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what is the american tax payers' money being spent on?


Guest pop-notmyface

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Guest pop-notmyface

Nanotechnology Battle Suits' apparently.

(source: U.S. Army website)

" ORLANDO, Fla. (Army News Service, Dec. 7, 2004) – Dressed in black from head to toe and wearing a helmet that allows barely a glimpse of his face, Staff Sgt. Raul Lopez looked like something out of a science fiction thriller.

Lopez, an infantry Soldier stationed at the Natick Soldier Center in Massachusetts, spent four days in what could be the Army uniform of the future at the 24th Army Science Conference, explaining the technology behind it.

The black fabric of the form-fitting suit would be made 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. Soldiers wearing the suit would have the ability to blend into any environment, like a chameleon.

The helmet is the main hub of the uniform, where “all of the action happens,” 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.”

Virtual reality technology would also play a part in helping the Soldier navigate an environment by projecting maps on the ground surrounding him or her.

Sensors detect threat, provide treatment

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.

Wearing the futuristic suit doesn’t make Lopez feel like a science fiction superhero, or invincible.

“It’s just conceptual right now,” he said, smiling.

Liquid armor protection

The uniform might be made out of fabric treated with another technology featured in the conference’s exhibit hall, shear thickening fluid. Unofficially referred to by some 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.

In a small glass vial, the light blue liquid is easily stirred with a small plastic stick – as long as the stick is moving in slow, easy motion. 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. "

techfutureuniform.jpg

maybe not my concern, but still.

cheers Mr. Bush :up:

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Nano technology is cool as fuck' date=' haven't you played Metal Gear Solid?[/quote']

I hate sneaking games where you have to sneak around and be sneaky. I like button mashing and blowing shit up in an obnoxious manner.

And yeah - those suits look like they totally rule! I need to get one of those bad boys delivered.

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....and sell them to anyone who is planning to go to war with the US' date=' Fantastic[/quote']

err....isn't it the US that "go to war" on anyone?

I don't think I've seen a "country" go to war with the US since the Japs in the second world war (the US stepped into Cambodia and Vietnam, no ?)

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err....isn't it the US that "go to war" on anyone?

I don't think I've seen a "country" go to war with the US since the Japs in the second world war (the US stepped into Cambodia and Vietnam' date=' no ?)[/quote']

Ok then, it means that arms companies can develop new whepons that work against this sort of technology and sell them to countries that are afraid of the US going to war with them.

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I don't think its going to matter if you blend into the scenery when a pipe bomb goes off next to you.

Also i think the chances of a unit being ambushed by fanatics with ice picks is pretty low.

But still it looks cooler than khaki

I dare say that if an ice pick can't get through it, neither can bullets.

Does look ace. Very Half Life esque with the ability of the suit to inject you with stuff. The skeletal design thingy that allows you to carry 3 times your own body weight and not notice is very cool as well. Wonder what it would take to blast through it if it really is as tough as they say it is ... Plasma Rifle anyone?

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Guest Tam o' Shantie
I dare say that if an ice pick can't get through it' date=' neither can bullets.[/quote']

I dare say that the maximum force applied by a soldier with an ice pick is less than that of the impact of a bullet. Furthermore, a knife or ice pick splits the fibres of a standard woven body armour, meaning it can penetrate it more easily.

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Guest pop-notmyface
I don't think its going to matter if you blend into the scenery when a pipe bomb goes off next to you.

true. but your death by some stupid low-tech weapon such as a pipe-bomb will be less embarassing if no-one sees you die ;)

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