Communications equipment, weapons, extra ammo, dinner for the next two nights — the stuff troops have to lug around just keeps getting heavier. The Army brass recognizes that it’s getting ridiculous, but isn’t so sure how to lighten the load. Defense contractors say not to bother: just strap on a robotic exoskeleton and it’ll bear the burden better than even the toughest human backs.
Soldiers need to stay in touch with each other when they’re on dismounted patrols in dangerous places. But their portable computers and radios — and all the batteries that power them — can quickly get cumbersome. “It makes you a slower, heavier target,” one sergeant wearing the Army’s gadget-heavy Land Warrior ensemble told Noah a while back.
Then there’s all of the specialized gear that troops take on missions — night vision attachments, medical supplies — which can bring the weight of their kits over 100 pounds. “I tell people in my office, ‘Stop hanging stuff on the kids like they’re Christmas trees,'” Brigadier General Peter Fuller, the Army’s top officer for buying the stuff soldiers wear, said at a Washington conference Tuesday, Defense News reports.
Fuller’s trying to get rid of redundant gear, like surplus surveillance eyewear, which would help keep the battery weight down. But the demand among soldiers for staying connected and downloading intel they can use on the go is increasing. And even though the Army canceled the problematic Land Warrior in 2007, last year it started re-awarding contracts to make a streamlined version of the gear, weighing 7 pounds as opposed to 16. All that suggests the Army hasn’t quite gotten a handle on the problem. Fuller conceded it requires “rocket science” to figure out how to keep soldiers on secure mobile networks without overburdening their backs and knees.
But maybe Fuller doesn’t have to sweat it. At least two defense companies have sponsored rival scientists for years to develop “wearable robots” — battery-enhanced mobile exoskeletons whose hydraulics can handle even a greater load than what troops carry. As we reported last month, Raytheon is pitching its new XOS 2 wearable robot as a “real-life Iron Man,” equipped not just to help soldiers carry up to 150 pounds of personal gear but to help them lift their unit’s heavy equipment. And in the metal-riffic video above, Lockheed Martin’s Human Universal Load Carrier armor unveiled last year — yes, the acronym is HULC — allows troops to leap and sprint at speeds up to 10 miles an hour across mountaintops while carrying up to 200 pounds worth of stuff. Why strain your back when robot hydraulics can do the heavy lifting? Lockheed’s partner, Berkley Bionics, even used the HULC design to build eLEGS, an exoskeleton that allows paraplegics to walk again using sensors in the unit’s crutches.
In July, Lockheed won a $1.1 million contract with the Army to test the HULC exoskeleton. Should tests go well, it’s possible that other companies might design their own robo-suits. Even other services might get into the act. The Air Force’s “Batman” suit for its elite airmen lacks hydraulics, but it’s based around a “Human Chassis” scaffold that straps computers and imagery gear to airmen, powered by lighter methanol fuel cells. And the Marines have wanted exoskeletons for years.
We’re hearing there’ll be some exoskeleton news to report coming out of the Association of the U.S. Army’s annual D.C. extravaganza later this month. For soldiers weary with back pain, it probably can’t come fast enough.
