Powered Combat Suit

Anarchist Bunny · Post by **Anarchist Bunny** » 2002-12-30 07:28pm

The suits the army is devolping with electroncis would not be stoped dead or slowed down by EMP. They'd just lose some nifty features.

My personal favorite power suit is Samus Aran's. Infared, computer automated targeting, x-ray, and a scanning visor that seems able to download files off of computers and operate electronic locks and switches. Energy beam, electric wave type beam with paralysis effects, a freezing beam, a plasma beam that transfers large ammounts of heat into what it hits, missles of varying strength w/ice mode that can effect a entire room(diffusion from Metroid Fusion), bombs of varying strengths, ability to morph into a ball to fit into tight spaces, ability to jump almost endlessly, etc, etc, etc, etc.

CJvR · Post by **CJvR** » 2002-12-30 07:58pm

You want to be inside an armored powersuit when the enemy break out stuff like this?

http://world.guns.ru/sniper/sn46-e.htm

Punches through 40 mm armor at 1000 meters, a PS would need armor like a tank - so we might as well build a tank instead...

jaeger115 · Post by **jaeger115** » 2002-12-30 08:11pm

Ok, lets drop the locomotion thing and focus on armor and targeting. Genetic engineering could provide the soldier with the necessary enhancements.

Oberleutnant · Post by **Oberleutnant** » 2002-12-30 08:12pm

Here's more about the Soldier 2025 program:
http://bbs.stardestroyer.net/viewtopic. ... light=2025

andrewgpaul · Post by **andrewgpaul** » 2002-12-30 08:22pm

The Nomad wrote:Culture combat suits kick ass, too.

The "serious FYT" suit, you mean?

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2002-12-30 08:33pm

Sea Skimmer wrote:Its not power armor as we normally think of it, mostly because it has no armor. It's basically a powered backpack.

I kind of like the suits featured in Half-Life. The HEV Mark 4 is basically a lightly armored hazardous environment suit (hence it's name). Its armor system, according to the HEV computer, is a high-impact armor layer underneath some sort of reactive armor system. The HEV is also completely sealed, serving as an NBC/vacuum suit. It's not the most realistic design, though.

Somewhat more realistic is the PCV (Powered Combat Vest) that the Marines get in Opposing Force. It's not as much of a powered armor system as it is an armored vest. It has medical links and can administer drugs when necessary; it also provides some protection against weapons fire.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2002-12-30 09:11pm

CJvR wrote:You want to be inside an armored powersuit when the enemy break out stuff like this?

http://world.guns.ru/sniper/sn46-e.htm

Punches through 40 mm armor at 1000 meters, a PS would need armor like a tank - so we might as well build a tank instead...

Such would be just as lethal if you don't have any armor. The main value of powered armor is it offers protection against area fires like shell fragments and bursts from light auto cannon rounds. Currently those will slice apart soldiers even with vests.

The Nomad · Post by **The Nomad** » 2002-12-31 06:15am

andrewgpaul wrote:
The Nomad wrote:Culture combat suits kick ass, too.
The "serious FYT" suit, you mean?

Yep.

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2003-01-01 08:00pm

All I can think of when I read about such complicated suits is the maintenance nightmare they would entail for my soldiers. Soldiers already are weighed down with PMCS on vehicles and equipment (the proper conduct of which is more the exception rather than the rule). The addition of such a "supersuit" would catapult maintenance into a much more time-consuming role. Furthermore, what happens when the thing partially or completely fails in battle? Then it's back to BRM and fire and manuever, while the discarded suit lies expensively aside.

jaeger115 · Post by **jaeger115** » 2003-01-01 08:11pm

Okay, I understand the problem. Now i prefer an armor suit for the soldier that's lightweight and tough and doesn't require the locomotion system. But we need to slim down, though...

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-01-01 08:21pm

People here seem to be confusing the point in powered armour, yeah, a soldier wears that armour but it is inevitably outdone by a 40mm cannon or 120mm rifle. Guess what? When was the last time you used those against infantry? And another thing, the suit ISN'T DESIGNED TO TAKE 40MM ROUND! If it were then they'd build a bloody tank!

Think people, this suit is to take small arms fire which is still lethal to armoured soldiers now WITHOUT degrading mobilty which is already hindered by the amount of field kit carried by a regular grunt now.

Servos will also be out since they are complicated and unreliable at times, as has been said it will be artificial muscle fibre since Nature has already shown us how such technology is superior to loads of overly complicated motors.

As for the armour, there are polymers and even ceramic and metal plates being made now to combat fire in the field. Even if the suit was only a small exoskeleton, it could still hole a few of these tiles in strategic areas on the body such as major organ line. Remember, the suit has to be mobile and small enough to give the advantage infantry has over humans, that is, being stealthier and more mobile. You could build a IFV but it would then be a nice big welcome sign for MBTs.

We won't be seeing such things yet since DARPA is working on an outrigger for legs to make them strengethened and more capable for soldiers, but proper power armour may be feasible in the future but not like Heinlein, Samus, Master Chief or the Culture. In fact the armour in MGS2 is pretty funky and doable.

jaeger115 · Post by **jaeger115** » 2003-01-01 08:35pm

In fact the armour in MGS2 is pretty funky and doable.

What's the MGS2?

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-01-01 08:45pm

jaeger115 wrote:
In fact the armour in MGS2 is pretty funky and doable.
What's the MGS2?

