Dressed in black from head to toe and wearing a helmet that allows barely a glimpse of his face, Staff Sgt. Raul Lopez looked like something out of a science fiction thriller.

Lopez, an infantry Soldier stationed at the Natick Soldier Center in Massachusetts, spent four days in what could be the Army uniform of the future at the 24th Army Science Conference, explaining the technology behind it.

The black fabric of the form-fitting suit would be made through the wonder of nanotechnology, which involves manipulating atoms and molecules to create things at the nanometer scale. That’s about 50,000 times smaller than the diameter of a strand of hair. Soldiers wearing the suit would have the ability to blend into any environment, like a chameleon.

The helmet is the main hub of the uniform, where “all of the action happens,” Lopez said.

A tiny video camera in front provides 360-degree situational awareness. A series of sensors inside give the Soldier three-dimensional audiological hearing and the ability to amplify specific sounds, while lowering the volume of others.
Complete voice translation is also provided, for what the Soldier hears and what he or she says. Night vision sensors, minimized to the size of pencil erasers, are also in the helmet. Maps and other situational awareness information are projected on the inside of the visor, while everything the Soldier sees and hears is sent in real time up to higher headquarters.

“It’s all voice activated,” Lopez said. “I can tell it to show me where my buddies are, and it projects it on the visor.”

Virtual reality technology would also play a part in helping the Soldier navigate an environment by projecting maps on the ground surrounding him or her.


Sensors detect threat, provide treatment
Thermal sensors weaved into the fabric of the uniform control its temperature, based on the Soldier’s environment. An on-board respirator, tethered to the Soldier’s back, provides a continuous supply of fresh air – eliminating the need for a protective mask. Should the Soldier have the visor up, or the helmet off, and breath in some kind of harmful agent, the uniform sensor will immediately detect it, release tiny embedded capsules to counter it and inject treatment into the Soldier’s body.

From the waist down, a skeletal system allows the Soldier to carry two or three times his or her body weight, feeling only the weight of their own body through the technology of an XO muscle, which augments a Soldier’s strength.

Wearing the futuristic suit doesn’t make Lopez feel like a science fiction superhero, or invincible.

“It’s just conceptual right now,” he said, smiling.


Liquid armor protection
The uniform might be made out of fabric treated with another technology featured in the conference’s exhibit hall, shear thickening fluid. Unofficially referred to by some as liquid body armor, STF is made of equal parts polyethylene glycol – an inert, non-toxic thickening agent used in a variety of common products, like some ice creams – and miniscule glass particles, said Eric Wetzel, who heads the STF project team in the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

In a small glass vial, the light blue liquid is easily stirred with a small plastic stick – as long as the stick is moving in slow, easy motion. When sudden, rapid or forceful motion is applied, the liquid instantly hardens, preventing any movement.

“When the movement is slow, the glass particles can flow around each other,” Wetzel explained. “But when the movement is fast, the particles bump into each other, preventing any flow of movement.”

STF has been applied to regular Kevlar material, Wetzel said. The fabric’s texture doesn’t change; it looks and feels the same as if it hadn’t been treated. Using a test swatch of four layers of untreated Kevlar – the normal thickness of body armor – Wetzel is able to stab an ice pick through the fabric. But when stabbing a treated section of fabric with all the force he can muster, the ice pick dents the fabric but can’t penetrate through.

Research is being done into whether STF can be of use to the Army, Wetzel said. If it is, Soldiers may start getting gear treated with it in about two years, he added.


Link to article and picture.

I think the helmet they are describing in the article in the one I posted a pic of in the "Tactics and Weapons" Forum.


What do you guys think about it??

More space age shit

Cool, with a caveat. Will the average Grunt get so hi-tech that ordinary soldier skills will be deemphasized? Now we have GPS. An improvement over the old map and compass but what happens when the batteries run out? Still know how to read a map, the diff between true north and mag north?

I could envision a time when these basic type skills could be glossed over in the future, to save money and time and because when the new stuff works it's so much better.

I'm all for progress but I think the Grunt needs to be out of AIT before he even sees one of those and excercises regularly planned where none of that would be available just to keep him sharp. I would want the future Army to have the best tools available but still be able to fight without depending upon the tech.

I fully agree with you there, Thud. Only thing I could never figue out was why I was taught compass skills and map reading..but not how to read the stars? True, it doesn't help in some circumstances, but can be valuable in others..

But I too think that before a soldier goes all 'high tech' and relies on that too heavily, the basic rudimentary stuff should be taught, period.

CSM voice: "Read the stars? What're you? Some kind of fuggin' astrologist?"

