Army, MIT Unveil Futuristic Soldier Center
abcnews.go.com
May 22 — CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Reuters) - If you ask the U.S. Army's chief scientist what the future American soldier may look like, he points to the science fiction body armor depicted in the "Predator" movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Mock futuristic warriors took center stage on Thursday at the debut of The Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies. Last year, The Massachusetts Institute of Technology won a $50 million Army contract to form a center that develops combat gear using materials the size of atoms.
The idea is to develop high-tech gear that would allow soldiers to become partially invisible, leap over walls, and treat their own wounds on the battlefield.
"If you want to visualize the impact of nanotechnology, think about" the movie "Predator," U.S. Army Chief Scientist Michael Andrews told Reuters. "It's about the ability to have a uniform that protects you totally against your environment."
Instead of bulky bullet-proof vests made of Kevlar, ISN scientists envision uniforms lined with a slurry of fluids that respond to magnetic fields, creating an armor system that can go from flexible to stiff during combat.
"This predator, until he took his uniform off, he was the meanest SOB in the world," Andrews said. "Nobody could kill him. That suit is science fiction, but it portrays what might be possible."
MIT and the U.S. Army are joined by several U.S. corporations in a scientific collaboration motivated by patriotism, intellectual curiosity and capitalism.
DuPont Co. <DD.N>, for example, will explore creating light-weight uniforms that change colors on command to camouflage soldiers in changing environments. Other ideas include weaving radio communication materials directly into a uniform's fabric or creating a fuel cell the size of a transistor radio.
Standard soldier gear typically weighs up to 120 pounds. The goal is to cut that weight by more than half.
"Within five years we will see the first inklings of what might give us probably increased ballistic protection," Andrews said. |
