Invincible Soldiers

I was watching the new show 2057 on the discovery channel and I saw that scientists are developing a material for armor that is basically invincible. when a bullet hits it it becomesextremely stiff and the bullet ricochees of of it. And when a soldier is just moving around normally, it is extremely flexible. Any thoughts on this?

Are you referring to Dragon Skin? It's a type of body armor with individual approx 2 inch discs banded to some type of Kevlar-type cloth that resemble scales.

Here is the Wikpedia link: Dragon Skin

Here's a quote from above source:

Fresno, CA police officers ordered it after a vest stopped all the bullets fired during a test, including .308 rounds from a sniper rifle and 30 rounds from a fully automatic MP-5 fired from 5 feet away. Ninety-eight federal, state, and local law enforcement officers witnessed the SWAT test. The armor also stopped 40 rounds of PS-M1943 mild steel core bullets from an AK-47 along with 200 9 mm FMJ military ball bullets fired from a submachine gun.[4]

Freakin' IMPRESSIVE. One thing they're not saying is on the same program, I saw the vest survive A GRENADE BLAST!!!

Nothing's impenetrable, but this armor comes close.

mod edit: changed to external quote tags



[edit on 3-3-2007 by UK Wizard]

heres a video of it..i think
www.metacafe.com...

haha

Hes talking about americas future soldier, with the nanobots and the exo skeleton...



Its the future soldier concept of 2025

Here are some links about the future soldier. I believe it talks about the liquid amor..
members.cox.net...
www.military.com...

We had a thread about the future soldier a while back..
here it is. www.abovetopsecret.com...

But wouldn't that be no match for a plasma attack or a high powered laser? What about a railgun also? Railgun should already be available by 2025. So if the suit cannot stop those, the Future Soldier plan may abandon the current armor scheme (better liquid armor) and go with a newer one over time that will be still as flexible.



[edit on 3-3-2007 by wildcat]

[edit on 3-3-2007 by wildcat]

Railguns and laser weapons aren't likely to be used in the field in 2025 or anytime for a loooong time. Most warfare from here on out is going to be asymmetric warfare, so the primary concern will be bullets, ides, EFPs, etc. Low tech, not high tech.

We already have laser turret defense systems, the United States Navy already has a working rail gun which is scheduled to be released by 2020. It can shoot 300 nautical miles and can accelerate a bullet at a speed of 13,000 miles per hour in 0.2 seconds. Its not as far fetched as you might think.

www.military.com...
www.military.com...
www.defensetech.org...

Heres another link about the rail gun.
Navy 'Rail Gun' Moves Forward
fredericksburg.com...

And it seems that General atomics has been awarded a contract with the navy to build a 32 mega jolt rail gun.
General Atomics Team Awarded Contract for Naval Electromagnetic Rail Gun Launcher Project
www.ga.com...

Im sure as the technology on the future soldier develops it will better counter these possible threats that will be out there by 2020-2025..

[edit on 033131p://4103pm by semperfoo]

[edit on 033131p://4703pm by semperfoo]

[edit on 4-3-2007 by wildcat]

Uh, semperfoo. A soldier isn't going to deflect a shot from a Navy destroyer, no matter what you do.

Well yeah.
The Armor wont stop you getting boiled alive in intense heat, or suffocated, or deafened by intense noise, or your bones and internal organs being shattered by extreme impact.

It wont turn you into Robocop.

An you still have to old Knights in Armor problem... your joint are a weakness.

Perhaps impervious to small arms fire, but never large cannon fire.

When vehicles and ships get involved, you can basically kiss infantry good bye without the proper support.

Railguns and lasers? I really hope we're not expressing one or two projects by 2020 to replace all forms of weaponry and equipment. Fielding these weapons effectively in the field and in mass probably will not happen in this generation.

Also note that the theoretical railgun cannot be achieved for the simple fact that there is not a single power source of size and specific dimensions and weight to deliver enough power for a projectile to be accelerated to near speed of light. So when they say "Railguns" they don't mean true railguns, they just mean a weapon that's based off of it only it launches a projectile at maybe mach 5 or 6.

Power requirements have and always will be the deciding factor in Science Fiction weapons such as plasma cannons, railguns, guass cannons, mass drivers, particle beam accelerators, and gattling laser weaponry.

Shattered OUT...

I've heard of a new armor being studied at the moment. Spider Silk which is what the spider makes it's web with, has been found to be stronger then steel. The only problem is mass producing it. Supposedly they are genetically altering sheep so they can grow this spider silk with their wool. The armor would be as light and flexible as nylon but then stronger then steel.

whoa easy peeps. Im not saying that this armor will stop a large projectile that is at over 13,000 mph. Though it might have sounded that way. Im saying that a smaller more compact rifle that might have rail gun mechanics in it might be ineffective against this armor say in 2020-2025. No one really knows. that is my opinion. I didnt claim it to be the gospel..

This may be a stupid question, but what about bow and arrow?

this armor is more than likely based off that experiment we all did (should have done?) in high school where u mixed corn starch and water until you got hte right consistancy and created a "non newtonian substance" where it had the properties of a liquid and a solid. you can drag your finger or whatever though it slowly but if yoiu hit it or try to stab it it forms a solid and is quite hard.

now im not saying they will be filling little pouches with water and corn starch but my guess is they are looking for materials which will behave in that fashion, only dear god i hope they find one thats lighter than that.

I saw this stuff demonstrated can't remember where but I remember it's silicon based and is still in early expirimental stages. But it does work on the same principle on the corn starch water thing. It's basically a vest with a cavity filled with this silicone gel that turns hard as steel when it comes under a sudden shock.

The best thing about it wasn't the bullet stopping capacity but it's shock absorbing ability. If you get shot with a vest on it will knock you of your feet and could suffer a couple of broken ribs or even internal bleeding but this new material stopped the initial impact and then the fluid dissipated the shock to the whole vest and limited any injuries'

Originally posted by ShatteredSkies

Railguns and lasers?

No, I meant like a Thermal High Energy Laser on the back of a vehicle. And what if another country gets a hold of technology in the Active Denial System? Energy weapons will be a reality near 2025. Not really an entire replacement, but additional with bullets.

build a better mousetrap....


and someone will build a better mouse.

I actually posted a thread about this here:

"Super-Suit"