Posted on 09/10/2013 6:11:33 PM PDT by jmcenanly
The U.S. Army has released two new helmet prototypes the service is testing to offer soldiers a modular design that would allow crew members to need only one helmet versus the two they currently have to keep.
Army leaders plan to unveil the helmets officially in October that came out of the Helmet Electronics and Display System-Upgradeable Protection program — a four year development effort led by the Natick Soldier Research, Development and Engineering Center.
Engineers and scientists have developed the helmet to potentially include see-through and projected heads up display technologies, better eye and face protection and improved ballistic materials.
A few soldiers have already gotten a chance to test the helmets in mounted and dismounted human factors evaluations. What stood out for these soldiers is the ability to remove or attach the mandible and eye protection.
(Excerpt) Read more at kitup.military.com ...
Yup.
And I predict that the Army will develop a full body Kevlar suit to go with new helmet.
Halo ws my first thought too
They look cool. Must be expensive.
Looks like my motorcycle helmet.
Now you’re talkin’, Chief! Nice clear graphic, too.
All that has to be reduced to about 50% of those dimensions - that thing is like wearing a beach ball on your head..
Why do TV robots always have crotch protection? What are they protecting?
Why, their nuts and bolts, what else?
Two problems with front mandable helmets include:
1: tough to iron sight your rifle
2: heat
Two advantages with such full face helmets include:
1: blast+pistol face protection
2: easy to incorporate bio+chem gas mask (e.g. air filter)
The design that I submitted to the Army that got turned down, in contrast, was 360 degree Kevlar. Opaque. No vision (when visor closed).
To see, the inside of the helmet has a wraparound flexible tv screen in front of the eyes on the back of the flip down visor.
To shoot, your rifle and pistol put crosshairs onto your helmet display screen wherever they are aimed.
Of course, leaving the visor down uses the battery...so the fully protected mode has a time limit between recharges.
Then again, the video cameras allow 360 degree views to be mapped onto the display screen. You have eyes in the back of your head this way.
...and the ability to zoom. Digital binoculars are built in.
If you are doing a 6 hour raid, you’ve got rifle protection around your entire head. Longer than that you’ve got to recharge or lift your visor.
Their hydraulic piston.
-PJ
Looks claustrophobic with no peripheral vision.
Do they get Harleys with those?
Apparently with all that armor — they figured he didn’t need a state of the arm rifle.
No, it looks very, very hot!. Heat exhaustion will disable more troops than the extra armor will save.
You mean they aren’t air conditioned??? I bet they have coolant! Otherwise they’re just a fancy motorcycle helmet.
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