TERMINATOR NOW: The Rise Of The Machines - The U.S. Military Is Building An Iron Man Suit!

<div style="text-align: justify;"><div class=""><span style="color: yellow;"><b><b><span style="color: yellow;">November 06, 2013 - UNITED STATES </span></b></b></span>- While some may view the Mark series of suits in the <i>Iron Man</i> comics and movies as science fiction, the Pentagon sees a real-world goal.<br /><br /><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2OfUYqr3ZBQ/Uno2jg6HMEI/AAAAAAABNJ0/6tEPD2j2wl0/s1600/ironman.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-2OfUYqr3ZBQ/Uno2jg6HMEI/AAAAAAABNJ0/6tEPD2j2wl0/s1600/ironman.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Iron Man 3, </i>Photograph by Walt Disney Pictures via Everett Collection</td></tr></tbody></table><br />A program to incorporate several technologies in a futuristic suit for U.S. special operations forces has started soliciting technical <a href="https://www.fbo.gov/utils/view?id=ea9a21b1d93cdcb4688efce825ca63b3">designs</a> to help deploy the first one as soon as next year. The aim of the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (Talos) is to give special ops fighters greater protection inside armor that can withstand bullets, all while downloading live video data from drones and other sources. The suit would have a powered exoskeleton that could help a soldier move quickly while carrying heavy weight. “It also would carry a built-in oxygen supply in case of poison gas, a cooling system to keep soldiers comfortable, and sensors to <a href="http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-ironman-military-20131030,0,2263878.story#axzz2jEerKPDU">transmit the wearer’s vital signs</a> back to headquarters,” according to a report in the <i>Los Angeles Times</i>.<br /><br />The suit won’t imitate the movies in one critical way, at least for many, many years: There will be no zooming around the globe at jet speeds. Flight is a fanciful, Herculean technical hurdle, and isn’t core to the suit’s primary goals. A more practical challenge shared with the fictional Tony Stark is perfecting the proper battery to power such a suit, given the perennial conflict between size and weight and the need to keep the suit flexible and not burdensome.<br /><br />The project is being overseen by the U.S. Special Operations Command, based at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa. Unlike a traditional defense contracting program, the Special Operations Command is gathering technologies required for the project and will itself integrate them into a final suit prototype. A second demonstration of various components for the suit is scheduled for Nov. 20, roughly four months after the initial session in Tampa. About 60 products have been submitted so far, although no funds have been allotted to any company, said Lieutenant Commander Li Cohen. The first fighters assigned to the suits will likely be on “kinetic missions,” she said, where there’s a high probability of combat and weapons fire.<br /><br />The program is on track to have a “first-generation capability” by summer 2014, according to a video produced by the command. “I am very committed to this because I’d like that last operator that we lost to be the last one that we ever lose, in this fight or in the fight of the future,” Admiral William McRaven, who leads the Special Operations Command, says in the video.<br /><br />The program has attracted interest from dozens of mostly smaller firms, although <span class="ticker_wrap"><span itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Corporation"><span itemprop="name">Raytheon</span></span> (<a class="ticker" data-symbol="RTN" href="http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=RTN">RTN</a>)</span> is one of the larger Pentagon contractors that’s expressed interest in Talos and similar efforts. The company declined to comment because the work is competitive. One technology that Raytheon has been working on for several years is an exoskeleton system that would allow a soldier to move heavy weights.<br /><br />Clark Gregg, the agent who plays Agent Phil Coulson in the <i>Iron Man</i> and <i>Avengers</i> movies and on the <span class="ticker_wrap"><span itemscope="" itemtype="http://schema.org/Corporation"><span itemprop="name">ABC</span></span> (<a class="ticker" data-symbol="DIS" href="http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/snapshot/snapshot.asp?ticker=DIS">DIS</a>)</span> television show <i>S.H.I.E.L.D.</i>, visited Raytheon’s research facility in Utah in 2010 to observe and test the exoskeleton. Raytheon posted a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVIE33tMyQM">video</a> on its YouTube channel. Consider it a teaser trailer of sorts.<br /><br /><br /><span style="color: lime;"><b>WATCH:</b></span>  'Iron Man' Actor Clark Gregg Spends a Day With the Raytheon Sarcos XOS 2 Exoskeleton.  <br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="321" src="https://www.youtube.com/v/tVIE33tMyQM?showinfo=0&version=3" width="570"></iframe></div><br /><br /><br />- <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-11-04/u-dot-s-dot-special-ops-seeks-designs-for-iron-man-type-suit-flight-not-necessary"><span style="color: orange;"><b>Business Week</b></span></a>.<br /><br /><br /><br /></div>

Cyborgs DARPA European Exoskeleton Iron Man Iron Man Suit Kinetic Missions Military Movie Symbolism Pentagon Raytheon Robots TALOS Technology Terminator U.S. Special Operations TERMINATOR NOW: The Rise Of The Machines - The U.S. Military Is Building An Iron Man Suit!

November 06, 2013 - UNITED STATES - While some may view the Mark series of suits in the Iron Man comics and movies as science fiction, the Pentagon sees a real-world goal.Iron Man 3, Photograph by Walt Disney Pictures via Everett CollectionA program…

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Forbes, Wittman, Rigell: 'Sequester impact on military a disgrace'

By Reps. Randy Forbes, Rob Wittman, and Scott Rigell<br /><a href="http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/dp-nws-oped-congressmen-0922-20130921,0,2135044.story">The Daily Press</a><br /><br />If you were told that your son or daughter was going to fly on an airplane that had only 70 percent of its required maintenance, or whose pilot had trained for less hours than optimally required to maintain proficiency, would you allow him or her to get on the plane? Of course not. Yet thanks to sequestration, the U.S. military is facing a situation where our sons and daughters are being asked to do more with less training, less maintenance, and less modern platforms. Today, the military is experiencing the greatest readiness crisis since the Vietnam War. Should the president and Congress fail to find a solution to our nation's budget woes, readiness will likely degrade even further. Forced to find immediate savings, the services have curtailed training and deferred maintenance in ways that threaten to damage our national security for decades.<br /><br />Sequestration's roughly $500 billion in defense cuts over the next decade have come on top of the administration's already substantial reductions to national defense spending. Accordingly, the services have chosen to absorb the majority of these cuts by reducing their near-term readiness, which generally means less training for the men and women wearing our nation's uniform.<br /><br />For Army and Marine units, other than those scheduled for deployment to Afghanistan, this means substantially less time firing live ammunition and fewer opportunities to train with the vehicles they may eventually take into combat.<br /><br /><i>Read the rest of this article <a href="http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/dp-nws-oped-congressmen-0922-20130921,0,2135044.story">here</a>.</i>

Daily Press Military Randy Forbes Rob Wittman Scott Rigell sequester U.S. government U.S. military Forbes, Wittman, Rigell: 'Sequester impact on military a disgrace'

By Reps. Randy Forbes, Rob Wittman, and Scott RigellThe Daily PressIf you were told that your son or daughter was going to fly on an airplane that had only 70 percent of its required maintenance, or whose pilot had trained for less hours than optimal…

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