Slashdot Mirror
More on Next-Generation Army Gear
An anonymous reader writes "The Army is funding development of new super suits. From the article: 'The Army's future soldier will resemble something out of a science fiction movie'. 'The new system has the ability for each soldier to be tied into tactical local and wide-area networks with an onboard computer that sits at the base of the soldier's back' and 'The helmet has sensors that register vibrations of the cranial cavity so [soldiers] don't have to have a microphone'. The article features several photos of the suits."
"Rico's Roughnecks, hooaahhh!"
From the Article:
The uniform from the waist down will have a robotic-powered system that is connected directly to the soldier. This system could use pistons to actually replicate the lower body, giving the soldier "upwards of about 300 percent greater lifting and load-carriage capability," DeGay said. "We are looking at potentially mounting a weapon directly to the uniform system and now the soldier becomes a walking gun platform."
I suspect that they may be calling on Berkeley for their Bleex project on this one. The Berkeley Lower Extremity Exoskeleton exists now, and I'd imagine with 10 or 15 years to work on it they could easily meet the 300% lifting and load carrying requirements. Of course the Japanese have envisioned soldiers as walking gun platforms for years. I wonder how long it'll be before we see Mecha Warriors in real life...
Urge to post... fading... fading... RISING!... fading... fading... gone.
Too bad the designers watched the movie instead of reading the book!
Great.. now we can look-forward to our individual soldiers suits being hacked and controled by the enemy.
Boxing Equipment Reviews
Who are we going to be fighting with this stuff? Terrorists? Belgium?
"We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
Man, they look just like normal suits with some extra crap on the front.
I was hoping for some anime utility suit or Gundam mech you climb inside of or something.
"There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter," Jeeves, (Jeeves and the Impending Doom)
Will they bring the OICW back, or have they settled for XM6?
When wars are fought from 15 miles up now anyway?
Remember when the Army made the big announcement about everyone wearing black berets? That took damn near 18 months to implement and no batteries were required. If this happens anytime during our generation I will be stunned. What they really need are a better pair of standard issue boots...that would be money well spent for the soldiers.
It's worth RTFA, because of some absolutely choice quotes:
"the 2020 model will remind you of an ominous creature out of a science fiction movie"
I love the use of "ominous"
"When you have a uniform with this new nanotechnology, it can absorb unlimited numbers of machine-gun rounds,"
Wouldn't that get kind of heavy?
"We are looking at potentially mounting a weapon directly to the uniform system and now the soldier becomes a walking gun platform."
Now THAT sounds like fun...
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
The Army's future soldier will resemble something out of a science fiction movie.
And here is my thinking they would look like something out of a period drama.
----
I thought wars in the future were going to be fought by robots and it was our job to build and maintain those robots.
Does it run Linux?
Given the amount of electronics and sensors the soldier is wearing, would the army also incorporate "feedback units" like adrenaline injectors and tranquilizers or would it be too prone to hacking?
The guy on the left in this photo looks like a black stormtrooper.
This space intentionally left blank.
This was already predicted here.
Except the prediction was a lot cooler.
Starship Troopers anyone? We'll finally have the capabilities to crush space bugs and the ever-lingering ape-uprising.
A counter measure to this would be 'sniffers' looking for these signals. Program guided warheads/projectiles and you could have a relatively easy kill.
Wonder if these suits will come with an excessive moisture sensor? ("I think Johnson has just entered combat - or is incontinent").
I think I liked the ol Bear Suits better that were in an earlier slashdot posting. At least it appeared more like a mech-warrior kind of theme. Plus, you never know when you might meet up with a bear wanting to wish ya well! :)
Look at the solider in the black. Make it white and we're pretty damn close to having our boys overseas looking like Storm Troopers. All that remains is for Bush to claim himself Emporer, and Chaney to learn the secrets of the Dark Side and become horribly disfigured in some sort of Volcano-related accident.
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
Judging by the screenshots, they are using Windows.
Sometimes the majority just means all the morons are on the same side.
...that with the billions of dollars invested in this project that they would have chosen a manakin that still had it's nose intact.
And the most reassuring thing is that, the code the suit runs is written in Java
"Toys for tots"
Definitions of snide on the Web:
expressive of contempt; "curled his lip in a supercilious smile"; "spoke in a sneering jeering manner"
This guy is way out there
I have often wondered how much of such technology is developed from self fulfilling prophecies. Science fiction writers look at present technology and wonder what it could be. Years later people influenced by said science fiction writings eventually go through school and get jobs designing such technology and wonder how they could make it work in the real world. It's a loop of sorts, creating ever higher expectations.
From the article: "A medic, who can be miles away, will now be able to diagnose and treat a soldier who is about to have sunstroke, without even physically seeing the soldier.
Radio traffic: "Alpha Bravo Charlie appears to be out of action! Doctor, can you give us a report on his telemetry?
Doctor: "Is he wearing that black, 50 pound Darth Vader suit?"
Radio traffic: "Yes!"
Doctor: "It's probably sun stroke."
err... wait
"With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine." -- RFC 1925
"To the everlasting glory of the infantry
shines the name
shines the name
of Rodger Young!"
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jul2004/2004072705 c_hr.jpg
In the futur,e we will be able to drink negative amounts of water and have negative relative humidity.
If this happens, you can add it to Heinlein's successful predictions along with waterbeds, waldos, and television on airplanes.
Take care,
brad
Man, it must have taken that guy with the 2020 suit a few hours to get dressed. By this rate, in 2030 it will take a small army of robots 9 straight hours just to dress up a single infantry man.
I want some of that armor!
Red Bull gave me wings and I flew into the ceiling fan.
So are they the good guys are the bad guys?
They ought to make the suits look blue or pink or put one of those Walmart smiley faces on them :P.
If I recall correctly, In Larry Niven's book Ringworld there was armor like they were talking about that hardened when it got hit. I remember reading it and thinking how cool it would be if they could really make it. It was demonstrated protecting against both bullets and hand to hand weapons in the books, and was a bit heavy weight wise.
Will we all learn Reki's lesson one day?
The question is -- is the AI any better than the first SOCOM game? I don't care how well equipped you are but if you say "Tango sighted...he's moving" and you fail to shoot the bastard down, he's going to shoot you dead.
I'm all for suits and equipment and firepower and all that wonderful stuff...but in the end, you still need a heck of a good soldier to run it all. Probably even more so with all the additional training he'd need to operate the new stuff.
From the hi-res looks of things, the year 2020 soldier (on the left in black) is gonna promote friendly fire casualties with his mask all fogged up.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
The government will always make sure that we have someone to fight.
Technoli
Lynndie England's panties...
Why, oh why did you have to bring up that up? Now I have to add that to the long list of mental images I never want to see again...
This space intentionally left blank.
For all X, the future X will resemble something out of a science fiction movie. So trivially it's true for X=soldiers.
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
If the soldiers on the ground are going to be so completely dependent on electrical equipment? These things don't have to be a giant explosion any more, either. I believe there has been progress in directional, possibly portable, EM-disabling weapons. I know. Let's put all the soldiers in faraday cages! Mosquito netting for the 22nd century!
