Halo Suit: The body armor of the future?

[BurtWorm]

From Geekologie. At $2,000 a pop, it's not likely the US Army is willing to shell out that kind of dough on its service people, considering how long it's taken them to provide the armor of today.

http://geekologie.com/2007/01/inventor_of_bear_suit_makes_re.php



January 15, 2007
Inventor of bear suit makes real life Halo suit

The inventer of a bear-protection suit has created a much slimmer version which has been designed to stave off bullets, explosives, knives, and clubs. The suit is called Trojan and the inventer describes it as the "first ballistic, full exoskeleton body suit of armour" and he hopes to get it deployed for Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan and US soldiers in Iraq. The suit has stood up to an elephant gun, and is made from high-impact plastic lined with ceramic bullet protection over ballistic foam. Included in the suit are compartments for emergency morphine and salt, a knife and emergency light. Built into the forearms are a small recording device, a pepper-spray gun and a detachable transponder that can be swallowed in case of trouble. The whole suit comes in at 18 kilograms and overs everything but the fingertips and the major joints, and could allegedly be mass-produced for about $2,000. Plus, if you saw an army of these things coming at you you wouldn't even fight. You'd just give up and pray the space robots haven't come to anally probe you.

[wakeme2008]

1. The guy is crazy... it is 100+ in Iraq

can you just see troops wearing this in that heat....

[DaveJ]

11. If it were authentic it would be environmentally controlled.

That probably is how it would work in the Halo game, and probably allow the guy to go underwater or in space too.

[Burma Jones]

2. If a big time political donor wants to sell these to the military

you can bet your bottom dollar they'll show up on all the war-fighters, well, except the Marines.....

[MADem]

5. They'd have to shut down Natick first, though... NT

[DaveJ]

13. Unfortunately only the donors' security staff and maybe mercenaries would ever get to use them

n/t

[paparush]

3. We'll see these in DC on Saturday...nt

[MADem]

4. Still too heavy.

They've been working on "Future Soldier" body armor at Natick for eons, now. Those prototypes are still too heavy as well.


Future Warrior Concept (FWC): The Future Warrior Concept will be a completely integrated system which will be tailored to each individual, from an electro-spun Combat Uniform to a biomechanically engineered Headgear Subsystem....

http://nsc.natick.army.mil/media/photo/index.htm

They've come a long way from C-rats in cans to those jazzy MREs, but they've a way to go on body armor yet.

[Burma Jones]

6. I've done some work on this concept at Ft. Detrick, MD

They do some cool stuff up at Natick

[MADem]

8. They sure do...I often feared the GOP would try to close it down...

Or move it elsewhere. The thing that saves it is the brain trust in Beantown. A lot of those folks don't want to stray too far from the Home of the Bean and the Cod; they'd miss their cultural fixes!

[Burma Jones]

7. Isn't this guy in the bumpers for Fox NFL coverage?

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. Does it come with its own internal air conditioning unit?

That looks OK for Canada, but may be a bit uncomfortable in Iraq.

[trumad]

10. From the game Halo...

Master Chief rocks.

[TahitiNut]

12. I wonder how it does against BioChem weapons.

:shrug:

[gatorboy]

14. Trojan?

If it's Halo, shouldn't it be 'Spartan'?

Trojans are wusses!

[derby378]

15. Troy Hurtubise is a good man - he thinks the Iraq occupation is for "no good reason"

Eccentric, yes, but I'd trust almost anything he invented to keep me safe.

[Wizard777]

16. How does it do against hollow tips and armor piercing round?

It might have some limited military use. I would be great for paramilitary (police).

Looks like a hell of a mouse trap. But how long before they build a better mouse?

[Ezlivin]

17. Hey, what if we tried to never have wars again and need sh*t like this?

Yeah, I know I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one.

[BurtWorm]

19. Might still need it to leave the house in about 50 years.

It just needs an oxygen tank and a stun gun for the giant mutated cockroaches.

[jmowreader]

18. He knows that thing makes you look like Robocop, right?

Jeeze...you'd have to learn how to shoot all over again, for one thing.

[Lisa]

20. "covers everything but the fingertips and the major joints"

I've been studying the development of armour from classical up to the medieval era, and interestingly the joints were among the first areas that got protection (e.g. the "transitional" armour between 1100 and 1400, which acquired "soup-can" knees and elbows -- later becoming fully-articulated by the Gothic era). I suppose that was because sword, arrow, or impact weapon damage to a major joint could be painful and immobilizing. (Even today, in mock SCA battles, armour has to pass inspection -- with particular attention to the joints, head, and area around the throat. I once saw two marshals pull a fighter out of a multi-person melee because he wasn't wearing elbow pads.)

I'd need to study the gear further to see what the articulation's like, but it seems that the ancient solution of adding protective "fans" to the elbow and knee cops might address the problem of exposed joints? (Just as troops in Iraq are improvising shoulder-coverings to add to their body armour, which look a lot like the "spaulders" or "pauldrons" in medieval suits.)

18 kilos is within the weight range for earlier armour types, though as an earlier poster noted, ventilation is a major problem. It was during the Crusades too ... significant numbers of people died from heat exhaustion, and that was just with chainmail shirts and helmets -- many of them didn't even have breastplates and fully-sheathed limbs.

[tabasco]

21. I'm a former infantryman.

That suit ain't gonna cut it.

[Crunchy Frog]

22. Robocop.

This country is turning into a really bad science fiction movie.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

23. Isn't this the guy that's the inspiration for Colbert?

And his anti-bear crusade?

[DireStrike]

24. I think that was just a play on irrational fears, like "war on christmas"

[Crunchy Frog]

25. Or maybe Tek Jansen.

[VOX]

26. Well, the damn thing has a built-in pepper-spray gun, so you know it's Iraq-worthy.

If it weren't so tragic, it'd be a gut-buster. The term *surreal* comes to mind. :crazy:

[Porcupine]

27. Armor suit $2000, Sticky rope $1.50.......

The look on the centurians face when he realizes he can't move.....

Priceless!!

Armour's good when all sides are playing fair. If the other side has guys who are willing to die in 2's and 3's taking one of you down you're screwed. The Iraqi's have proven that they are willing to use enough explosives to toss an APC and turn everybody inside into jelly armour and all. Everybody else in the world is taking notes.