ROFLMAO!!!!!!!!!! that was what was said then too!!!!!!!!!!

Me thinks that somone has been watching too much robocop movies.LOL

Well, my problem is with the communications part the idea it gives the change of command another way of micro-managing what the soldier is doing!

Von Guderian, as the Inspector General of the Western Front during WWII, had a standing order: "Don't shoot American leadership, they fight better without it!"

How many of you were in contact in combat or exercises where you reported it and couldn't get them out of your business while you were trying to win the battle!?

Read stars!?! Yeah- 'cause it'd be real practical to try and teach the average soldier how to read the stars from each hemisphere, from every continent.

Excercise some common sense.

USKID, while you do bring up a good point, it is not that difficult to read stars from different parts of the world. Once one acquires the knowledge to read the constellations, it is not that difficult to adapt for varying locales. How do you think sailors did it in days of old? Partly by navigational maps, as well as other methods, but one that was tried and true was reading the stars.

The Army revealed on Monday a redesigned combat uniform with a digital camouflage pattern that looks strikingly different from soldiers' current battle dress uniforms.

It marks the first major change in the Army uniform since 1981, said Brig. Gen. James R. Moran, who modeled the uniform for reporters at the Pentagon. He said recruits will be issued the redesigned uniform starting October 2005, and the entire Army will be outfitted by December 2007.

The uniform is being produced in a single, universal pattern to replace the two camouflage versions in current use: tan-brown for desert use and green-brown-black for woodland settings.

The pattern for the new camouflage coat and trousers is a mix of light green, tan and gray. Moran said it was designed to allow soldiers to blend into urban, desert and forest environments; it is similar to the Marines' digital camouflage uniform except that it has no black in the pattern.

Soldiers also will get a new, no-shine, tan combat boot, and the current black boots will be discontinued.

The new uniform makes more use of Velcro, and the coat fastens in front with a zipper instead of buttons. Cuffs and pockets are fastened with Velcro, and the coat collar can be turned up and fastened Mandarin-style. The uniform is roomier and made with a no-wrinkle fabric.

The coat-trousers combination costs $88, compared with $56 for the current battle dress uniform.

The new uniform was designed in part to accommodate the new Interceptor body armor that soldiers are getting in Iraq and Afghanistan for partial protection from bullets as large as 7.62mm. The Mandarin-style collar, for example, shields the neck from the Interceptor vest collar.

Moran said the Army will offer soldiers extra protection with add-on armor for the underarm area, which is not covered with protective plates in Interceptor vests. The deltoid protection will increase the weight of the armor vests from 16 pounds to 22 pounds.

About 50,000 sets of deltoid protection are to be available by the end of September.

Moran said the Army is looking for ways to protect soldiers better who risk death or injury from homemade bombs in Iraq, the weapons of choice for anti-U.S. insurgents.

"We have a clever enemy, an adaptable enemy," he said.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: NightEagle29,

It doesnt look like it would blend w/ the shadows very well.

Yeh I know the question I have is why change at all leave it the way it is with

Leave the camo the way it is. Everything is getting to hi-tech, I hate it!

I saw some of this gear demo'd on some TV show...looked very vision inhibiting with all this "HUD" crap popping up in your face. I like to have open field of vision, nothing popping off in my ears when I need quiet, and to be able to clearly look over the iron sights. Looks more encumbering than anything else.

New uniforms look OK, too much velcro for me, too noisy. Though for old dogs it takes a yet another new trick-- the rank is now worn in the center of the chest. I'm still looking at the collar....

I'm an old BDU/DCU ground pounder, but after awhile, it grows on you. The ACU is much more comfortable. The addition of velcro sucks being a recon asset, but we'll make do. The lighter weight fabric and the digital pattern do indeed work. Where as the Corps went with a desert pattern and woodland pattern, we chose a universal one. It works suprisingly well. The uniform is designed to be integrated with the IBAS and other FCS equipment. Iron sights aren't used much anymore, and as for clogging up the field of vision with optics, NODs, etc. it is personal preference. I never put my GLiD or my NODs on my face, and I try not to use my ACOG very often. Its cumbersome, and if I stumble in the dark, I don't want all that stuff strapped to my head putting my eye out!

As for the rank on the chest: Promotions suck. I rather have a couple bloody pin holes in my collar than a bruised sternum. I know that grown soldiers cried when CSM ripped your rank off your collar during an Article 15.

Shouldn't it be more StarShip Troopery? or something? or maybe, with all the hi-tech attachments and stargazing goggles, uplinks and tracking thingumgoogies maybe it should be more Borg-like.. that looks like someone's old garage curtains..