---
the pen is mightier than the sword, the sword is mightier than the court, the court is mightier than the pen.
better hope al qaeda isn't using
gcc -O3 -funrolloops
The Army has is all wrong. Instead of spending money and the U.S. soldier, they should just outsource the soldiers and have other nations fight for us. It works for corporations, why not the Army...
Where is my supah suit?!? Where...Is...My...Supah...Suit!?!? You tell me where that suit is, Woman!!!!
Somebody put me out of my misery.
"With sufficient thrust, pigs fly just fine." -- RFC 1925
Instead of developing super-suits, why not spend the money on retaining and recruiting high-quality soldiers? Military pay and benefits aren't exactly keeping pace with inflation. I'd rather have better men than gizmos any day of the week.
"...the Army just awarded MIT a five- year, $50 million program to establish the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies." Kinda reminds me of the Advanced Research Projects Agency.
Look everyone, I can fit my head up my ass!!!
It should be noted that those 2000 pound bombs dropped in residential areas are normally 2000 pounds of concrete. It's all kinetic energy, not explosive ordinance, designed to keep collateral damage down. Your IEDs, on the other hand, are designed to inflict as much collateral damage as possible, which is why Americans gawk in horror at them.
common sense: noun
What those who are ignorant of the subject matter think; usually wrong.
Storm
now why the hell doesn't the doom3 marine have one..
-
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
by 2025 the job of the soilder is going to be to repair the robots that fight either in space or on top or really tall mountains. So the evolution of combat gear should inculde repair kits for robots and maybe a whistle in case a war breaks out and the robots need to be summoned.
"...an onboard computer that sits at the base of the soldier's back"
People into concealed-carry handguns have been warning each other about carrying anything hard against the small of your back for quite a while. The thought is that a backwards fall could damage your spine quite nicely.
Terrorists will concentrate on building EMP bombs.
Technoli
They say the Soilder of the futures gear will weigh only 50 pounds.
Since WWI the full combat gear has always weighed 120 pounds.
It will just allow you to carry more ammo into the combat zone. TaDa! 120 pounds again.
Johnny Quest has two Daddies.
Sustainability and energy independence essay
That is practically right out of Larry Niven's Ringworld series. The characters wore armor that stiffened when impacted. Very cool anyways. "What we hope to gain from this program is body armor that wears like a traditional textile impregnated with nanomachines connected to an onboard computer, DeGay explained. "So when you shoot a round into the uniform system, it's normally pliable until it senses the strike of a round -- it becomes rigid, defeats the strike of the round and becomes soft again."
stealth velcro.
Yes, thats right. Back in the late 80s or early 90s the US military wanted to use velcro for pockets and whatnot on military uniforms. Unfortunately, none of the higher ups had ever used velcro, nor knew that velcro made a swwwissh ripping noise when opened, so when they arrived, the soldiers thought they might get shot if they opened their pocket for a condom or something. So they spent many more millions of dollars to invent stealth velcro.
Today they use snaps and zippers.
look at that! They look like the power rangers! Hiya! I was hoping for something cooler than Power Rangers. But hey, now once someone gets their hand on it, wait for the mods.
If you've got a robotic exoskeleton and a wide area network, why not just pilot the soldier remotely?
Seems to make a lot more sense than still sending a real person in... plus the army would have no trouble getting recruits to play counterstrike.
The Army's future soldier will resemble something out of a science fiction movie
[poster thinks about films like Starship Troopers]
Trees, meet forest. Forest, meet trees.
This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it. - Dorothy Parker
I'm not sure but if 1 man in an HEV suit can take out an entire army and an alein species, why don't we invest in something like that?
Lets NEVER put anything into production that was ever used in sci-fi. That eliminates pretty much every modern convinience in existance.
Technoli
How do you keep the soldier from overheating when they are enclosed in a suit of bullet-absorbing body armor?
WTC: taken out for the cost of flying lessons and twenty box cutters.
US Embassies in Africa: taken out for basically $0.
Why attack the soldier when you can just as easily attack what he is trying to defend? This is why terrorism is the future of warfare. The local police are closer to the front lines than the US Army, by a long shot.
All of the military-porn articles also fail to mention how often all of these tech toys break and put the forces in "tech support".
The infantry already carries a huge amount of weight with them at this point. All of this stuff is really cool from a tech standpoint, but the last thing a soldier really needs is more wieght.
DeviantArt Page
NSFWAre SIDI motorcycle boots. I wonder why they ripped this design? Those boots are probably the most uncomfortable design for walking, after about 100 feet. Good enough to get into the office and back.
p id=32
http://www.motonation.com/item.asp?cid=3&scid=11&
There's the boot they ripped. Unfortunately, it doesn't show the velcro closure system, which is exactly the same. You can even see, they left the toe slider on the new soldier.
...would be a good story for some in the military to be reading, I think.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Think of it this way... The armed forces are looking for more recruits so what better way to attract that target group of males age 18 to 25 (other than reinstituting the draft) than to promise soldiers really high-tech toys... c'mon who doesn't want a magic suit that not only has a computer (with a HUD!) built in to it, but also has that crazy super-strength nanotech armor!
US soldiers in Iraq are being picked off by teeangers with thirty year old semi-functioning Soviet era tech. The fear factor hasn't worked - no one seems to be backing down from the US soldiers in the street.
I recommend reading "Forever Peace" - it's by Joe Haldeman, and deals with issues arising from warfare involving such Super-soldiers.
Very interesting, and worrying to see that we're making all these technological advances without making societal ones.
We've been discussing starship troopers in this thread since there's been comments in this thread. What took you so long?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I've seen articles about these future soldier outfits before.
One thing they didn't mention here, is that they are seriously thinking that the advanced battle dress will have active cooling of some sort, so that soldiers can wear all this armor and gear in a hot location without keeling over from overheating.
How do you power all the computers, radios, strength enhancement, and active cooling? Last article I read that discussed this said they are looking at fuel cells and microturbine generators, which implies that these super-suits will each need fuel, every day, to continue to operate. (This fuel will probably be methanol, IIRC.)
Thus the high-tech army of the future will not only need a supply of fuel for its vehicles, but for the soldier suits. Of course the US armed forces are very good at logistics, so this probably isn't viewed as a serious problem.
Still, I picture a platoon in the future, cut off from the rest of the army, trying to make their way past the enemy to safety... and having to strip off these fancy uniforms and run around in their underwear, since they ran out of the special fuel.
steveha
lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
This uniform just doesn't say "Hey we are the good guys coming to liberate your country."
Now it does scream "We are the evil American overlords coming to ensure OUR form of democratic oppression. Give us your tired oil, poor oil wells, and feed our hungry wallets"
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
I mean, that's cool and all, but come on! They want to replace a $20 (LOL) microphone with a $4000 (still LOL) cranial vibration sensor? Why? TFA says it so the computer can be voice controlled, but lots of people use voice activition with computers and cell phones without wearing anything on their head! I suppose it's so ambient noise doesn't interfere. Then again, heavy artillary fire will rattle the fillings right out of your teeth.
