In a bid to make its armed forces look even more intimidating, Russia has taken inspiration from science-fiction to create some futuristic-looking new combat suits. Developed by the state-owned Central Research Institute for Precision Machine Building, this very Star Wars-esque combat armor features a powered exoskeleton, ballistic protection from bullets and shrapnel and a heads-up display. While just a concept at the moment, the suit's designers hope it will enter full production in the next few years.
While they haven't detailed what the heads-up display would be used for, the combat armor's powered exoskeleton helps the wearer carry heavy loads, bearing some of the brunt to lower the soldiers' fatigue
Source: Engadget
Story has a video on YouTube.
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Submitted via IRC for AndyTheAbsurd
MacDill Matters: Iron Man suit out at SOCom, but new innovations still needed for commandos
A competition with an entry deadline of Feb. 15 seeks innovations in 12 areas, including artificial intelligence for psychological operations, improved human performance and undetectable video manipulation.
[...] Last week, James Smith, SOCom's acquisition executive, announced that the final product, known as the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, or TALOS, would not match the initial sales pitch, according Patrick Tucker writing in Defense One.
"It's not the Iron Man. I'll be the first person to tell you that," Smith told the crowd at a key D.C. special operations forum. The exoskeleton, Smith told the audience, is "not ready for prime time in a close-combat environment."
Instead, Tucker writes, the technologies developed, including lightweight body armor and situational awareness in helmet displays, will be chunked off and used elsewhere, if wanted.
(Full disclosure: I work for tampabay.com - and normally would not submit articles from the site, however, in this case I think the technologies and decisions about how to use them discussed in the articles would be of interest to the community.)
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Turning Workers Into 'Super Workers' With Robotic Suits
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @02:44AM (3 children)
http://cyberneticzoo.com/man-amplifiers/1961-2-cornell-aeronautical-labs-man-amplifier-neil-mizen-american/ [cyberneticzoo.com]
Cornell Aeronautical Laboratory (formerly the WWII Curtiss-Wright research lab in Buffalo, NY) designed and built an exoskeleton, but were unable to get the funding to add power to the joints.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday July 07 2017, @02:55AM (2 children)
I'm kind of surprised that some variation of the exoskeleton hasn't been adopted widely yet. It seems like a good way to increase productivity at a potentially lower cost than fully automating an industrial job. Exoskeleton + human vs. general purpose/reprogrammable [wikipedia.org] robot?
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @03:06AM (1 child)
Mostly the stuff industrial robots do is really boring and repetitive, not great work for humans.
On the other hand, a powered exoskeleton on a person might replace some big general purpose machines, for example loading heavy parts onto pallets. Once on a pallet, we already have fork lifts... Or how about moving heavy pipes into and out of holes, and positioning them when repairing big water mains.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @06:11AM
For that last job you could have two man amplifiers, or a man amplifier and a woman amplifier, or a group. 👷♂️👷♀️👷♂️
(Score: 3, Funny) by requerdanos on Friday July 07 2017, @03:14AM (6 children)
Powered-exoskeleton combat armor is perhaps more associated with Edge of Tomorrow (Live, Die, Repeat) [imdb.com]. The exoskeletons on the stormtroopers of Star Wars, for example, were nonpowered and mainly had the function of adversely affecting blaster aim.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Lagg on Friday July 07 2017, @04:33AM
RT was saying it specifically intending for it to be repeated in english. They're into that sort of thing [wikipedia.org]. They don't actually care what it looks like so long as it's sufficiently fear-inspiring. Even if not fully functional (TALOS is the only thing moving in the article video). Stormtroopers are a pop culture icon in America and The Rebels (TM) spend a lot of time running from them in fear because they're a massive monolithic empire.
Being a pop culture icon, the engadgidiot in the article video happily repeated it in English. In video and article. Because they know that particular pop culture keyword is liek so hot right now. They get more hits, cool rusky star wars suit gets circulated.
Edge of Tomorrow, well, I haven't even seen that :p
I bet Putin got a raging hardon when she said "designed for toughness ... this galactic empire moment".
Check this out, here's the source: https://www.rt.com/news/394745-russian-future-combat-suit-exoskeleton/ [rt.com]
Google "Russia star wars suit"
Observe masterful propagation of a rubber motorcycle helmet with tire treads on the shoulder. Still though RT showed restraint. They didn't mention NATO.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 2) by captain normal on Friday July 07 2017, @05:33AM
Well we all know how things worked out for the Empire in Star Wars.