MGS2 = Metal Gear Solid 2, a game by Konami on the PS2 which is about special-forces in the near future (MGS2 takes place around 2007 but I doubt we'd have the tech they have then in some instances).

Search for Solidus Snake and look at the outfit, it's a USN made powered armour suit that can take M-4 rounds and even grenades in close proximity. It doesn't make the wearer run at Mach 1 nor lift a tank up or take tank shells or carry particle beam cannons. But it is fairly small and light and enhances in the areas DARPA is looking at. It's more a realistic view than most other universes.

I mean the Culture Gelfield Mk.12 environment suit is usually tested in volcanoes for a laugh, it can take far more than that and it's only a few millimetres thick!

Crayz9000 · Post by **Crayz9000** » 2003-01-01 08:47pm

Admiral Valdemar wrote:Search for Solidus Snake and look at the outfit, it's a USN made powered armour suit that can take M-4 rounds and even grenades in close proximity. It doesn't make the wearer run at Mach 1 nor lift a tank up or take tank shells or carry particle beam cannons. But it is fairly small and light and enhances in the areas DARPA is looking at. It's more a realistic view than most other universes.

I find it kind of amusing that games have more realistic powerarmor suits than most sci-fi. First Half-Life, now Metal Gear Solid...

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-01-01 08:55pm

Crayz9000 wrote:
Admiral Valdemar wrote:Search for Solidus Snake and look at the outfit, it's a USN made powered armour suit that can take M-4 rounds and even grenades in close proximity. It doesn't make the wearer run at Mach 1 nor lift a tank up or take tank shells or carry particle beam cannons. But it is fairly small and light and enhances in the areas DARPA is looking at. It's more a realistic view than most other universes.
I find it kind of amusing that games have more realistic powerarmor suits than most sci-fi. First Half-Life, now Metal Gear Solid...

'Tis quite funny, though literature is usually more realistic than transmittable media.

The HEV suit would be perfect for scientists working in extreme hazard areas, but then it was made for that purpose.

I liked the Cyborg Ninja suit in MGS alomg with the katana and optic-camo that made for a damned good genetically engineered assassin.

Incidentally, genetic and cybernetic improvements would be better than power armour if you wanted durability and speed still without the risk of an expensive suit.

jaeger115 · Post by **jaeger115** » 2003-01-01 09:16pm

Checked MGS2 out.... Sounds plausible, though the armor looks a bit too heavy

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2003-01-01 09:23pm

jaeger115 wrote:Checked MGS2 out.... Sounds plausible, though the armor looks a bit too heavy

It looks better ingame, the tentacle addition looks good but I have a feeling the words "Hentai" and "virgin schoolgirls" crops up too much as a mental image when I think of them so they are a no go. The two katanas are nice as well.

jaeger115 · Post by **jaeger115** » 2003-01-01 10:33pm

It looks better ingame, the tentacle addition looks good but I have a feeling the words "Hentai" and "virgin schoolgirls" crops up too much as a mental image when I think of them so they are a no go. The two katanas are nice as well.

You have such a twisted, dirty mind that you need to be contained in a small steel room for thirty years with robotic Barbies

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-01-02 12:31am

When you consider how much difficulty they're having in just making a practical electric car which isn't mostly battery-weight (and that's a trifle compared to a walking power-suit), you will see why I don't hold out much hope for these things.

The idea of a lightweight combat suit with onboard batteries or fuel cells (which are more compact but which require much more equipment to produce electricity), replacements for leg muscles that are so sensitive and well-balanced that they help the soldier's mobility rather than hindering it, and full-coverage armour (with the attendant weight increase which requires stronger motors, which requires bigger batteries, which increases the size of the suit even more) is conceptually impractical on many levels. These "Bionic Man" jumps would be murder on the suit (try building something to take those kinds of repetitive shocks without damage) and murder on the guy inside it, too (I don't care what kind of suit you're in; if you jump 30 feet in the air and come down, it will not be a pleasant landing).

So what do we do? Add jets now? OK, let's add rocket fuel to the mix, plus outboard engines. Do you see where I'm going? This is a bloody mess, any way you slice it. A realistic future armour would be more like stormtrooper armour; non-powered, designed to deflect shrapnel and provide superior combat co-ordination and sensory input with a minimum of discomfort and complexity.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2003-01-02 01:04am

To be honest, no matter how cool powered armor is, soldierboys are a much better idea (ala "Forever Peace" by Joe Haldeman).

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-01-02 01:14am

Balrog wrote:Sucks to the Land Warrior program, Future Soldier 2025's is the way to go

What so all the enemies can die laughing at the attack of the American power rangers?

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-01-02 01:17am

An infantryman should always have the bare minimum of equipment. Look at that goon. Any schmuck with an AK could still kill him.

Assault rifle, webbing, body armor in some situations. That's all.

Gil Hamilton · Post by **Gil Hamilton** » 2003-01-02 01:17am

Vympel wrote:What so all the enemies can die laughing at the attack of the American power rangers?

They won't be laughing when 5 of our boys suddenly combine into a megasoldier and kick their ass.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-01-02 01:17am

Why isn't the Power Ranger carrying a rifle?

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-01-02 01:18am

Darth Wong wrote:Why isn't the Power Ranger carrying a rifle?

See that lump on his right wrist? That's his weapon. Mini smart missiles or some such nonsense