Posted on 11/06/2007 8:42:57 AM PST by BGHater
What will soldiers be wearing on the battlefield by the year 2025? According to the 24th Army Science Conference, future warriors will be equipped with high-tech uniforms of "liquid body armor" now under development using nanotechnologies. The battledress would also be equipped with 360-degree situational awareness technology, plus virtual reality screens that enable troops to navigate an environment by projecting maps on the ground—sort of like R2-D2 on Star Wars.
The new form-fitting suit is being developed through the wonder of nanotechnology, which involves manipulating atoms and molecules to create things at the nanometer scale. That's about 50,000 times smaller than the diameter of a strand of hair. The suit would also have the ability to match background colors. Soldiers wearing the suit would have the ability to blend into any environment, like a chameleon.
In this prototype uniform, the helmet is the main hub where "all of the action happens," Staff Sgt. Raul Lopez said. A tiny video camera in front provides 360-degree situational awareness. A series of sensors inside give the Soldier three-dimensional audiological hearing and the ability to amplify specific sounds, while lowering the volume of others.
Complete voice translation is also provided, for what the Soldier hears and what he or she says. Night vision sensors, minimized to the size of pencil erasers, are also in the helmet. Maps and other situational awareness information are projected on the inside of the visor, while everything the Soldier sees and hears is sent in real time up to higher headquarters.
"It's all voice activated," Lopez said. "I can tell it to show me where my buddies are, and it projects it on the visor."
Thermal sensors weaved into the fabric of the uniform control its temperature, based on the Soldier's environment. An on-board respirator, tethered to the Soldier's back, provides a continuous supply of fresh air – eliminating the need for a protective mask. Should the Soldier have the visor up, or the helmet off, and breath in some kind of harmful agent, the uniform sensor will immediately detect it, release tiny embedded capsules to counter it and inject treatment into the Soldier's body.
From the waist down, a skeletal system allows the Soldier to carry two or three times his or her body weight, feeling only the weight of their own body through the technology of an XO muscle, which augments a Soldier's strength.
The uniform fabric will likely be treated with another technology featured in the conference; shear thickening fluid. Unofficially referred to as liquid body armor, STF is made of equal parts polyethylene glycol – an inert, non-toxic thickening agent used in a variety of common products, like some ice creams – and miniscule glass particles, said Eric Wetzel, who heads the STF project team in the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. Think of it as super cornstarch. If you add some water to cornstarch and stir it very slowly it remains a liquid, but if you try to speed things up, it temporarily hardness. The nano liquid operations similarly, when sudden, rapid or forceful motion is applied, the liquid instantly hardens, preventing any movement.
"When the movement is slow, the glass particles can flow around each other," Wetzel explained. "But when the movement is fast, the particles bump into each other, preventing any flow of movement."
STF has been applied to regular Kevlar material, Wetzel said. The fabric's texture doesn't change; it looks and feels the same as if it hadn't been treated. Using a test swatch of four layers of untreated Kevlar – the normal thickness of body armor – Wetzel is able to stab an ice pick through the fabric. But when stabbing a treated section of fabric with all the force he can muster, the ice pick dents the fabric but can't penetrate through.
Research is being done into whether STF can be of use to the Army, Wetzel said. If it is, Soldiers may start getting gear treated with it in about two years, he added. But some of the other features are still a ways off noted Lopez. The more advanced features of the uniform may not be ready for battle until around the year 2025. But when the time comes, this new conceptual uniform could virtually turn an ordinary person into an invincible sci-fi superhero.
It's all very interesting technology, but hopefully by 2025 we won't be needing it for war. However, some of the technologies could also be applicable towards developing better spacesuits, which allow astronauts to navigate extraterrestrial environments more safely and comfortably.
Hmmm. Liquid Body Armour to keep you from getting ‘splashed’ - what a concept...
The eventual goal.
Cool!
Not to be confused with Liquor Body Armor which actually seems to result in greater injuries.
Read the book “Starship Tropers”. Robert Heinlen predicted much of this years ago. (Don’t watch the movie, it’s a piece of crap!)
This is so funny. I was just about to type, “Iron-Man, enter and sign in, please.”
RAH is great, although I haven’t read Starship Troopers, yet. Keyword yet.
I was JUST thinking that.
Iron Man was my FAVORITE super hero when I was a kid. He was the original geek/warrior. An engineer with a bad heart builds a suit which treats his heart condition and gives him superstrength, jet boots, boot skates, pulse weapons in his gloves, etc.
To think that soon, most of the features designed into Iron Man’s suit will be sort of outmoded.
Here’s to Tony Stark, man of the future.
Someday I hope a sight something like this is the last thing "insurgents" see with little chance to take the lives of any of our soldiers with them
E. E. Smith had some of this personal armour in the Lensman books even before Heinlein.
Heinlein also foresaw the “Heads-Up” display, now commonly found in aircraft.
Pivotal for me as well. I am very attracted to the concept in this book that citizenship has to be earned by voluntarily placing yourself at some risk, rather than being bestowed simply by birthright.
A company called d3o makes something like this that pro skiers use - flexible padding that hardens when impacted then goes back to being fleible - it’s pretty cool
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Grq2NzI9nNI
“cool”
It better come with an air conditioner considering where we’ll be fighting and the increase in global temperatures.
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