SPACE.com -- Super Soldiers: Tomorrow's 'Army of One' Technology:
"Within three years, soldiers could begin testing futuristic devices that make them each 'an army of one' by granting them unprecedented capabilities, such as the ability to see through walls thanks to advanced radar scopes and super-protection and super-strength conferred by high-tech armor.
Although some of the technologies could take years to reach actual battlefields, novel devices developed by the U.S. Army's Future Force Warrior initiative such as advanced sound equipment and smarter lasers should be available to active soldiers as soon as 2010, promising to make them more lethal than ever.
They'll also be better protected. For example, current armor can keep bullets and shrapnel from wounding soldiers directly, but they can carry shock waves to the body that can break ribs and cause other injuries. Improvements will provide a more protective 2-inch gap between soldiers and their armor.
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Also, by 2010, body-worn sensors that monitor respiration, heart rate, and shock waves from bullets, will let medics know right away when soldiers get injured.
'They will also tell a soldier's distance and direction, so a medic knows where to go,' said Jean-Louis 'Dutch' DeGay, an equipment specialist at the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass.
The Borg effect
Soldiers will also get lasers to mount on their weapons to relay the location of enemies to everyone with whom and to which they are networked, ranging from other soldiers to Apache helicopters to Abrams tanks, DeGay explained.
'We call it the Borg effect,' DeGay told SPACE.com, referring to the Star Trek cyborgs linked together to form a nearly unstoppable force."
"Within three years, soldiers could begin testing futuristic devices that make them each 'an army of one' by granting them unprecedented capabilities, such as the ability to see through walls thanks to advanced radar scopes and super-protection and super-strength conferred by high-tech armor.
Although some of the technologies could take years to reach actual battlefields, novel devices developed by the U.S. Army's Future Force Warrior initiative such as advanced sound equipment and smarter lasers should be available to active soldiers as soon as 2010, promising to make them more lethal than ever.
They'll also be better protected. For example, current armor can keep bullets and shrapnel from wounding soldiers directly, but they can carry shock waves to the body that can break ribs and cause other injuries. Improvements will provide a more protective 2-inch gap between soldiers and their armor.
More to Explore
Future Warrior
A gallery of high-tech gear that will help a soldier function like an army of one.
Top 10 Weapons in History
Power is a fragile thing, and a handful of technologies have tipped the balance.
Also, by 2010, body-worn sensors that monitor respiration, heart rate, and shock waves from bullets, will let medics know right away when soldiers get injured.
'They will also tell a soldier's distance and direction, so a medic knows where to go,' said Jean-Louis 'Dutch' DeGay, an equipment specialist at the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass.
The Borg effect
Soldiers will also get lasers to mount on their weapons to relay the location of enemies to everyone with whom and to which they are networked, ranging from other soldiers to Apache helicopters to Abrams tanks, DeGay explained.
'We call it the Borg effect,' DeGay told SPACE.com, referring to the Star Trek cyborgs linked together to form a nearly unstoppable force."
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