You’d never catch Iron Man lugging around seven kinds of batteries. But that’s exactly what U.S. Army squad leaders are required to do on 72-hour missions. The batteries, which can weigh a total of 16 pounds, are used to power radios, GPS systems and night-vision goggles. One of the goals of a newly patented variety of body armor, which has circuits and a power supply built into it, is to lighten the load that soldiers have to carry. “This is all part of a program leading to our own Iron Man,” says Val Horvatich, a program director at BAE, which is based in Arlington, Va. He keeps a life-size cutout of the film and comic-book character in his office for inspiration.

BAE’s invention is one of the first to integrate electrical capabilities and a power supply directly into body armor. Horvatich says the built-in battery can power all the gadgets a soldier or police officer must carry, saving 20 to 60 percent of equipment weight. The new technology, which is scheduled for release in December, also has sensors and wireless capabilities that will automatically notify a soldier’s team in the event of an attack.

Like an airplane that can continue flying with one damaged engine, the body armor is designed to function even if part of it is destroyed. A microprocessor built into the device will detect the hit and shut down the damaged quadrant but keep the others operational. “We call that ‘graceful degradation,’” Horvatich says. He hopes this new armor will help troops enter and exit a field of battle the same way: gracefully.

3 Comments

1. 1. Don Quixote in reply to David Cota 01:39 PM 12/24/10

   Uh, OK...maybe you read a different article than I did. Even so, I'm not sure why you would think the classification of this technology would change, especially since it's being reported in SA and not wikileaks and I'm really not sure where the CO2 part comes in. Weird. If the commercial world could support the R & D for this tech, it already would have. Some good things do come from military research, this is one of them. Applications for commercial use of this tech will undoubtedly be found, but right now, it's application is for body armor. And I'm OK with that :)

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2. 2. bucketofsquid 05:16 PM 12/27/10

   I remember reading about the viral battery construction research. I wouldn't worry too much about the military grabbing it up. The internet was a military development but is very widely available now. Anti-radar stealth technology was a military development but I'm starting to see some commercial applications show up. No matter how lithium-ion batteries are made they still are toxic and have to be disposed of as hazardous waste.

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3. 3. marc_jellinek 01:31 PM 1/1/11

   Didn't anyone else watch Apollo 13? Incompatible parts nearly killed the crew, causing them to have to jury rig the carbon dioxide removal system.
   
   Standardized critical components (like batteries) should be an SOP for all military issue items. Carrying around 7 different (presumably incompatible) kinds of batteries is asking for a non-field servicable catastrophe that will get a jarhead killed. Standardizing on set of field servicable components shouldn't be a "breakthru"

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