I'm sorry, but your opinion seems to be wrong.
2004-07-28 18:15:51 Future U.S. Army Soldiers Wired For Combat (Index,United States) (rejected)
Damnit, I submitted this same article last week, I guess it wasn't old enough news. Same link, different submitter.
Ohwell, mod this down appropriately. I'll stop trying to contribute.
-- Liberalism is a mental disorder.
I like the fine staff these firms bring to the operation - like Apartheid-era South Africans with warrants in their own country for crimes against humanity.
I love this quote (emphasis mine):
"The Future Force Warrior will be a responsive and formidable member of an invincible battle space team," DeGay explained, describing the system scheduled to be fielded by 2010."
Invincible eh? That's some pretty neat gear... does it include a quick dipping in the River Styx?
Here we go
"This Army initiative will develop and demonstrate revolutionary capabilities for the future soldiers in battle"... enhanced human performance... "The Future Force Warrior will be a responsive and formidable member of an invincible battle space team"... will be able to chat online... jungle trail... "Warrior Physiological Status Monitoring System"...good action movie... bullet hits this person... armor that deflects bullets... soldier becomes a walking gun platform...
for an article summary. Now I think that's what the the Age of Iron people were saying to the Age of Copper People when they discovered... iron. Now whoever passed Human History class with B+ and above can enlighten us to what happened next...
Keep inventing boys, it only takes one stolen uniform for the Russians to replicate and improve on your technology. Unless of course what happens to the fallen "Future Warriors" is similar to the fate of my signature. I wonder if that will be included in the job description though...
Yam, yam, uga booga, yam, yam, yade, yade, uga booga, yam, yam, yade, yade
An army isn't cool unless it is used to promote peace.
Did anyone else notice the soldier's display was running Windows? Uh-oh! What happens when a soldier gets the BSOD?
...when they see Darth Vader coming for them, they'll have an intra-pants biohazard situation.
<mst3k>GAH! Don't DO that!</mst3k>
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Your claim that the Roman model of incorporating conquered peoples into the Legions was a failure is false. For literally centuries the Legions operated as a multicultural organization. Yes the Roman Empire ended but it isn't because the Legions had Gauls and Britons in the ranks.
I'd be curious to know how they're going to maintain the WAN without it being a radio beacon for the enemy to spot. Frequency hopping would help a little, but I'm sure a creative engineer could work around that.
It's like a portable target beacon for missiles!
Does anyone else think the 2020 suits look like futuristic SS uniforms? Clothes make the man, they say.
At least not until they tech up to Medics.
We did this in Afghanistan.
We outsourced the fight with Russia to Al Queda.
Look what that got us.
Politicians, bullshit artists, college kids, and people who don't have to wear/live with the bullshit can't possibly appreciate just how stupid the "future warrior" plan is.
This whole "future" warrior schtick will complicate soldier's life (hauling 150lbs of crap everywhere you go, being accountable for it and its condition, and having to haul your wounded buddies ass out of 'the shit'), which is hard enough as it is. The Pentagon needs to leave the toys in the locker and make better decisions. The things I always thought about when I was 'humpin' around with my lpc's and m16 with alice on my back were something like this...
Light, effective weapons (caseless ammo, call-home capability, lightweight/composite tech, and imprinting to the soldier are do-able)
Miniturized/ruggedized commo which works with implanted chips (if you're a soldier, your ass is 0wn3d anyway) which give biotelemetry without bullshit readouts. Only the medic/commanders need to see what condition a soldier is in. They could even aggregate the data.
Limb-replacement tech...yes, regrow your amputated bits. Rehabilitiation tech needs to pull its sorry butt into the new century.
Immune system amping (be able to eat/drink just about anything), better treatments for bacterial infections and 'derm' tech which would give the soldier a patch that would help sustain their opitate/endorphin/adrenaline balances...combat the stress of combat. When people aren't going apeshit in-ranks casualties are significantly reduced (yes, a chemical-control cocktail). Got a buddy who has crapped himself after that last RPG took out the track behind yours? Just step on his neck and slap one of these patches on his ass and don't worry about him hosing everyone in a panic.
Good food.
The ability to eat anything would be helpful too.
Oh, and having the soldiers adapt to and understand the culture they're going to be fighting with/in. There's more than one way to win a war.
Yeah, as usual, compared to what would really make a difference (don't even go towards the "not fight in the first place" argument--humanity sucks) a bunch of neato armor bits and some computer stuff is really a very easy way out.
Cheers.
Every new form of media has it's own Requirimento
The rank-and-file soldier does not have the IQ to handle of this tech thrown at them. They will get confused and end up shooting anything that walks. Come on folks, a lot of these guys are high school dropouts.
"The helmet has sensors that register vibrations of the cranial cavity so [soldiers] don't have to have a microphone"
As the CO listens in on the men in the heat of combat...
"F&*k this! This f*@king sucks!! We should be shooting at the damn CO!"
The skull microphone program is shortly canceled.
So is that trivially true or vacuously true? I can never keep those straight.
Lemme Google for a sec...
Ok. Maybe this helps.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Does it include prisoner ass-raping gear?
.. Osama ben Skywalker!
It's probably just a proof-of-concept version. Companies rough out programs in a simpler programming language to see how things work in real life. There's probably lots of stubs all around that code. I had a friend that wrote VB code (sometimes) to show to clients how it'll work, the interface and all; it didn't actually work but it responds to button clicks. It's much easier to show a client (the government in this case) how an interface will behave and get them to sign off on it, than to begin actual coding and be 80% completed and they say "no, we want it this way...". The sooner you can get a client to sign a contract and set requirements for a program, the better. Besides, you can get to market your product if you have something operating to show them instead of notes on a legal pad.
... machine washable? (that's a new feature, dahling.)
"Honeeeyyy... Where is my super suit? You tell me where my suit is, woman!!!"
N4st0r, trixx0r h0bb1tz0rz! Th3y st0l3 0ur pr3c10uzz!
Now it will be easier than ever for our glorious Army to kill or rape third world peoples! All hail the mighty Army and their Suits of Death! Bow down before us, towelheads and frogs, for thou shall feel the pain of our laser guided missiles and our electrodes down your pants!
It's all networked, that's great! Any thirteen year old jihaddist with an AK47 and a $20 RF detector can see our guys coming miles away. Sometimes too smart is a little dumb. If they can figure out how to take down blackhawks with RPG's then they can figure out when the RF detector starts beeping that trouble is coming. Heck, they could probably key mines (aka roadside bombs) to it.
Like the improvements to the body armor, question how it affects mobility though.
-- Greg
Slashdot, would a spell-checker for posting be too much to ask? It's not rocket science!
Does anyone else find it strange that this release immediately follows the release of Doom 3?
Better toys, same game.
Great...Nanotechnology and flying cars in 2020. All will stop nowaday's machine gun bullets.
Fine...
