TL 8 Battle Dress on Terra

[Murdoc]

I hope this is the right place for this but...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/27/lockheed_exoskeleton/

Basically a working exoskeleton meant to allow soldiers to carry heavier loads. Lightweight, modular, and customizable: you could put armor, sensors, etc. on it, for true Battle Dress style!

Watch the video clip to see it in operation.

 

[Easterner9504]

Hahaha

Yeah I want to go through a jungle with leg braces on to catch every plant, twig, branch known to biology.

 

[Gadrin]

Yeah I want to go through a jungle with leg braces on to catch every plant, twig, branch known to biology.

:rofl:

You're bad...bad!

Although I think by the time radical field testing comes into being, they'll have either a body-jumper to cover it or those lightweight plastic snap-ons to protect from the little things.

>

 

[Easterner9504]

:rofl:

You're bad...bad!

Although I think by the time radical field testing comes into being, they'll have either a body-jumper to cover it or those lightweight plastic snap-ons to protect from the little things.

>

I could get worse.

It probably feels great jumping/falling on one's hip. Wait till the greenies see the boatload of batteries left behind. Do you need the extra lift capacity just to carry the extra batteries? What happens to 5'3" & 6'3" troopers? If you topple over on your back can you get up or have to hit release? Does it rattle? How about after a week in the boonies, when you least want it too? How quiet are those Frankenstein foot pads?

Lastly why did I think Forest Gump when I saw them?

 

[Garyius2003]

I saw this on a cool cable show. The next version is going to come with armor over the frame and body.

The work ability and agility with just this early version is very nice. The fact that they only had one operator suggests a learning curve for use, though.

The tough part is that the power requirements are still so high that the source is off the suit.

If they can get the power needs down and the juice from a power cell up-- battle dress, here we come.

 

[Easterner9504]

battle dress, here we come.

Uhhh you have to crawl before you can walk. How about "PRACTICAL WORKING" combat armor first.

 

[Murdoc]

Wow, I would have thought more people would have been excited by something like this. Instead there's such negativity. Are the Traveller players getting so old that they are losing their sense of childlike wonder?

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

Not exactly.

More like impatient, since we've been on the concept for decades now and it's just so close.

 

[pierangelo]

wow great find

I actually like the bigdog myself. Personally I am of the old school carry less bleep! but I am impressed with how far they have come already. When you figure that this technology is in its infancy they are making good time.

 

[Easterner9504]

Civilian's have constantly come with 'wonder' devices since at least Vietnam, though Germany was loaded with stupid ideas in WW2 too, they may have been insider bad ideas. They invariably don't work. Unlike say 19thC when outsiders kept coming up with new things that worked and military stodgy brass didn't usually want to hear it.

So the load bearing thing looks too awkward and flimsy to survive in a combat zone. It doesn't look soldier proof. It looked more like it would evolve into Ripley's loader than battledress though.