Why Don't We Supply Exoskeletons to Infantrymen?
the technology is all there, why cant we just use it… we have strength enhancers, that will literally give you the strength of ten men… and they look like fucking iPod.. we have technology that is more than gas-tight, its literally a closed system, and it comes in anthropomorphous configurations. think… bio-suit (the new skin-tight space suit) + newt-suit (or similar deep-sea diving suit) + Hal5 (or similar strength enhancing suit) + Up armoring + NBC Pump, and various car parts… you could jerry rig a super suit up for under 50k… damn.
we spend 50k on the first month of training for the average foot soldier, or so ive been told… shouldn’t be too hard to spend the same amount on an all-around life support system, they could carry weapons normally only used on vehicles… matter of fact, the suit would weigh as much as a car…
with the job of the war-fighter right now acting more like the job of a peace keeper, the suit probably would be more inhibiting than anything else for the average infantry, but we have light infantry (deployed without a vehicle), heavy infantry (deployed with a vehicle), marines (deployed by sea or water), and paratroopers (deployed with a plane or helicopter, or similar)… why not have infantry that IS the vehicle, seems like the next step up. it wouldn’t replace, but it would be a compliment of, normal elites are small and stealthy for special operations and anti-terrorism, we could do the same thing but on the other end of the spectrum.. it would still be able to utilize buildings as cover.
think of the shields used by police and military, the heavy kevlar bullet-roof blast shields… riot shields, etc. etc… now scale it up to an exoskeleton soldiers standards, the thing could be SLATED to stop RPGs…
rantings of a mad video-game crazed civilian.
justin, dont tell me to "put more thought into" my questions, especially if u arent gonna READ IT ANYWAY…
we wouldnt supply to "every soldier", just special operatives with a job that would require it.
thanks sarge!
Thanks Orion, and i didnt mean to short and the other contributors, thanks all!
A few problems with this….
As C said…Cost. Complexity. A German Tiger commander was interviewed and asked about Sherman’s vs his Tiger. He snorted and said "My Tiger was worth TEN Shermans." Then he paused, looked sad and said quietly, "But there was always that eleventh Sherman."
Next up – maintenance. I work on CH-47D Chinooks and they are EASY to maintain compared to some of the stuff that’s out there. These suits you’re talking about would be a nightmare to fix, insanely expensive to get the parts in and require specialized facilities to repair and maintain them – the logistical tail would be a horror show. (Remember, amateurs talk tactics and strategy; Professionals talk logistics). How long to train the maintainers? The armorers? The Soldiers to use them? Especially with battle damage?
The control systems required for this sort of a suit are well beyond anything we can currently design.
Finally – and this one is the killer – POWER. What are you going to use to power these little gems? Batteries won’t do it. They can’t even move a simple car more than 40 miles and that’s with over 100lbs of batteries. This thing would require some sort of miniaturized fusion plant that is many decades from even being designed.
Add to your power problems, the environmental concerns of keeping a fighting Soldier cool, watered, and breathing…Look at a Space Suit, and that barely manages to do it’s job and it’s FRAGILE; and insanely expensive.
In short, it makes for great video games at this stage, but not reality. Not yet.
Orion
And all this exoskeleton crap is gonna cost the military how much? The Germans in WWII proved that just because something is better doesn’t mean that you will win the war. The German Panzer tank was FAR superior than the American Sherman but the Sherman was cheaper and easy to make and the US’s ability to mass produce them outstripped the German’s ability to destroy them. On the other hand, their uber tanks were extremely difficult to destroy but even more difficult to replace. Better to have good enough in massive numbers than to have the best in extremely limited quantities when it comes to war. That’s why Special Operations units are looked at as combat multipliers. They enhance your position but they do not consist of the main effort.
The average infantryman costs around $14,000 to equip. $50,000 for one of your super suits, especially a rugged militarized one would far exceed that cost. Not to mention the additional equipment and personnel to service and maintain these suits and the increased cost in training soldiers to use them.
You been watching too many movies bud.
First off, way too complicated, probably won’t ever happen.
Secondly, WAY too expensive to supply every soldier with one.
You should put a little more thought into your questions. Its not that simple.
the problem would be making it light and mobile enough for combat. sure one for the business field might be good but legs for it are completely useless if we have treads that would suffice a hell of a lot more. plus its actually expensive to research and it would take too much time that we dont have. plus the infantry would have to go infantry training then to advanced warsuit mechanics, maintinence, and suit combat. so the overall reason is that its going to cost a shit ton of money to train these soldiers to use it.
sounds all nice but you need to think about budget…us as a country are broke, paying the servicemembers is an issue, let alone giving us top notch gear…hell they are rotating body armor back overseas right after troops come back to the states…maybe in the near future though!
yes.. it’s all true… the technology is there… but how much does it cost?
and don’t trust everything you see or read… it’s all bull5hit…
there’s a lot that goes on behind the enemy lines
which YOU will never know about…
they don’t want people to know that these things really exist…
what if you walked into a military surplus store, and ordered one of these things?
and then decided to rob a bank???
the only thing thing that gives someone an advantage over you
is their choice of weaponry…
the u.s. government put me in a cage for FOUR years
because i developed the perfect silent killing device…
and then they STOLE my designs and prototypes…
…and no-one paid me for my work…
the system is fuc4ed… do not trust anything they tell you…
any weapon you can imagine, they already have…
According Lockheed Martin web site we already have it. No price was given. Some of informations from site listed below. It is called HULC.
The HULC is a completely un-tethered, hydraulic-powered anthropomorphic exoskeleton that provides users with the ability to carry loads of up to 200 lbs for extended periods of time and over all terrains. Its flexible design allows for deep squats, crawls and upper-body lifting. There is no joystick or other control mechanism. The exoskeleton senses what users want to do and where they want to go. It augments their ability, strength and endurance. An onboard micro-computer ensures the exoskeleton moves in concert with the individual.
Features
• Range: 20 km on level terrain at 4 km per hour
• Payload: Up to 200lb; carries front and back loads
• Maximum Speed: 7 mph long duration; 10 mph burst speed