Now, who can tell what power a machine gun will develop in 2020? Will we need a technology in 2020 that can stop technology from 2004?
I am not sure.
I too would like to turn into a uber-warrior. I wonder if/when they'll release the suits to the civilian sector. Think of the sports applications! Not only would be 300% more powerful (which means we can be 300% more lazy), but you could be chatting secretly with your teammates on your LAN. Do you REALLY need some gatorade? The suit will tell you when to start quenching!
I saw that the HUD display was running on Java. That extra 70 pounds will probably consist of extra RAM.
I remember at one point the military was looking for a full robotic exoskeleton that went above and below the waist. I believe that they gave up and decided to persue lower-body-only technology because they were running into problems with the exoskeleton ripping the tendons and ligaments of those who wore the suit prototypes. The human stretch reflex is a function of the central nervous system and is designed to prevent limbs from being placed into positions that stress the connective tissues. Obviously, with a powered exoskeleton one wrong move could result in an arm getting pulled much further than your nervous system would ever let you position it under your own power. I believe that the researchers got tired of wrestling with this problem and decided to focus on the lower body because human joints in the lower body tend to be of simplier design (and easier to replicate and control) than the upper body ones. Ultimately they'd like to have powered legs that are capable of complex motion like running so that troops could cover large distances in a single day. But running is complex enough even without a suit. I imagine it's going to be a long time before you can put on a set of techno-trowsers and not rip your hamstrings right off your bone!
GMD
watch this
but does it have a cup holder
Look up "spread spectrum".
--- Ban humanity.
Travellers report that America has discovered Future Tech 1!
Great! No microphone. Now the screams of the dying can be carried live to EVERYONE in the battle group. Man, will that ever improve morale and communication!!
I can envision the exoskeleton evolving into a giant robot body especially with guns mounted on it.
All we need now are space colonies and some teenage angst and we will be ready to go!
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
IANASoldier, but I'd think that being able to carry lots more ammo into a combat zone would be a good thing.
- Do nothing, which makes us look ineffectual and encourages the baddies.
- Attack anything that looks like it might be a baddie, which makes us look brutal and encourages people to join and support the baddies.
- Genocide, to get rid of anyone who even thinks about being a baddie.
Face it, this is a problem that is not going to be solved at the level of infantry.Sustainability and energy independence essay
We drop concrete on people?
I suppose cluster bombs are full of candy too.
Maybe now we can start building a spaceship that can make it to Alpha-Centari!
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
As a non-American (but citizen of a supposed ally), the U.S. military's superiority makes me a little nervous when coupled with their "might-makes-right" attitude. For example, there's a popular new American song whose lyrics include, "we'll put a boot up your ass, it's the American way." Is this really the foundation of American values? Is this the mentality that the rest of the world can look forward to from the current economic and military leader of the world?
It's sad to me that growing up, I always regarded the U.S. as one of the good guys, but now I've realized that once they realized there was nobody who could stand up militarily, they are just as willing to coerce other nations with the threat of force as any other major power in history.
Let me give an example of current American attitudes toward right and wrong. When the news about the Abu Ghraib prison abuses came around, someone in the U.S. government (can't remember the name) publicly defended the actions saying that it wasn't as bad as what was happening there under Saddam. To that, I raise the question, "Do you want to be the good guys, or not?" My grade seven teacher told me to always compare yourself to the best, never to the worst, or else you'll eventually be no better than the worst.
Anyway, sorry this got a bit off topic, but I think it shares a major concern. I completely agree with the need for a nation to have adequate military strength to deter aggression, but is it inevitable that a nation that possesses such strength will invariably let that power overcome their sense of right and wrong?
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
Looks like some much-neglected subsectors of the defense contractor world have finally got a strategy to take a slice of the pie away from the aerospace and logistical sectors, who traditionally do well.
We could be looking at a new area of defense lobbying opening up -- and a greater diversity of defense-related investments, too.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
That video game looks freakin' AWESOME! oh... wait...
Just as irrigation is the lifeblood of the Southwest, lifeblood is the soup of cannibals. -- Jack Handy
Money would be better spent teaching the solders the local langauge, customs and religion. Have you seen those videos of US solders busting into Iraq homes and yelling in English?! Gee I wonder why they hate us. If they are wearing silly hi-tech suits they'll be even more alien.
If you look at the medic view it predicts that the Soldier will drink a small amount of Water in about a minute. I wonder how they do that?
get 7 free Japanese lessons.
Ironically, because the US is impregnable on all conventional fronts, anyone attacking only has unconventional means left at their disposals.
There is one weapon that the US is desperately lacking right now, and it's their biggest vulnerability. It doesn't require high-tech expensive weapons... it's called diplomacy. Until it has that, all those toys are going to be worse than useless- they're going to put you at even more risk.
Information: "I want to be anthropomorphized"
Syntax error at #9871289 line 2 at or near '(which', missing ')'
Syntax error at #9871289 line 2 at or near '(, but', missing ')'
Comprehension of post aborted due to compilation errors.
Underloved Movies and Pub Quiz: donotquestionme.org
Dead is dead. The problem is that Americans only give a shit when it is an American who got whacked. Who do you think suffered more civilian casualties in the latest gulf war, the US or Iraq? And military casualties? And the horror is that IED's are designed for maximum collateral damage? How about cluster bombs (as far away from surgical as you can get)? Depleted Uranium (will be killing for the next 300,000 years)? 30mm auto cannon (round 1 is on target, the next 30 are all over the place)? Half retarded 19 year old hicks from backwater USA (you wouldn't trust this idiot to make you a burger, but you give him a rifle, and a get out of jail free card)? Each of those produces exponentially more collateral damage than an IED, but most Americans could not care less. "Oh poor Timmy Bob Smith, got his hand blown off on patrol, that is horrible, those savages. I heard Timmy killed a whole Iraqi family at a wedding the day before, stupid sand niggers, should know better than to celebrate when the cav comes to town"
Oh, and MOST 2000lb bombs were filled with concrete? Right, of course they were. I mean, why not pay to fly a loadout of practice munitions into the fight. I think its more likely that just enough were dropped so the commanders could say "were trying". The vast majority were standard 2000lb "hot" drops.
obviously have never strapped on a full combat load either.
Soldiers deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq carry large amounts of external weight, often 120 pounds or more, to be battle-ready. DeGay said the new uniform system -- from head to toe -- weighs 50 pounds.
50 POUNDS! Then add water, ammo, frags. Not to mention ruck etc. Oh and the poor,poor paratroopers who have to jump this shit.
So, taking a look at the HUD screenshots, I see that the suit runs windows and supplies health information via a java applet (not app, applet).
This is wrong, seems to me personally, in many ways, which I will not enumerate here.
(although I'd have time to enumerate them twice over in the time it'll take that java applet to start up on Windows on the hardware that fits into that helmet)
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
Does anyone here seriously doubt our capability to incinerate upwards of 90% of Arabs and Muslims this afternoon?
