Have you guys seen some of the US/NATO’s latest body armor designs? The TALOS exo suit is supposed to be completed next year and the Ronin Ballistic Helmet is apparently already being used by US Special Forces. And it works, the Ronin helmet is apparently legitimately bulletproof.
What I found funny about this is that US soldiers are going to start looking like evil imperial soldiers from out of a sci-fi film
i think I've seen that last helmet sold online before.
Maybe the Marines.
The U.S. military has long toyed with these various super-warrior hardware systems (look up Future Force Warrior from the Bush years) but there are a lot of problems.
See, a lot of this stuff is designed to be a computer you wear on your head (notice the battery pack on the dome) with various Ghost Recon nonsense where you can "see" friendlies through HUD mapping interfaces all tied together via wireless battlefield networks. Sounds great… until the battery runs out. Now you're just wearing a really expensive helmet with a limited field of view. To make matters worse, when this hardware is switched on, it gives off heat which can be seen through IR sensors. You're also going to run into problems with electronic interference if the soldiers encounter a technologically sophisticated adversary (like the Russians) who are going to be jamming signals like mad.
Weight is another problem. Though doing a brief reading the idea seems to be to use them in only a limited fashion, like one guy whose job is just to breach doors. I'm thinking you might see something like this in riot-cop-type units where the idea is to function as like a phalanx.
Marines say the same thing about the Army.
It's almost as if it's all an illusion and all branches of military are adequately equipped with the latest tech available.
(me)
To add about the IR sensor bit: while it sounds great to have a bulletproof face mask, the weight and power costs might not make it worth it especially as infantry weapons get heavier. It might stop an AK round but will it stop a 30-millimeter round or rocket-propelled grenade? Not a chance. Even sub-state forces are going into battle with a lot of heavy rattle these days (think Hezbollah) so you're essentially turning soldiers into highly visible targets because they're giving off so much heat.
TALOS is supposed to address the problems Future Force Warrior has.
I have no clue how they’re going to deal with heat, but like I said before they said they’d have a working version by next year.
hiconsumption.com
In case you ever thought you’d be in a position where your head was in jeopardy from .357 Sig or .44 Magnum rounds, then rest easy knowing the Devtac Ronin Kevlar Level IIIA Tactical Ballistic Helmet is here for your safety. Part Stormtrooper mask, part Ironman, this bulletproof helmet is quite literally bullet proof, and Devtac’s got the materials to prove it.
So it won't even stop a Tokarev probably.
Rule no. 1 of any military tech is: believe it when you see it. And even when you see it, be skeptical. There is an enormous amount of grift because the companies know the military has X amount of dollars it is obligated to spend by Congress, and the companies will always say that everything is going to be gravy even when most of this stuff never pans out. Of course, sometimes it does.
To add: key phrases you used were "supposed to address the problems" and "they said they'd have a working version." Not "it does address the problems" and "they have a working version." Those are very different things
These are going to be used for law enforcement and SWAT teams and everybody knows it. There is literally no sensible fiscal reason to outfit every soldier with this stuff, other then to fulfill some brass's delusions about the "soldiers of the future", or to meet some kind of already laid out and signed MIC contract or agreement. Probably both, and like all these things its going straight from the military to the police.
Not to mention there's no indication this can stop a rifle round. The article I linked said it was only good enough to stop .357 sig or a .44 magnum.
All this to hunt down some poor people in the desert?
What makes a Tokarev round more powerful than these?
You can look it up yourself. I'm not a ballistics expert.
thehighroad.org
the only armour I need is anti baboon spray
I appreciate you baboon poster.
Don't forget monkeymen repellent.
I'm honestly not worried. Guerrilas will always be able to resist mechanized armies.
Doesn't body armour suppose to not get you killed and not get you killed and not to be literally bullet proof, like a 12 gauge to the chest leaving a couple of broken ribs and not a hole through you? Are tourniquets without body armour a viable alternative?
This. The US has been peddling the “badass sci fi super soldier” meme since the 1960s. Pic fucking related.
You mean since the 1900's
It's simple physics. For penetration purposes a bullet is a wedge. When it penetrates, it's pushing material out of its way to make space for itself. To penetrate more, you want more force or smaller round. More force means more ability to move matter. Smaller bullet means you have to move less matter. The difference between a rifle and pistol round in general is that rifles have more powder propelling the bullet and the bullet is shaped to penetrate. Handgun rounds are mostly made for portability and civilian defense. Armor is less of an issue in CQ and isn't an issue for civilians. So instead they focus on damage to soft tissue. They're made to penetrate as little as possible.
When any bullet hits a target it transfers energy. The more it penetrates the less energy it transfers, since it's just moving a bit of mass out of its way. The more energy it transfers, the more it slows down and deforms. If a bullet comes out the other side it has energy left over. If it stops in the target all the energy was transferred. If you're trying to deal damage to a target you want the bullet to transfer the maximum amount of energy, but if the target has armor you need enough penetration to get through the armor. Straightforward tradeoff. There's no such thing as a truly bulletproof armor because you can just make a bullet that penetrates better. Eventually you run up against physics where the armor is too bulky to wear.
Yeah basically what I quotes from that forum post, thanks for the detailed newtonian analysis though. My question: Can any of these things even stop a regular 7.62×39mm? If not what's the point of them even?
Did some research, apparently if you go up to level 4 you can stop some rifle rounds:
youtube.com
Ned Kelly did it the best. They've been trying to one up him for a long time.
obvious hardware designed for remote mind control
and they say Black Mirror isn't a documentary
yeah but they almost look retro scifi, i thought the future had less clutter
The first picture? 4 horizontal lenses? Is their a fucking spider under neath there? It doesn't seem practical.
Ronin is shit tho. Altyn is where it's at.
the body armor the army uses is basically a full nylon and kevlar vest, but made to hold steel or ceramic plates that do the work of stopping the real high energy stuff. the kevlar really just keeps the steel plate from spalling and being shrapnel attached to your chest. there's a reason the vests weigh like 30 lbs. like all kinetic physics, a good way to stop an object in motion is a lot of mass
Don’t we all?
Don’t forget your ape aerosols anons
Dude you dont even know the half of it. War is going to be very diffrent in the future.
They have been epxeimrinting with this shit for years, they basically want to give every soldier an iron man suit, a robotic exoskeleton.
Recently there was a break through in brain to computer interface that allowed people to operate drones with their minds.
Experience shows that you always need to sceptical about stuff like real life Psykers and shit. Remember that even with their manual targeting systems drone strikes continue to be very imprecise (not compared to other militaries of course) and a lot of vanilla warfare on the ground will still be getting the job done. Same with robotics and AI. We don't even know if we can ever create the hardware for an autonomous unit that will be able to outsmart at least a toddler. The human brain may have a limited computing power but works in ways that allow it to improvise in a way we can't simulate yet. War is not like a chess game where you have a limited amount of variables.
And again, as posters pointed out, any suit that involves a power cell will be easily detectable by their enemies, unless you are fighting Taliban with AKs.
tfw 100 years from now we will have Talibans in exoskeletons jumping down mountain peaks on top of helicopters.
The iron man suit and exoskelton are different concepts. I recall seeing a photo of a russian merc in syria wearing an exoskelton.
These things are also being used in construction work.
it allows people to lift heavy things with ease
Oh shit we S.T.A.L.K.E.R. now
or in this case carry absurdly heavy loads soldiers are expected to carry nowadays, without getting tired too quickly.
FUG