Thursday, November 11, 2010

Future soldiers may be wearing 'Iron Man' suits

I am not sure how i feel about this yet. Our men in "Iron Men" suits that cost 150,00 per suit. I think the idea is somewhat in the fact that this suit will allow one man to do the work of two or three soliders. However, Raytheon Sarcos is working on the engery source and they are trying to figure out how they can power this machine for it to last eight to twenty-four hours, which could potentionally put our soliders in danger. I don't yet. What do you guys think?

15 comments:

Zoe Bartlett said...

What? How does that even work? Won't this slow our soldiers down?

Michael Miyahira said...

Actually, the implication of these exoskeletons would speed up our soldiers in a sense. The term "Iron Man" suit branches out so much that it could mean just about any kind of protective suit. However these exoskeletons will be nowhere near the physical ability of the Fictional Iron Man suit built by Tony Stark. The energy required to power a suit like that would be tremendous, but with this exoskeleton suit, there have been a number of advances. For instance, they've cut the power consumption by half and decreased the weight of the suit. And the main thing I think they've been viewing this for is helping with loading and moving supplies. They're nowhere near reliable enough to drop on the battlefield any time soon, so I don't think that it will be putting any troops in danger. There's also an extended video that I've seen on youtube about this exoskeleton that talks about this. I actually feel that this is a good leap forward in military technology as it will allow our troops to be more protected and give them an edge at the same time. And considering that just a single Javelin missile (a shoulder launched missile) costs over $1 million, I would say that a $150,000 exoskeleton suit is worth the cost.

Bobby John said...

Battles are won by morale. I'd be much more willing to charge into battle knowing that I have the upper hand over the people I'm fighting.

Sharia Sandoval said...

Personally, I think that's expensive. Not that protecting our soldiers isn't a good thing, but if you add up the total amount of soldiers we have, and the wars that keep coming, plus the recession were in, it's ALOT. This country isn't meant to be digging its own grave.

Anthony Lu said...

I think some of us may be missing the point. This isn't for combat. It's for grunt work.

Basically, a fork lift inside a suit. I want one...

Joshua Chan said...

Here's the thing, the cost of military technology is already expensive as it is. With iron man suits, it's only going to make our war budget skyrocket even more. Also, it may take some time for our soldiers to adapt to a new kind of warfare with advanced technology. I think it's just too much worth the trouble to develop and use something that's ahead of our time.

Bobby John said...

I think people forget that a single Tomahawk missile costs $569,000 and the cost for a single stealth bomber is $737,000,000.

Shorhon said...

Keep in mind that the $150,000 is per soldier, making the total cost quite expensive. I agree with Sharia's and Josh's post; we don't have the money to spend on suits that will not give us an advantage during combat and can potentially endanger our soldiers. Currently, countless public service cuts are being implemented; these cuts could be alleviated if more government funds were directed towards these services rather than military expenses that will have little to no benefits.

Michael Miyahira said...

Bobby makes a good point. So $737,000,000 for just one stealth bomber would be the equivalent of 4,913.3 exoskeleton suits, and they allow one person to do the work of many. A bargain? I think YES! And since there are 94,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, the cost for every soldier would be $19 billion. A mere sliver in the government budget, but totally worth it if it were to give our soldiers an edge (given that they are battle worthy).

Timothy Chidyausiku said...

I want one!

Alexander Phinney said...

Fantastic. Everybody wants one. Isn't that great.

But war? Really? That's where this technology will be used? It's a sad day for humanity when people get excited about killing machines. Of course, as anthony said, this would be used for grunt work moreso than combat, but the fact that we're preparing these suits for future soldiers in the first place is just more reason for cynicism.

Imagine what's going to happen when the OTHER side gets this technology (which they will). Wars are only going to get worse and worse, bigger and more expensive. This is a terrible idea for the battlefield.

A "grunt work" super suit would be of much better use doing tasks that are actually productive for humanity, like construction.

To know that so much of America's effort goes towards fighting and killing is great. Good thing we spend over $1 billion every single day in the middle east...

Michael Miyahira said...

Unfortunetally war is how technology progresses.

Lewis Yang said...

I was looking through the latest edition of TIME Magazine this week and also came across this suit, as it was deemed one of "The 50 Best Inventions of the Year." I agree with the comments regarding the financial costs of the suit if they were provided to every single soldier, however the possible uses of a suit of this kind outside of the battlefield are unlimited.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mO0xNI3xpmE

-Lewis Y

Chris Engelmann said...

When I honestly read this I laughed a bit because it seems like somthing that came out of a science fiction book, but after a little bit of thinking it seems quite probable that this technology will be used. This is becasue our military has made so many advances in technology that I beleive that it is more then likely we will eventually use this to go to war with. My only concern is the cost but I don't think that price will hinder this new technology from being used in future military actions.

A Goya said...

Personally, I'd rather have a mobile suit (Gundams and Knightmare frames if you understand me) over an "iron man" suit, there are more possibilities out there that way and they probably are more versatile in general (except stealth).

I call the Wing Zero, Eva 01, and Gurren Lagann.