strength. The HULC can operate un-tethered and under its own power for several hours. But a Starship Troopers style power suit will remain a pipe dream for quite some time yet.
Last edited by Xbow on 22 May 2014 19:12, edited 1 time in total.
#14410529
Xbow, don't you know the US is stagnating and not developing at all and China is where its at?

Absolutely!! I almost forgot about that

That is why our stagnation has given us hundreds of stealthy Fifth-generation jet fighters in an operational status and the Chinese and the Russians have only a few non-stagnant prototypes to boast of between them. But he Chinese make great combat flatware and dishes and the Russians make great combat samovars.

And you have to hand it to the Chinese for refurbishing a small 30 year old Russian aircraft carrier hulk and turning it into the greatest Aircraft Carrier in history . And of course a stagnant tub like the 100,000 ton Gerald R Ford with its:
•composite Armor,
•electromagnetic armor,
•FEL laser defense system,
•40 year re-fueling cycle reactors,
•Electro magnetic catapults,
•and Automated ammunition handling and damage control systems,
is stagnant in every way compared to what the dynamic Chinese are doing with their ships.
#14410609
benpenguin wrote:Also, a regular soldier's life isn't worth that much anyway...

It's worth more and more, actually. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan (War on Terror) couldn't have been made with the death tolls of the Vietnam War (1.57 vs 11 deaths per day). I guess they intend to reduce that ratio further and further.

benpenguin wrote:Anyway, I don't think these are meant to be mass produced - probably used by special forces only.

Sure, they won't equip the whole military with special armor. However, there is a wide range of special forces in the USAF, we talk about several units, groups, teams, battalions, etc, and even regiments.
#14410668
benpenguin wrote:Anyway, I don't think these are meant to be mass produced - probably used by special forces only.
Traditional special forces are the last people that will need the kind of armor protection and carrying capacity these 'man amplification' systems offer. Infantry will simply become once again Armored Infantry, Heavy Infantry, Light Infantry, and Special Forces.

[EDIT]
A couple of likely uses of these 'man amplification' systems would be:

•Direct Assaults In a heavily armored mode where strong resistance from the enemy is assured. Being highly resistant to damage from rifles, pistols and grenade fragments is an enormous advantage.

•movement from an assembly area to an attack positions with additional equipment and for the purpose of preserving a soldiers energy and endurance for the actual attack. Systems like HULC without much additional armor are designed to be used in that way and left at an attack position for later pick up after the assault.

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