Second Generation Super Soldier Exoskeleton Armor Unveiled

^^ It'll only be alarming when they start developing AI.

I wonder when they'll start issuing things like that to us on deployments..

Now if we could get contained climate control inside of them, then FUCK YEAH!

Afghanistan is hot, sure, but not in a climate controlled suit!

Well, since they already have the skeleton figured out, would it be terribly difficult to simply sheath the thing in some form of ballistic armor and add some climate control on it?

Hey look, powered armor. Give the guy a big freaking machinegun to go with it, and bam, who needs tanks anymore?

An exoskeleton couldn't take even close to the same punishment, but it'd be more effective than dragging all those heavy plates around everywhere.

Well, a soldier wearing an armored exoskeleton woudl be able to fit in places a tank couldn't. Plus, the whole mobility thing. Dismount from your APC (which would disconnect power feeds so as to keep the suit fully charged) and start patrolling on foot for awhile. Plus, the suit woudl enable the soldier to carry WAY more crap than they can currently carry, while also reducing fatigue.

All I'd want is to case it in some ballistic armor. Of course I'm an old-school Rifts fanboy from the nineties, so I just loved the powerered armor concept.

Yay, space marines!

Or well, Earth marines in powered armor. Same thing.

...can I have one?

The idea of plugging in while in transit in an APC is a pretty good idea Num..

I'd use the suits for dismounts, make the suits strong enough to resist small arms fire and then response teams can use them since they wouldn't be dismounted long enough for the batteries to die most of the time.

The only problem of relying on a "mothership" APC or other suitable vehicle, would be the obvious status of "bomb magnet" that vehicle would acquire.

Probably roll into a staging point some distance away from the actual objective and the squad would dismount and conduct their mission. The vehicle would serve as a mobile command post, sort of like how the APC in Aliens did. Mission is over, head back to the APC, hook up and away you go.

They wouldn't fully replace a tank or other armored vehicle, but would provide a nice intimidation factor against Threat Forces and increase soldier mobility without having to rely on traditional vehicles - well aside from wanting a battle taxi to ferry them around in to reduce wear and tear on the suits...

And hey, now we can have .50-cals or 7.62mm miniguns converted into rifle-like weapons that can be carried by our exo-augmented troops.

I'd like to see what sorts of "small" arms we could field if we were able ditch issues about weight.

(heh, more of something to discuss in the Military Thread, but it's all good.)

edited 29th Sep '10 6:38:22 PM by pvtnum11

Especially if we can eliminate the need to aim by calibrating weapons with heads up displays linked into the armor. This would effectively allow you to fire from positions of cover accurately that are not normally possible.

^ From what I understand, the technology already exists.

^ Corner Shot.

As power plant technology gets small enough to reliably power the exo, then relying on battery packs and tapping into support vehicles will be made obsolete.

All you would need to do is gas it up every so often. Maybe a small diesel-powered generator? There's a reason why we use diesel-powered stuff from everything from generators to trucks. Less of a fire hazard if fuel spills and it's harder to ignite.

But slapping a diesel engine to a manned powered exoskeleton ditches the element of stealth completely.

Better hope the armor is bulletproof....

I hope they start sports teams with them. And then name the team with scifi shoutouts instead of generic names. I look forward to the day Space Marines and Xenomorphs face each other on the field.

^^^^ It was some sort of electronic sight on a FAMAS that had a wireless camera feed. Not quite the same as Israel's Corner Shot.

Here's the video:

edited 29th Sep '10 8:50:12 PM by rmctagg09

^ From what I understand, the technology already exists.

In a way it does, but not in a way to where you could charge the enemy, firing accurately without taking time to look down sights.

Reminds me of this boondoggle (intended primarily to reduce friendly fire by identifying and locating other users of the system, but also theoretically allowing firing around corners.) My father worked on it, and he said it failed because he kept being asked to put a certain amount of stuff in, and he kept being asked to keep it under a certain weight so it could be helmet-mounted, and it simply wasn't possible to do both at once. If that was mounted on the helmet of an exoskeleton, weight would be a lot less of a problem.

All you would need to do is gas it up every so often. Maybe a small diesel-powered generator? There's a reason why we use diesel-powered stuff from everything from generators to trucks. Less of a fire hazard if fuel spills and it's harder to ignite.

Orbital power relays - soak up the sun with solar power well outside of the atmosphere, then beam it down wireless to the powered armor below.

This, of course, would make control of space a military priority.

Wireless power has certain... problems. Like who gets cooked for happening to be in the way of the beam. Also, atmospheric absorption and diffraction/dispersion create efficiency problems.

Possibly look into more compact fuel cells. Same fuel type, different engine type. The diesel cycle is preferred for robustness more than anything else.

Yeah, a generator was just a thought - although it wouldn't be a problem for a civilian utility exo. Fuel cells would be a good pick due to noise concerns.

We could always just use the sakuradite deposits under Mount Fuji for power...

The problem with adding more weight and increasing the demands ont he suits performance would increase the drain of power. There would need to be a seriously reliable, portable, and powerful battery or generator device before actual power armor rather then an exoskeleton could be fielded effectively as a weapons platform.

It would be pretty bad ass for logistics and civilian uses. See that 450 cannon breech. You need a crane to lift it into the work space...not anymore.

Also, keep in mind, you not only need energy/mass density you need energy/volumetric density as well.