It's simple cost benefit. Every terrorist attack by them makes our compasion and irrational clinging to the age of enlightenment that much more expensive, and their incineration that much cheaper. It's not like there aren't side benefits either. Resources and land are a lot easier to plunder when there aren't people living on it, even if it is inhospitable and god forsaken. And Cleaning up radioactive waste, and recovering newly available resources will likely have a lot of job security.
Remember, pre-manifest destiny, Native Americans weren't "godless savages", they were "Nature's children." They didn't blow up the World Trade Center, attack the pentegon, or try to acquire nuclear or biological weapons. And they died by the tens of millions. If the Arabs have themselves a Cheif Joseph, I'd recommend they get him to Al-Jezzera right quick before the opportunity for change is past.
I did a little more research and I can't find a reference to dropping concrete more recent that 1999, in reference to the No-Fly Zones (AKA the Protection Zone For Al-Qaeda Terrorists In Northern Iraq).
Anyway, not saying that we are or are not dropping concrete these days, but I would be a little surprised if we prefaced the invasion and occupation with anything less than the most lethal air power. If you know otherwise, though, by all means school me.
I don't see how you can say roadside IEDs are designed to inflict as much collateral damage as possible. Haji calls the cell phone when the hummer goes by. It's a military target. Car bombs, on the other hand, are the preferred weapon of the terrorist.
Well, not what they're _for_. But it's certainly one feature of the relationship.
Except you keep killing them yourselves, you naughty people.
But nobody seems to mind much, for some reason.
So that's okay.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.
http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=1215281
:
Notice the change in citizenship application
"When Sergeant Abalos joined the army in 1988, he had to wait three years to apply for citizenship, somewhat better than the five-year wait required of civilians. But thanks to an executive order signed by President Bush in 2001, even the three-year requirement has been eliminated for members of the armed forces. "
Service guarantees Citizenship! Questions Guarantee GITMO.... Amerika Uber Alles!
"'The Future Force Warrior will be a responsive and formidable member of an invincible battle space team,' DeGay explained, describing the system scheduled to be fielded by 2010." ...okay...
Imagine a beowulf cluster of that.....
Will they be as good as Rogue Trooper"?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I allready have the boots that guy in black was wearing. No joke! They are Sidi Vertebre 2s. with the sliders still attached and everything.
c tu res.htm
i _v ertebra_2_air_boots/front.jpg
hahahaha
http://www.newenough.com/sidi_vertebra_2_air_pi
http://www.newenough.com/product_pictures/s/sid
During the war with the Talibs, the US mostly outsourced it to the Northern Alliance (too bad their best leader was aleady dead).
"Long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead." (John Maynard Keynes)
...because we blew all our cash on the nifty black stormtrooper outfit.
In July O7, I got a mac pro. There's no punchline. Just endless joy and wonder.
What we need to know is will the uniform guns be mounted fembot style, or "sex machine" from dusk till dawn style?
I'm afraid there is a always a simple solution to a complex problem. If soldiers wear exoskeletons, fight them in mud, spray them with glue, or just hit them harder.
Unfortunately, studies into specific technologies usually make vast assumptions regarding the related technologies. In this case, I wouldn't be surprised if someone took a graph of power/volume or power/weight over the past twenty years, projected out to 2020 and determined that batteries would be small and light enough by then.
Ignorance is the root of all evil.
Especially when you
a) strap a bomb to a 4 year old to greet them
b) fire a RPG at them
c) drive up in your F-350 full of manure and a fuse KABOOM fuckers
d) behead them
etc...
And your belief in the validity of your statement is probably why you're posting AC.
If I was hawking mindless drivel like that, I'd post AC, too.
What good is a double standard if you can't enforce it?
Your suit's Clock may be incorrect. Blink once to install Gator Suit Commander or Blink twice to trust our software.
Imagine yourself in the battlefield and suddenly a red blinking popup in your eye. Is it an enemy alert, battery low maby? No, your one of the 500 lucky people, Blink once to receive....wtf?
Message from god, Please logoff, rebooting the Universe
Since the Abu Graib prison thing the Army has dropped all plans to add an internet connected camera to the suit.
Every couple years, the military announces some new project to modernize the infantry. Millions are spent on R&D and then the project gets shelved because it will cost too much to issue it to every grunt.
I remember back in the early '90s they promised us kevlars with built-in GPS, 12 channel comms, and a heads-up display with topographical overlay and targeting reticle.
It's been twelve years and the only changes to my issue equipment are the new pads in the parachutist helmet and the addition of a Camelback.
My field gear has changed quite a bit, but most of it isn't issue. Blackhawk tactical vest, Blackhawk thigh rig, Magellan GPS, Motorola GMRS handheld two-way radio, etc, etc.
The only time we'll ever see this stuff actually used in the field is when it's cheap enough that individual soldiers can purchase it themselves.
Ummmm, doesn't that 2020 uniform look like that armor of those super soldiers?
Incorperated weapons, extra strength, immune to projectiles, etc, the only thing I didn't read was that it can absorb/dissapate electical based charges.
If firefighters fight fire and crime fighters fight crime, what do Freedom fighters fight?
How about spending this money to get bulletproof vests and armored vehicles to US troops today? What's the point of high-tech armor if you can't afford or can't be bothered to supply troops with the most basic equipment?
Seig Heil!
... a beowulf cluster of these suits. Holy sh*t!
Just curious when this technology is going to spill into sports like football or hockey.
Should make for an interesting game with less injury.
(Although, maybe more injury because the players can be rougher.)
The communication part would have some obvious advantages though.
How are they supposed to blend in with their surroundings in this? Unless your fighting at night it seems kind of useless.
I wonder about this. Consider Iraq where the US has lost some 900 troops but killed thousands and thousands of Iraqi's and foreign insurgents. What if these attackers had no means of inflicting damage to US soldiers? Would our enemies still try to attack us front on if they knew they could not harm us? Would they instead resort to terrorist activities, more planted mines and explosives? I'm all for protecting all soldiers but I wonder if we get too strong if enemies will simply stop trying to attack us directly and resort to more indirect, sinister violence. Who do we expect to be facing off against in the future?
It's "easy" to kill a tank. 10 inches of armour and a 20kg shoulder fired missile can still kill it.
You can power an exoskeleton suit with batteries, fuel cell, gas turbine, whatever but all that energy you are using ends up as heat anyway, wearing it you are going to be lit up like a christmas tree in the infrared. The number of machine gun rounds it can absorb will be near irrelevant because the opposition are going to be raining anti-tank armaments down on you.
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
Right, we've created our own asymmetric threat.
Consider that the cost of the 9/11 operation was about a half a million dollars over five years. In response, we've spent about 150 billion dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan in just two years.
We are outspending the enemy 300,000 to 1. This takes pyrrhic victory to a whole new level!
Is an implant so the soldier's boss can tell the difference between an enemy country, a friend country, and a country that just doesn't five a guck.
For example:
The majority of the terrorists on 9/11 came from Saudi Arabia.
The leader of the terrorists is a rich Saudi
The money came from Saudi Arabia
The terrorists got their visas to the US from Saudi Arabia (DURING BUSH'S WATCH, I might add)
So, invade Iraq!
