This is an exciting technological development; I wonder at which point Bin Laden will declare a hudna.
From Hot Air on a tip from Brendan.

Listen to this podcast
……

By the way, are you a Navy Ordy? I was an A.F. Ammo dude.

Am I the only soldier on these boards who thinks we already have too much motion-limiting and heavy armor? This we don’t need. We need lighter armor that gives you a greater range of motion… It is just too much. We need to be more mobile and weigh less.

thomashton on November 26, 2007 at 11:29 AM

It’s a version one prototype, soldier. You’ll want one when the lab rats make a version that is light and cheap enough for you and everyone in your sqaud.

You’ll have the mobility and range of motion that you have wearing the clothes you have on every morning during PT.
You’ll walk for miles in the mountains without aching legs or feet.
You’ll carry 200lbs without hurting your back.
You’ll be impervious to an armor-piercing 7.62 round fired at close range.
You’ll see through solid rock walls and in the dark.

It’s coming. Oh, it’s coming…

I can see this being of use in the rear with a couple soldiers in a logistics area that wear them to pull crates, load things etc. and do the work of several soldiers with only one guy.

All in all though, any downsides the armor has will be solved through technology. Lets hope it getws the funding. Maybe they should build it in Murtha’s district, he could slide some pork into the r&d.

I think that we can eliminate crawling if we armor it up enough to be able to shrug small arms. Mobility is more important to our guys anyways. You see very little crawling and lots of leapfroging in the videos coming back from Iraq.

If massive portable power is not a problem, these things could come with rail guns and lasers instead of conventional weapons. And there are a lot of other possibilities.

Anyhoo, currently they seem more reminiscent of the Mega-Armored Nobz from Warhammer 40,000, and as much of a technophile I am, the old ‘mouse trap versus the mouse’ analogy does ring a bell.. I suspect currently the soldiers would just like to have the stuff they currently are provided with work properly..

While powered armor is Starship Troopers’ most famous legacy, its influence extends deep into contemporary warfare. Almost half a century after its publication, Starship Troopers is on the reading lists of the United States Army,[30] the United States Marine Corps,[31][32][33] and the United States Navy.[34] It is the only science fiction novel on the reading list at four of the five United States military academies.

Someday we’ll have guys running around like Spartan units in Halo. Sweet.

Bad Candy on November 26, 2007 at 12:04 AM

Someone wanted a Master Chief?

Take your DVD of “Starship Troopers” and burn it.

Go out and buy and read the book.

But in every soldier’s heart in all the Infantry
Shines the name, shines the name of Rodger Young.

Cherry 2000

You’re the one who keeps checking out the only surviving copy!

So, here I am with another game reference. Yes, I have no life beyond my slide into despair: There is a game, just released on multiple platforms called Crysis has a squad of US special forces soldiers equipped with Nano suits (with red goggles) taking on the..North Koreans, after they take over an island where a strange archaeological dig is being conducted.
Your suits powers include speed burst, rechargeable armor, cloak, and strength augmentation (basically you can power jump over people with it, or pick up Nork snipers and throw them off rooftops; it’s very entertaining.) It’s from the same outfit that did Far Cry. Hours of entertainment and very relevant to this article. Ah, those nanites..what would we do without them.

I would like to see a few hundred given to Israel for Chanukah and see what they come up with for everyday usage.