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Man creates real world Halo suit
Author: Ryan GarsidePublished: 16th January 2007
The Halo-like suit that makes Robocop look like a girl.
This new, military-standard suit, designed by a Canadian inventor called Troy Hurtubise, is pretty spectacular. Not only does it look almost identical to the suit worn by Halo hero, Master Chief, but it performs many of the same functions.
For starters, the suit is effective against knife, blunt melee, bullet and explosive attacks. So well designed is the suit that Hurtubise also claims it can protect the wearer from a shot from an elephant gun. For those who don't know, an elephant gun is one designed to have enough stopping power to fell an elephant. This armour is therefore, pretty effective.
Those aren't its only features. Alongoside the magnetic gun holsters, the suit has emergency compartments for morphine and salt injections in an emergency, as well as an emergency light and a knife. The helmet contains an air filtration system powered by solar panels as well as a tube hook-up so soldiers can easily get to water. The whole suit cost $15,000 to design and will cost $2,000 a piece to produce. The inventor hopes the 18 KG weight will be light enough to make the suit practical for all environments, and hopes to see Coalition troops using it out in Iraq.
The designer of the suit is famed for his work on Project Grizzly. Hurtubise recorded a film-come-documentary as he trialled a suit that he hoped would protect him from bears, an extract taken from Wikipedia describes some of the scenarios the inventor placed himself in:
"Hurtubise approached a tall, heavy biker and his colleagues, and paid them to attack him while wearing the suit, with baseball bats, splitting mauls, and wooden two by fours. The suit survived, as did Hurtubise, while the weapons were reduced to splinters. Other tests included an impact by a swinging 300-pound log, a feat that the Ripley's Believe It or Not television program later attempted with a BMW, as well as tossing him down the side of an escarpment."
There is no word on how the new, military-grade suit would cope with toilet or cigarette breaks as of yet. Our only hope is that the suit's built in voice unit makes soldiers sound like Darth Vader. We consider that an absolute must.
Think these suits will catch on, or is it all just an elaborate hoax? Let us know your thoughts in the forum.
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Comments (57)Stats: 0.056 seconds
I'd think this needs a bit of a redesign before any military force would put this into action... but $2000 is a small cost for them so I can assume they'd snatch these up.
I'm really wondering how it withstood a shot from an elephant gun though... them things be penetrative... myabe an anti-tank gun test next?
hahhaa, what a tool, the us army would never pay him, they would just steal his idea, assasinate him and his family and claim that they died from fatal accidents caused by small metal projectiles.
[stereotyping]All they would have to do is shoot two black people and drag them to the crime scene
"drug deal gone bad. case solved"[/stereotyping]
[EDIT]
On a side note, if he's willing to do a live test with an elephant gun, he'd better make sure his "major joints" are covered, those things will likely blow the limb off :O that wouldn't be very good for awareness of it's "military capabilities"
would love one of these... would wear it all the time :D
<A88>
18KG is roughly equivelent to 36 pounds, so yes, you do weight that much :p
I think the normal upper body armour, has about a 25 lbs of weight, so it could be used, but stamina would definately decrease
Dream on. If guerrilla warfare has taught us anything (well, tried to anyway) it is that low-tech lateral resourcefulness and determination always outwit high-tech one-track-mindedness and arrogance...
http://mediax.muchosucko.com/movies/biggun1.wmv
The simple solution being to sneak up behind them and push them over ;) Then of course, because we're talking about extremists, shoot them in the back a few hundred times at point blank range with high velocity weaponary.
Power is nothing without control ? :)
...and the classic line:
There's going to be a technology level at which guerilla tactics and greater knowledge cannot counter the tech gap. Right now most militia's and guerilla fighters are around 60 years behind modern fighters. Thing is though, while modern armies are continually being updated militas seem destined to keep using 1940/1950's level tech indefinately. If as DARPA is hoping for, they can get platoons of soldiers marching super fast, jumping super high, and going for days at a time - natural resourcefullness is going to start to run out of usefullness.
I think the American army have a lot more funds than our piddly brittish army.
I can't see this suit being used really. I'm sure someone else in military and ballistic science/research have already created such armour, it's either inpractical for duty, or too expensive. I can't believe he thinks he's the only one to have built such plating..?
EDIT:: hang on, the helmet has got a lovely AC (read FAN) system in it however the body dosent!!!
Thats going to be one hell of a hot and sweaty suit if you start running about in it I think he should do temperature tests in it next. Just to see if anything needs modding
It's about time somebody made something like this. How can they not see, it works in all our favorite games, why not put it in practice.
Anyways for the cost, I think it would be a great addition to the armed forces, if not just for the coolness factor.
In all seriousness, I think it's a briliant idea, and I'm sure he's thought of something as fundamental as being able to use the bathroom, otherwise the whole thing is pointless. Just imagine the INTIMIDATION factor this thing has alone! Imagine facing a platoon of soldiers that looked like that? Don't know about you, but I'd just run away immediately.
It looks nothing like a Halo suit.