"Old Europe" gave Bush's government considerable warnings about terrorists planning 9/11
The French arrested terrorists planning on flying planes into the Eiffel Tower
The Germans sent several communiques warning of such an attack.
So, send Condescending Lies to tell us "we had no idea that this would happen".
Please, we don't need cyborg soldiers, we need a president smarter than a commodore 64.
But would you wear that suit and walk in 120F heat? or miles in wet hot jungle? looks great in design lab until they field trail it.
Try this and this. It's natural that you're going to find most of the stuff coming from 1999, as that's when it was introduced into the US's battlefield arsenal, now it's old news (notice how the 2003 news stories report on it like it was first used the day before the story). And for the record: I said residential areas, not that we're using them exclusively or that they make up a majority of the ordinance dropped.
common sense: noun
What those who are ignorant of the subject matter think; usually wrong.
core systems loaded
core temp 37.5 Celcius
core running at 80 cycles per minute
local bus running 120 over 80
H2O supply steady
cluster is operational
Privacy is terrorism.
The husband of one of my teachers at Arizona State was an EE, and was working on the helmet/gun friend or foe ident. stuff. He showed it off to us in an assembly language class...
Basically, you aim this thing at your target. It's an infared laser, encoded into it is a bit of data. When the helmet sensor gets a message, it sends back a pulse saying 'hey don't shoot me!', and the helmet also vibrates so that you know one of your own is aiming at you, and maybe you would like to duck behind a tree etc.
There were a few ex-marines in my class and their opinion seemed to be 'how many guys are going to wait for this thing tell him it's okay to shoot?' basically, shoot the guy and ask questions later.
Anyway, might be useful for delta forces? I'll now proceed to read the article, where it probably stated everything I just said.
As an American, I would say that you are completely right to be nervous. The reason that the guy in the government defended torture is that it is what his consituents believe in. Roughly 32% of Americans support the use of torture in the "War on Terrorism". (http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1114/p1s3-usju.html )
To put that another way, there are 90 million Americans in favor of Abu Ghraib. This isn't counting the US citizens who support torture but were not comfortable admitting it to a pollster over the phone.
One more funny statistic for you: 78% of Americans believe in angels (http://www.pollingreport.com/religion.htm). So at least 10% of Americans both support torture and think that there are angels watching over us. I think the more accurate lyric would be "we'll put a boot up your ass, and think we are the good guys, it's the American way".
Breakfast served all day!
From the article:
Wow! A seventeen inch screen! Next thing you know, some smart-arse grunt will ask to have their helmet upgraded to an Apple 16:9 30-inch screen.
Oh, but maybe they meant a one-point-seven inch screen and their proofreaders suck eggs.
Just give me my Stimpacks and U-238 shells and a hot medic babe never far behind me, and I'm invincible.
All of this new battle gear seems to be shown as a black suit ... sure, I guess that works good sneaking into some terrorist's bedroom in the dark of the desert night, but it seems that the more likely scenario for needing that stuff would be outside, probably with a bit of light around ...
"Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
There are several Funny-modded posts pointing out that the 2020 suit looks like a Darth Vader costume. Hell, even the mil spokesman describes it as "ominous". Nobody seems to see this as a drawback. The damn things look evil.
A lot of planning nowadays assumes that the most likely conflict scenarios involving US forces are so-called "fourth-generation wars", where cultural perceptions and media strategy are as important as hardware. The intifada is still the textbook example. Those kids weren't throwing stones because they didn't have access to guns. They were throwing stones because stones against tanks makes a great video-bite for the media.
So: on the "imperial" side we have legions of anonymous mooks in hulking black armour and face-concealing visors. Backed up by horrifying robotic killing machines. On the "rebel" side we have rag-tag, lightly-armed folk in nice earth-hued organic-looking clothing. Got that? Now put it on a TV screen. Regardless of your political views on a given conflict, there is a huge amount of cultural programming that leads Western viewers to root for the rebels. (Non-Western viewers generally don't need much convincing.)
Another, more worrying aspect: there is a lot of experimental and real-world evidence to show that the willingness of troops, police etc to commit atrocities is strongly correlated with their anonymity. Visors and even sunglasses increase the likelihood; big bold nametags reduce it. Anything that makes eye-contact difficult also makes it harder to win the trust of any locals you have to deal with.
And haven't these people even read the Evil Overlord List? It's item #1 for crying out loud!
What they really need is some better leadership that doesn't send them into wars on a lie.
Did you ever try to listen to Bin Laden's complaints in the first place? Actually, my guess is you weren't even given the opportunity by your government...
Here is his statement from 9-11:
Oh yes, they definitely hate freedom...
Do you think Bin Laden's greivances weren't justified? And, don't even think for a second that your country is a free country. America is about as authoritarian as it gets in the world. It's right up there with Stal
A good hacker becomes god.
Candy-Coated Knowledge
I know exactly what you mean, but what you've written is so far above the /. groupthink as to be in orbit.
How many times in the last year have we heard on the 6:00 news of a school in Iraq being opened? Contrast that to the daily body count/car bomb video.
And your duty is clear: to build and maintain those robots.
---------
Get back to me when my brain starts working.
You know it's a rather recent conclusion that this is a bad thing. And that conclusion is drawn from a faulty premiss. It's part of what fell out of the age of enlightenment. But one of the central tennents is that people are by nature basicaly rational. Which is patently false.
However, when one looks back through history, number two has been quite the benefit to mankind. Would the US be what it was without the pressures and subjegation at the hands of the British Empire, and (to a lesser extent) Europe? Would Russia or China be what they are today without the crushing might of the Mongols, and the West? Japan without their bloody brutal regimes, the Chinese, and that US export of gunboat diplomacy?
Yes, it's all very sad when people have to die. But the choices aren't "the American Tax payer buys the world a Coke and everyone is magically friends", and "a little girl is killed clutching her beloved puppy, Patches." It's usually between forcibly impossed stability or perpetual civil war, until in either case the internal pressures are removed. Both of those options insure people will die. In one of them, it's a lot more. This fact alone puts the presupposed immorality of the first into question.
Yeah. I'd advocate the wholesale slaughter of Arabs and Islamists where ever they are. A bunch of innocent, and even really great people would die because of it. The greater good in this case is that would put them in a sink or swim situation where they'd have the reformation they so desperately need. Their great misfortune is to have it occur in a time of modern weaponry, which really was their choice anyway. If their way of life is truly fundementally incompatibal with our values and way of life, fine, get rid of them now while it's cheaper. If peace can be had, let them sue for it, beg for it, need it, and dream of nothing else.
In the semi-near future, one could maybe see a (few) experimental teams of special forces wearing advanced getups like this, but I suspect the common solider is going to be wearing about the same stuff he has been (more or less) for nearly half a century now.
