The $7M Legwear to Turn US Troops Into 'Super Soldiers'

[Tom]

I want pair!   

http://www.newser.com/story/267956/pentagon-spends-millions-on-new-tech-for-super-soldiers.html?utm_source=dailyrundown&utm_medium=email&utm_content=17636792122005511823&utm_campaign=20181130

[Sheepdog]

It’s all fun and games until someone unleashes electro-magnetic-pulse on the battlefield. Hope those troopers keep their backups in good shape...

[Joliet Jim]

It's all science fiction....until it isn't

[guzzinka]

Spend some cash cutting that 140 pounds of weight down instead, so you don't need a cyborg to carry it?

[johnk]

Spend some cash cutting that 140 pounds of weight down instead, so you don't need a cyborg to carry it?

But where's the lucrative government contract in that?

[oldbike54]

 Strange thread <sigh>

 Dusty

[Testarossa]

Over the decades I've seen half a dozen spring-loaded exo-legs meant to help older skiers stay in the sport. Only difference is they store and return energy -- bend the knee and ankle and the rig helps you straighten out again.

https://www.skimojo.com/

Agree: More efficient to cut that 140 lb load to something manageable. Or put the stuff on an electric cart. I imagine most of the weight is ammo and batteries.

[blackcat]

All I can say is, this is yet again another jobs program for a military contractor financed by the US government.  As others have said, figure out how to lose the weight and save the public millions of dollars.

[Sasquatch Jim]

 Just think of how a sergeant could kick ass when wearing a set of those!

[twowheeladdict]

My best friend is a (civilian employee) quality engineer working for the DoD in procurement, mostly soft goods like uniforms, packs, boots, multi-tools, bodyarmor, and the like...  He makes about $135k a year, has been flown all over the country for this project, generally in a huge team... and he's one of the low men on the totem pole. Just the bill for him and his team (from a single office on a single base in Arlington) working on this project must have run into several million  (or tens) by now... and they aren't even MAKING it, just testing it.. and it may never get made.  The amount of waste, fraud, inefficiency, and grift in the military industrial complex is astounding.

So, you propose that the government just take the word of the contractor that the product works?  "Trust me, this car was only driven to church on Sundays by a sweet little old lady."  Mmm.

[twowheeladdict]

I'm merely pointing out that "pentagon pumps $7million into robot legs" only indicates what they are paying the company to develop them... that figure would grow to many times over if you consider the full cost, including testing, oversight, and site visits... and then once they are 'approved' we will have the treat of buying them for probably $650,000 per set

The article says they are pumping money into the program.  It doesn't say the $7 mil is all going to the contractor.  It could be the budget for the program.
Unless you have information we don't have. 

[Bisbonian]

I think I've seen these before when they were called techno trousers.

https://wallaceandgromit.com/films/the-wrong-trousers

[Lannis]

I wonder if anyone ever asked an actual infantryman whether he'd like to be strapped into these things before heading out on the battlefield in an actual war ... ?

Lannis

[guzzinka]

I think I've seen these before when they were called techno trousers.

https://wallaceandgromit.com/films/the-wrong-trousers

Nice!  I don't know why I didn't think of that immediately. Me knotty pine!

[Rick in WNY]

Skip the exo-skeleton. Go full Starship Troopers. Not the movies, mind you, rather Heinlein's book.

"C'mon you apes, you wanna live forever?" 

Our suits give us better eyes, better ears, stronger backs (to carry heavier weapons and more ammo), better legs, more intelligence (in the military meaning...), more firepower, greater endurance, less vulnerability. A suit isn't a space suit - although it can serve as one. it is not primarily armor - although the Knights of the Round Table were not armored as well as we are. It isn't a tank - but a single M.I. [Mobile Infantry] private could take on a squadron of those things and knock them off unassisted...

...Suited up, you look like a big steel gorilla, armed with gorilla-sized weapons.

The real genius in the design is that you don't have to control the suit; you just wear it, like your clothes, like skin.

The secret lies in negative feedback and amplification.