Ah, but you're missing tyhe point, Spec. Guerillas have an advantage no occuping army can match, invisibility. As long as you can't tell a harmless villager from an armed guerilla, you can't defeat the guerillas without killing all the villagers. The more you hurt the villagers, the more you support the guerillas. Keep in mind that war, all war, is fundamentally political in nature. Wars are ultimatly won not on the battlefield, but in the hearts and minds of the population.
Besides, if you kill a soldier with a pointy stick, you can take his shiny gun.
1. Neck and hands exposed - proof against a knife attack? nope.
2. No cooling for body.
3. piss poor field of view which would be nightmare in combat.
4. Laser pointer on head for targeting?!? Oh ffs useless and only points out most of the time where YOU are. dumbass
I'm sure it has alot of other problems too...
You'd never be able to get an entire army in this stuff though.
Bit silly anyway as soldiers will be replaced by remote controlled robots soon :p
As it is, I think there's more change of police forces addoption something like this, rather than the military. RoboCop it is...
Incidentally, I have grave doubts about the claimed weight/protection. The latest issue British body armour in use in Iraq/Afghanistan will stop a 7.62mm (I assume x54mm) AP round and weighs about 15kg. He's claiming better protection over the whole body for a 3kg weight increase. That's something I simply do not believe.
[darth vader voice] DIE TERRORIST SCUM!!!![/darth vader voice] :D
molotov cocktail... :(
bloomin hell :D
I'm sure with further development they could be under 15kg, which in it's self isn't all that much
i'm rather thin and 6ft something and i weight 4x that, and would properly be fine carrying that extra weight for a good few hours?
These wouldn't be used on a day to day basis anyway. More likely they would see use in "black ops" where troops are entering enclosed spaces at high speed in order to take down the enemy as fast as possible. In that case the high levels of protection outweigh the disadvantage of weight because endurance isn't an issue when the whole operation won't take more than 15 minutes.
He needs to work on the helmet IMO. A full visor made from lexan would be better but I guess his budget didn't include one-off productions of optically perfect, bullet resistant polymers.
Integrate some kind HUD and it'd be perfect.
http://www.baytoday.ca/content/news/details.asp?c=6657
Sounds like another nut case.
Most recently, Hurtubise has supposedly designed the Angel Light, a large device that he claims can see through objects, detect stealth aircraft, see into flesh, and disable electronic devices. Hurtubise says that the design for the Angel Light came to him in a series of three dreams, and that he was able to build it from memory, with no schematic and worked on the first try.
It came to him in a dream...nutso
The dragon skin armor that's being tested in Iraq right now by the US ways about 17 pounds, and this is weights a little more than the standard SAPI plates. But it offers better protection for multiple hits and covers more body area, so his total body suit weighing 15kg isn't that unrealistic.
- You could lure him in a building and torch it. Poor visibility makes it tricky to get out. Let's see how well he copes getting boiled in the shell alive.
- Throw a jar of Army ants at him and watch them get into all the nooks and crannies of the suit. And then they start biting... Low-tech bio-warfare at its best.
- It has no serious cooling so in hot climates it is going to be pretty toasty. How much water does a human sweat in such temperatures again? And hauling 18Kgs of armour makes you a bit slow... not a great range, then.
DARPA may think of powered exoskeletons but they are extremely high-maintenance and limited in range --the power has to come from somewhere and their maintenance brings a whole infrastructure (think base with tools, parts, engineers) with them.
Local guerrillas meanwhile are low-maintenance and can set up and break up camp any time, anywhere. They don't have fancy technology so they have had a lifetime of experience in solving their problems the creative, low-tech way. They have had a lifetime of hardship to make them resilient. They know the land --what is edible and drinkable, what is poisonous, what is dangerous, the terrain, the pitfalls.
And most importantly, our DARPA'd up solidiers will be used to basic comfort, to having the upper hand on the battlefield and having a decent standard of living waiting back home, with their families, a career and a future. They are used to having dreams. They have things to lose. Guerrillas often have nothing. They are used to being outnumbered and outgunned, to having an uncertain future and losing their families. The guerrillas will fight to the bitter end, because they have nothing to lose, and everthing to gain.
The world has changed. Bigger guns don't work anymore.
This guy is nuts but he seems valid. Some impressive stuff he has come up with. You can't deny his demonstrations.
Another video of his fire paste he has great ideas but he is a little cocky ....
It's the only way to be sure.
They guy seems like an born again used car salesman to me.
Oh, and I've heard quite a few bad things about the dragon skin armour - enough to make me suspect that there is more marketing than engineering behind it.
Multiple hits from 7.62 AP and API rounds. What bad things have you heard? (Not trying to provoke anything, it's just that I've only read good things about it and am interested to hear some bad points.)
I wasn't trying to promote the dragon skin armor, but what I was getting at is that current armor isn't that heavy, and that the weight of his suit isn't inconceivable.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Q3CzYw5-qdA&mode=related&search=
Unconventional warfare will always win. Though one has to admit, it has certainly got harder over the ages. But I'm sure that you can draw in the slack with a bit of patriotic zeal or religious fervour.
H.B.