Maybe someone more in the know could comment, but from snippets I've gathered, current soliders aren't even outfitted with any sort of bullet-proof body armor -- you get a flak jacket, but that has no chance of stopping bullets. I've stumbled upon stories of familes pooling their resources to buy more elaborate body armor... seems rather far fetched to think that if the US doesn't currently outfit soliders with bulletproof armor of whatever type that in the near term any appreciable number are going to be wearing incredible advanced (and even more expensive) super-solider get-up.
We outspent the Russians throughout the Cold War. That turned out well. We outspent the Germans and the Japanese in WWII. That turned out well.
You've spent more money in locks for yor home than a would be burglar might spend in trying to break in.
Going cheap isn't always a good idea.
Yeah, we outspent Russia. We were both working on Star Wars.
We outspent Germany. We were both building bombers.
We are outspending Al Qaeda. We are building a global anti-terror network and occupying entire coutnries, whereas they are buying box cutters.
It's not the outspending that's the problem. It's the ratio. The asymmetry. The sheer leverage they possess. Surely you must see that.
Finally, money doesn't solve everything.
The most impressive thing I've seen in the military is my friend in the (Canadian) reserves who got a sweet hat that's coated with some special chemical to reduce his IR signature and special camo pattern to reduce sattelite visibility and a whole bunch more features. Pretty neat.
It is impossible to fight any type of combat from within an iron box. That's what you would need in order to ensure survivability from modern small arms fire.
A 5.56mm round will go through a tree, a brick wall, a sheet of metal, and yes even some fancy new vest. I've seen all of the above with my own eyes... including the fancy new vest.
Add to that the fact that contrary to popular opinion, that "flak" - meaning all the crap that those lightweight vests will help stop - and not bullets themselves cause a vast majority of battlefield casualties and you can see the reasoning behind the maddness.
As a former soldier, I can tell you that even lightweight body armour is a real pain in the ass to wear on a good day... never mind in +35 degree heat in some stinky city.
Dude, I bet Al Qaeda only spends money it actually has, too. We have the advantage of being able to devalue the currenency of an entire nation to whatever extent we need to raise funds. We so rule...
For example, the most successful assault weapon ever is the AK47. They are definitely not the most accurate or most refined weapons but they take a lot of abuse and keep firing. Rustthem, let the termites eat the woodwork, get them dusty and they keep going. In comparison many other assault rifles misbehave when they get a pinch of dust in their gas chambers.
The same basic principle applies to bionic suites etc. Fancy shit breaks.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
The uniform from the waist down will have a robotic-powered system that is connected directly to the soldier.
;-)
Psssst! Wanna see my gun?
This just really does beg to be joked about. And as for the nano-technology; I see lots of problems. For instance - how does the nanobots know the difference between the person and the clothing? Will they accidentally convert the person's skin from one thing to another? Think about it - one of the reasons crimes get solved is because all things leave traces of themselves on other things - like bodies. So the clothing you are wearing is actually leaving small amounts of itself on you as you wear them. If the nanobots are keyed to convert all of X into Y won't they then, just maybe, convert skin into....what? Or even if they just collect around the point of impact to solidify the cloth-like substance into an Ironman outfit - won't the speed of the bullet mean that by the time the nanobots converted the cloth that the bullet would have already partially penetrated the person's body? I mean, after all, they may be fast, but a bullet is travelling at an extremely high rate of speed. Thus, for every 1/10 or 1/100th of a second they attempt to converge on and stop the bullet - the bullet will have traveled some distance. And that distance is not a millimeter but maybe as much as a centimeter or decimeter. So suddenly the nanobots are attempting to stop the bullet after it has penetrated the skin. Wouldn't that mean that they might just enter the blood stream? If they are keyed to react to heat they might suddenly decide that the blood stream needs to be stopped.
So in reality, the nanobots would have to recognize that something was moving towards the target at a high rate of speed which, when the calculations are done, would show that the item would hit the target. Then the nanobots would all have to be told to go to the potential impact area so they could build up against the impact (or convert the cloth in that area to whatever material is going to be used to resist the impact). This doesn't account for exposed areas such as the head, hands, or other areas exposed by the nanobots rushing to one particular area (and possibly leave something hanging out for everyone else to see).
Last, but not least is the fact that multiple shots being fired from multiple locations at the same target could also confuse the nanobots leaving the person to look like a zebra or maybe a cheetah as the nanobots try to protect the person within the suit.
My money would be on a more classical outfit with a PDA for a brain, greater memory so it can handle the increased needs, some kind of multitasking OS so it can handle all of the requirements, and a networking/cellphone interface so it can handle that as well. Probably less than ten pounds altogether. If they used current laser technologies on transmitting data they'd just need one fiber to do all of the i/o and visuals. PDAs are already used to do sensing in classrooms, to do fingerprinting, and will very soon probably be able to run another display.
As for power - I see fuel cells as the way of the future with PDAs. Today's bulky fuel cells are going to be replaced by slimmer, lighter fuel cells. Thus, the PDA suit could be powered for an entire day if necessary via a fuel cell which conforms to the soldier's body.
Other methods to generate electricity for the suit could include light weight, piston based, energy generators. These generators are situated on the outside of the arms and legs. They are not heavy, bulky metallic rods but are instead smaller light weight polycarbon rods. The rods are hollow and have wires running back up to the helmet/neck region. (Or down to the lower back.) As the rods are pulled
Someone put a black hole in my pocket and now I'm broke.
Yeah, when the price of boxcutters goes from 2 camels to 5 camels, Al Qaeda's whole house of cards will come tumbling down.
Dumbass.
I know that armies always prepare for the last war, but this is getting faintly ridiculous.
Large quantities of heavy metal doesn't always achieve the objective. And the US has a consitent record of losing the lot by calling in an airstrike when a cup of tea would have done a better job. This is just more of the same.
If you have a look at what nations with a successful peacekeeping and low intensity warfare record (eg. Finland, the UK and Australia) do, they make sure that they don't look like robocop. They take their helmets off, so that they are regarded as human beings. They're polite (well, politeish). They don't rely on sensor systems; they talk to people.
All the technology in the world won't overcome cluelessness and myopia.
A bunch of Warhammer 40000 players just thought, "Holy Shit, it's a real live Space Marine!"
A bunch of Xbox owners just thought, "Holy Shit, it's the Master Chief!"
And a bunch of anime geeks scoffed and said "Call me back when you make one that's 50 feet tall."
Most of what you asked for is no where near being available. Implanted chips? Regrowing limbs on the fly? The ability to "eat anything"? Even conceding that it's possible (which I don't for all of them), all of this is decades in our technological future.
Sure, "a bunch of neato armor bits and some computer stuff" is the easy way out. But it's what we can have now (or relatively soon), and at least some of it looks useful. So stop griping; while this is nowhere what we need, it's potentially on the right track.
(I do agree, though, that good food would be a plus.)
"Science is a way of trying not to fool yourself." -Richard Feynman
And stop being a troll, too.
This is * On Star, can I help you?
(1) P = F/A
(2) F = ma
(3) v=u + at
solving
v = 0 m/s
u = 500 m / s (not unreasonable for a supersonic round)
t = 0.01 s (how long do you think it takes to stop the round?