Here's how it works, minus the diagrams. The inside of the suit is a mass of pressure receptors, hundreds of them. You push with the heel of your hand; the suit feels it, amplifies it, pushes with you to take the pressure off the receptors that gave the order to push. So you end up pushing something, just like if you did it in your skin, but with much, much greater force.

[Bulldog9]

Yeah... This is ridiculous and widely laughed at.

DARPA has been messing around with these things for the last 10 years. I spent my first 10 years in the Army in light infantry units jumping out of planes helicopters and my last infantry unit in a mech infantry brigade rolling around the battlefield in Bradley Fighting vehicles, and then of course the ubiquitous MRAP.

What started as a basically 35-pound vest with sapi plates during the original invasion turned into a monstrosity with extra pads for your butt groin shoulder neck theighs and lats in an attempt to protect soldiers from the random stray bullet. if you're dumb enough to put all that stuff on your body armor you'd end up with about 65 lb body armor weight alone. all to satisfy some wet nose whining family members or politicians because their son or daughter was killed by a bullet that wasn't stopped by body armor. now because they've overloaded us to the breaking point with all this stupid safety crap they want to develop an exoskeleton to help carry all the weight? the best part of all of this mess is that by order of the Secretary of defense we are not allowed to do any running or PT faster than walking with our body armor on. When I was in the hundred first we used to go on ruck runs with body armor 10 to 12 miles so that soldiers could slowly condition their bodies to carrying that weight and running when needed... So we would train that way and are off times so we could be ready for combat. Even though I'll likely never see ground combat and be walking around the streets of the city again, I still ruck march once a week with 60 lb in my ruck to keep my body ready. And yes at 55 my body is paying the price for it. But hey... That's what it's all about :-)

Throw a 40-60 lb rucksack on to the 65 lb body armor and a basic load of ammo of 20-40 lbs the number above of 140 is pretty accurate and ridiculous especially for the 140-160 lb average weight of an infantry soldier in today's Army.

But the fact is almost no one carries all of that at one time, except for when you initially move to an area of operation, arrive in theater or leave. fun really begins when you have to carry all of that including your A and B bag with all of your backup gear each of which of these traditional Army duffle bags weigh about 80 lbs.... Talk about a fun time :-)

 Soldiers carry what they need for whatever mission is ahead of them on average about 55 lb. Most strip down their body armor to the bare minimums of front and rear vest and plates, my last deployment (combat Aviation) a bunch of us all did a group buy of plate carriers because of the monstrosity issued to us. hopefully they won't change the camo pattern again and I'll be able to use it until I retire in a few years.

The only thing that would happen with this ridiculous mess is soldiers would goof around break them and you have piles of this s h i t all over the battlefield.

Reminds me of one of my first deployment when we transitioned from active warfighting to stability operations. They issued stun guns for less lethal means of crowd control and such. our brigade Commander said before anyone could fire stun gun at a civilian they had to know what it was like to get tazed themselves. of course everyone had so much fun tazing each other that we promptly ran out of batteries with no Replacements in sight for 3 months... Typical Army planning. If these monstrosities ever make it to the battlefield and are put on infantry soldiers it will be a quick disaster and waste of money.

But I'm sure some senator or congressman has Lockheed all greased and up their rear end to guarantee that millions will be wasted in research and development for something that no one will want to use or would be effective. And to add insult to injury... when we retire and need back surgeries, replacement joints and medical Care there will be no money for it or long lines at the VA or incompetent doctors and poor medical Care... but go ahead all you legislators government pukes and wasters of money dump millions of dollars into this garbage....

But that's the way the system works... We penny pinch where it counts and waste where it doesn't.

Sorry about the rant... I'm pretty passionate about our soldiers and taking care of them....rant mode off.....

[twowheeladdict]

But Bulldog9, you missed the part about non-battlefield applications like strapping it to your broken down body so you can still get around.

Seriously,  if we had to wait for companies to invest their own money in raw research we would either not see the technology advances we have seen in our lifetimes, and/or the recouping of non-recurring costs associated with research and development would make the products too expensive for the average wage consumer to afford.