The Future of American Super Soldiers

In todays climate, developing new generation technology could give soldiers an advantage on the battlefield – Super Soldiers will be that advantage.

It’s not hard to believe that the Pentagon is investing money in its troops and recently they have made new technologies the focus of its research and development. It is hoped that these technologies will make sure that soldiers can fight in more fierce combat situations and make them similar to Iron Man.

From super strength and telepathy to immunity from pain, lets have a look at some of the new technologies the US Department of Defence are investing in.

Climbing Gloves and Shoes

Allowing troops to climb like geckos, it is hoped that this technology being developed under the ‘Z-Man’ project would allow soldiers to easily climb rock faces that pose a significant challenge to climbing vertically up a skyscrapers with only a pair of gloves and a pair of shoes.

If the technology gets off the ground and can be used by troops, it would give a great advantage to Special Forces personnel that sometimes need to traverse hard structures without the need to be dropped into environments where aircraft could be put in potential risk.

Powered Underwear

This DAPRA funded robotic suit is a series of fabric muscles worn under the clothes which will assist the wearer in their various movements. It is a soft exoskeleton and is aimed at reducing fatigue and increases strength without the huge amounts of power that bulkier, more rigid exoskeletons need.

This would allow troops wearing this to go on longer missions (such as patrols) without the need to rest and would allow them to travel longer periods of time, potentially with large and more heavier kits.

T-Shirts that could resist a bullet

This technology is currently available in a certain form to make a wearer resistant to stab wounds but MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies are working on an effective manufacturing method for graphene-based chainmail which could potentially give troops better protection from a T-Shirt than they currently get from bulky armoured vests that are currently issued to them.

Synthetic Blood

Whilst serving a good purpose for troops in combat situations, this technology could also be potentially great for applications outside of the military. This technology is respirocyte which is a theoretical red blood cell made from diamonds that could contain gasses at pressures of nearly 15,000 psi and exchange carbon dioxide and oxygen the same way that blood cells produced in the human body do.

This could allow for troops to never run out of breath and they could spend hours underwater without equipment. Technically this wouldn’t make a super soldier per say but would make a super human.

Leaping higher than the tallest human and run faster than Usain Bolt

This technology would seek to augment the human ankle and the Achilles tendon with bionic boots that mimic kangaroo tendons. If troops were equipped with this type of technology then they would be able to leap over two meters into the air , sprint at speeds that humans can’t currently meet and hypothetically run all day long without their muscles wearing out.

Stop your from feeling pain

Everyone could use this one but DAPRA is developing this technology in order to help soldiers bounce back from wounds immediately. The aim is to make this technology work for 30 days and would eliminate inflammation from a wound that causes the lasting agony.

So soldiers would be able to sustain a gun shot wound, treat themselves and bound right back into combat to continue a mission and be able to continue with a mission before the treatment wears off nearly a month later.

Being able to control things with your mind

Imagine a drone pilot being able to control a drone in a recon mission and only pilot it with their mind – this technology that the DoD has invested money in aims to do that. It would allow soldiers to control robotics with thought alone and would have an implant communicate with the human brain to control robots or other devices that could be half a world away.

There is concerns that with this technology that a soldiers mind could be susceptible to hacking which would give a hacker access to a computer that is faster than anything we can manufacture today.

And finally…..never needing to sleep

Again, this would be something that anyone would want (except millennials who talk a lot about naps), DAPRA is developing technology to let humans sleep with only half of their brains similar to that of dolphins or whales or even potentially skip sleep all together for long periods of time like genetically engineered mice do.

Potentially, if any of these technologies get developed, it would be pretty impressive stuff. It has the potential to create a new generation of soldiers that would be able to climb mountains, jump over enemy tanks and sustain a direct hit after being away for a week straight. It looks like US troops are up for some new kits in the future.

Source: Business Insider