SOCOM, the United States Special Operations Command, is structuring an exoskeleton—a powered set of armor. Known as the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS), the suit is meant for use by U.S. Special Forces and is intended to provide operators lighter, more efficient full-body ballistics protection and super-human strength. Antennas and processers embedded into the suit will escalate the wearer’s situational consciousness by providing user-friendly and real-time battlefield data.
This suit, says Stars and Stripes, is currently in the prototyping and design stage, and is theoretically to be out and in working order by 2018. It’ll look approximately like this:
The TALOS combat suit is sort of a frightening perception, if you think about it. On the one hand, it will surely do a prodigious job protecting soldiers on the forward-facing lines.
To get out in advance of any unclear feelings about the TALOS suit, the military has tied up in a bit of a subtle branding campaign, dubbing TALOS the “Iron Man” suit. William McRaven, who heads up SOCOM, is hoping to gather some of Tony Stark’s superhero good vibes.
But science fiction is stuffed with stories of characters cavorting around in battle armor and superpowered exoskeletons. Maybe Iron Man isn’t the most proper comparison? After all, soldiers wearing TALOS suits will not be able to fly or shoot high-energy beams from their hands.
Star Wars’ storm troopers seem a closer match, no super fancy powers except a nice utility belt. Appearance wise, TALOS looks much closer to a storm trooper. Though, hopefully SOCOM’s suit comes without the target suppressor.
If we’re looking for other comparisons, a good place to start is Popular Mechanics’ list of the most iconic exoskeletons in science fiction. From Starship Trooper’s nuke-toting, rocket-jumping infantry, to Metroid’s armadillo-impersonating Muscle Suit, many of these correspondingly miss the mark. But there’s one that might be a more suitable judgment for the army’s new suit; the Mark V, Master Chief’s combat suit from Halo.
The armor turns its wearer into a high-jumping, truck-flipping superhuman. As exciting as an armed Power Loader might seem, a stronger, up-armored soldier, capable of trudging miles through the 100-degree desert without tiring and then jumping into a Humvee without ripping out its suspension, is a more reasonable fantasy.
How weaponries like drones and power suits are used in future combat depends, in part, in how they’re observed by the community. And that’s why the connotations we forge between actual tools and beloved science fiction characters matter.
This link talks about more relatable characters: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/digital/fact-vs-fiction/SciFi-most-iconic-exoskeletons-5
Images was from: livescience.com, comicvine.com, mwctoys.com
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