The Musk/Trump interview appears to have been hacked, but not a DDOS hack...more like A Distributed Denial of Reality.
(Score: 4, Funny) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday July 07 2017, @08:19AM (1 child)
And don't forget; completely failing to protect the wearer from rocks and sticks wielded by stone-age teddy bears.
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Friday July 07 2017, @10:23AM
These Ewocs aren't stone-age:
http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/1366.html [darthsanddroids.net]
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Touché) by realDonaldTrump on Friday July 07 2017, @05:38PM
I haven't seen Edge of Tomorrow, I've heard it's very good. But I saw Aliens and at the end of it -- don't worry, I'm not going to give away too much -- at the end of it she wears an exoskeleton suit. But it doesn't cover everything. You can see her face. And you can see her bosoms. She's got clothes on (too bad) but you can see the bosom area very clearly. The suit doesn't cover that. These Russian suits are much slicker but they cover everything. So you can't tell if it's a girl or a boy. Unless there's an opening? I looked at the pics but I didn't look at the vids. Very busy! You can't tell -- and maybe they don't want you to. The Russians can be like that. I've been to Russia and it's wild. Believe me. I've got a hotel in Vegas, I had casinos in Atlantic City -- Russia is much wilder. 🇺🇸
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday July 07 2017, @07:08PM
> mainly had the function of adversely affecting blaster aim
Only when targeting rebels. They were deemed extremely precise when shooting Jawas.
(Score: 2) by Arik on Friday July 07 2017, @03:22AM (2 children)
If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @02:54PM (1 child)
Is emacsscript the thing that messed up your font?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @06:47PM
>> ecmascript
> emacsscript
I see what you did there, have you got something against emacs and/or RMS?
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @04:37AM (5 children)
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @05:22AM (3 children)
Pfft, someone didn't read their 40K.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @05:39AM (2 children)
Maybe because it's an original epic work of fiction and not a crappy ripoff of 40K.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @06:16AM (1 child)
"To advanced" for me.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @09:16AM
It's a webcomic. The guy's spelling and grammar are occasionally bad, and nobody edits for him. Yet he's kept the story going for 19 years and still manages to keep it interesting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @09:14PM
That doesn't make sense. If hitting someone was effective, then you can make a machine which hits the person a little harder, and now you're back to using guns. We don't have deployable tech now, but light and energy streams can be manipulated with lenses and meta materials. I expect as laser weapons improve laser defenses will improve right along with them. Lasers can vaporize physical threats, so we'll end up with large amounts of energy based weapons and a few guns which shoot tons of highly dense bullets. If meta-material structures can survive being shot out of a gun then bullets will be able to have built-in 'cloaking' from energy attacks. Chemical and bio weapons are still effective and lasers aren't a direct defense against them, but they may be effective against remote deployment.
(Score: 2) by Hartree on Friday July 07 2017, @06:29AM
Well, they look sorta like Imperial Stormtroopers. The Russians better hope their marksmanship is better.
(Score: 2) by pkrasimirov on Friday July 07 2017, @07:17AM
> Looks like Russians are getting into the cosplay business.
(Score: 1, Troll) by lx on Friday July 07 2017, @08:00AM (2 children)
We used to have to wait for October and the military parade in front of the Kremlin to see the new stuff, and now thanks to RTs Youtube channel Ruptly, we can get our war propaganda feed all year round.
Go go Putin Rangers!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @10:25AM (1 child)
Better than watching CNN stories about British warships that fail in warm water, F-35's that asphyxiate their pilots, and new US aircraft carriers that can't do anything.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday July 07 2017, @09:59PM
What's up with the aircraft carriers?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @08:41AM (2 children)
No one was wearing these things in the video; only mannequins. Who knows how heavy they are or how easy they are to move around in? If they slow you down too much in a war zone you're toast even while wearing one of these suits.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @10:29AM
Infantry is the problem. Artillery is the solution.
(Score: 3, Funny) by MostCynical on Friday July 07 2017, @10:30AM
Putin/Russia has them. Trump/US will have to get some.
Next fight: slow, lumbering US forces wearing exo-skeletons (built by the same dudes who still haven't managed to build the F-35 to spec) get shot to pieces by Russia-backed sand-dwelling goat-herders with little more than muskets.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 07 2017, @03:13PM
Here's a video of it in action.
https://youtu.be/9u2CRH5zymU?t=3m17s [youtu.be]
(Score: 2) by wonkey_monkey on Friday July 07 2017, @06:18PM
So they keep bumping their heads and can't shoot for shit?
systemd is Roko's Basilisk