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14th Oct 2013

The U.S. Army is making an Iron Man suit

Tony Stark won't be the only man knocking around in a suit of protective armour for too much longer

JOE

Tony Stark won’t be the only man knocking around in a suit of protective armour for too much longer

The United States Army has asked researchers at universities and laboratories around the country to get cracking on making the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, or TALOS for short, which soldiers would wear in the field.

The armour would be pretty similar to Iron Man’s get up, but possibly a little bit lighter and maybe more realistic. Still, this video shows a mock up of what the suit could look like…

The idea was conceived of Adm. Bill McRaven after one of his soldiers died trying to rescue a hostage in Afghanistan, and the lads at Special Ops have been looking into getting the scientific and tech community to work together and come up with the design.

The suit may well use nanotechnology to create a liquid-like fabric that would react to being hit by bullets, and harden on impact. The suit will also feature an extra attachable frame for further protection, and an exoskeleton that will provide “superhuman-strength” to the wearer, according to what the lads at Mashable are saying, and a 360° night vision computer so that the soldiers can see enemies from every angle.

While it sounds like something out of a science fiction novel, it’s apparently still in the pipeline for three years down the road, but we fancy giving it a go and wearing it to work ourselves, just for the craic.

Hat-tip to Mashable and Comicvine.com for the picture.

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