Substituting into (3) and solving for a
a = (v-u) / t = (0-500) / 0.01
a = 50 * 10 E 3 m s E -2
Solving (2) for F, given m = 0.02 kg
F = 1000 N.
Given a bullet point approx 1 mm squared( 1 E -6)
Solving (1) for P gives a pressure of 1 E 9 Pa (1 GPa).
With an armoured body, we assume a protected area of 0.25 square metres protected. Spreading the 1000 N force across this area reduces the pressure to 4000 Pa transmitted to the torso, a solid hit, but hopefully no penetration, and we assume the armour plate is capable of absorbing 1 GPa without failure.
InfoSec that matters, when it counts.
What I have a problem with, is that soldiers have this strange tendency to put total reliance in the gear they're issued. Granted, they get brand new gear all the time, but it comes from the same lowest bidder that the rest of us use.
Yes, this creature would be an incredible conveniece (if one can say there's such a thing) on the battlefield, but it also has a lot of varialbes, a lot things that can faile that a soldier in the heat of battle would be screwed without, and for some reason (granted, I don't know anything about the design of this thing,but) is seems like it has parts that would be pretty easy to break without babying, and that's simply not an option when you're trying your hardes not to end up with a 30 calibre chunk of lead in your ass. Good idea, I would say, but I don't know if I, personally, would like to trust my life with this thing.
-- Napalm sticks to kids.
Is it just me or does the army's latest high-tech look like japanese anime from 1980's ala Macros Saga?
I'd put my money on the military ditching this plan in a few years (budget cuts anyone?) Plus, you can't really mess with the efficiency of a soldier standing in a street with a rifle. A computer on his back isn't going to help him dodge bullets.
FAA Certified Flight Instructor
1400mph?
Muzzle velocity on a NATO 5.56mm is about 3km/sec.
Still though - physics tells us that the momentum on the bullet is equal to the kick of gun, which isn't much on modern assualt rifles.
That's what special forces do (unconventional warfare). That's what happened in Afghanistan in 2001.
Yes, in the future the army will place electrodes running linux on your genitals.
And they'll be bluetooth ready!
the Pentagon brass (Rumsfeld?) has watched the
"Universal Soldier" movie a few too many times.
WE ARE THE BORG
Your existence as you have known it is now over
We will add your Biological and Technological
Distinctiveness to our own
Heat is irrevelant
Cold is irrevelant
Bullets are irrevelant
Grenades are irrevelant
Sunstroke is irrevelant
RESISTENCE IS FUTILE
PREPARE TO BE ASSIMULATED!!!!
if (!sig) { printf("Signature Unavailable\n"); }
wow, i read that cranial stuff like, last year, in popular science [popsci.com] and that was big news back then. Get with the program!!! Also, none of this is going to work out very well because either they are going to have to lug around huge-ass battery packs (like on the radios) or all the gadgets are gonna suck up the battery life in a short time. I think that is the biggest problem right now in all tech. Creating a new type of "battery" or whatev would be great, but i doubt it will/would happen with fuel cells. Time to put that brain into workin!
Oh yeah, and there isn't a proven link between DU shells and cancer (I've heard it from some extemely biase sources, but not from any more objective groups). I won't dispute the Iraq suffered, no matter how "goood" the US was, anytime you have a war you are going to have casualites, inflicting pain on both the civilians and the military personel. It's meerly a question of whether the war is worth the cost. Frankly, I care more about how the average Iraqi feels than what the bean counters at the UN think.
----- Question authority, but not ours. Hate the man, but we're not him.
Lucas's costumes are all ripoffs of stuff he saw in old movies. I think I've even heard him say as much, although he probably used words like "mining the mythic tradition" rather than "ripoff". In any case, the ultimate source of this stuff is functionally armor some poor schmo actually wore into battle -- so it's hardly suprising that it's been re-invented by real-world armor designers.
No shit! And here we were, thinking it was one of the long-lost keyboard function keys...
Video gun site around a corner? thats so slashdot...
Just stick a mirror or two on the gun...
how about duct tape a stick with a mirror onto the side of the gun? That will work around corners, and once you get used to it, as you would have to with the video version, it would work far cheaper.
Democracy Now! - uncensored, anti-establishment news
dunno about combat, but the computer system and exoskeleton will definitely be useful on rescue missions. More useful than in combat, i think
I think you are comparing apples with oranges. If you look at the army or the complete military during Clinton's reign, you'll see degradation and despair. Things literally started to fall apart. I have stories from friends in the army (in particular) about how they couldn't even get body armor.
Now things are vastly different. Donald Rumsfield has totally changed the way things are done. He has closed several bases, if not by decree of congress, by moving troops out of there and consolidating working equipment. He has secured unprecedented spending and allocation of resources. He has even done something unthinkable - he has vetoed projects that just weren't in line with the new army, like the 100-ton artillery system.
The military is really like a corporation. The people up top can do a lot to shake things around, and to make things work. In this case, we have a capable cabinet that can really get things going.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
g, mph, lbs...
Please chose one system. And chose SI. No more mph, lbs. Thats a bit ridiculous.
Bye.
Actually the big question I have about this suit is cooling. You've got a guy covered head to toe in bullet-proof (not just resistant) armour plus tons of electronics.
Isn't the big problem going to be keeping the soldier inside cool? A problem of equal magnitude is dumping the heat in such a way that the soldier isn't a walking IR target...
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
This is uncomfortable and humiliating. Now, if only they could put it in suppository form...
You can't handle the truth.
these new battle suits proposed by darpa are uncannilly alot like the bads guy "anubis's" super jaffa used last season. the big difference being that the suit proposed by darpa would actually boost the wearers stngth, ala steve austin the 6million $$ man, and have alot of the weapons buiklt into a back pack configuration and have a wrist mounted weapons as well. Sound goofy huh! it is,,,, until they get it to work!
this new kind of suit looks like a traffic cop in South Central L.A. there's a difference; this guy's gun looks smaller. and the cops in south central run in 'packs'.
maybe the guns for war don't need to be a big as the guns cops use for parking violations.
These suits are nothing more than Natick's desperate attempts to retain funding and viability before the next BRAC round. We should save taxpayer money and shut this place down. I have worked in a defense contractor and these "spaceman suits" were a constant source of amusment to engineers and grunts who know better.
In that case, you better post the whole memo.
Far simpler to refer to the Washington Post analysis I posted.
The short version is: *Any* action done with the goal of defense of USA *cannot* be considered torture.
The slighly longer version is: Torture now means acts performed with the specific intent and knowledge that they will cause life-long irreparable harm to the victim, and that the victim actually suffers said harm. Acts which might otherwise be considered torture, but are done with the purpose of extracting information vital to the national defense, are exempted.
But Terry Jones, of Monty Python fame, has already cracked this egg.
"My factories may make an end of war sooner than your congresses. The day when two army corps can annihilate each other in one second, all civilized nations, it is to be hoped, will recoil from war and discharge their troops." -Alfred Nobel
Now how come we haven't looked at what happened when this guy invented dynamite and think for a second?