Beyond Bulletproof: New 'X-Vehicles' Take Stealth to the Extreme

[xchrom]

http://www.livescience.com/47437-armored-vehicle-darpa-program.html

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An artist's rendition of what the new X-vehicle might look like.
Credit: DARPA


Imagine an armored truck that can drive itself, is invisible to enemies and can travel at extreme speeds. That's the type of truck the Pentagon is hoping to develop through its new ground X-vehicle (GXV-T) program.

Ever since the U.S. military started using armored ground vehicles over a century ago, the process for making these transports safer for soldiers has remained more or less unchanged, according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the branch of the Pentagon tasked with developing new technologies for the military.

The basic formula for building better bulletproof trucks, it seems, is simply adding more armor. But DARPA researchers say this decades-old approach isn't cutting it anymore. Piling on armor makes vehicles heavier and more expensive, and offers little extra protection for soldiers, the agency said. [See what these stealthy armored trucks could look like]

To make ground vehicles both safer and better suited for the battlefield, these machines need to take advantage of other technologies, such as those that can help troops avoid detectionby enemy forces, DARPA said.

[DJ13]

1. Coming to your local PD soon

[Politicalboi]

2. The Pentagon

You mean that big defense building that can't even defend itself makes weapons? Bet it needs a shit load of C batteries.