I’d think a little Carbon Fiber and some 1100s armor design could go a long way to saving lives. Always wondered why they never did.
Should they break the news to the Pentagon that it was CGI?
This is Ripley's cargo loader. After Aliens came out, companies actually called Caterpillar to see if it was for sale. But what it actually was, was a plywood skeleton controlled by a guy standing in the suit, right behind Sigourney Weaver.
Beside some style features, or clever forgeries that can convince an enemy, what can Hollywood possible create for the military?
Talos?
Will it have Fus Ro Dah?
In movies/fiction/comics this is easy to do, as all that is needed is some unobtanium plot device that produces a small hyper-powerful ultra-efficient power source. For example Tony Starks chest-reactor that can almost power a small city.
But in real life coming up with a power source that is small, powerful, and efficient is supremely difficult! I have seen some solutions that call for a small engine, whereby the suit would incorporate a small engine in the back to power the suit and its various systems. This has promise, but size is a problem. Diesel gives efficiency but can be loud, and chemical engines are silent but have various dangers. There are others that have incorporated batteries, which provides a silent option. However the energy density of batteries still has some ways to go.
Leading solutions may incorporate a hybrid approach, but then there is the weight issue.
What is most probable - in the short term - is that the sub-systems will start making it into theater long before we ever see an actual 'suit'. By this I mean that some of the targeting sub-systems will be incorporated into the helmet designs used by some of the US 'Tier-1' units like ACE/CAG (Delta Force), DEVGRU (Seal Team 6), ISA (Activity) and SAD/SOG teams. Some helmet designs attributed to ACE have looked 'interesting,' and it would not be hard to see in the near-future targeting systems integrated that are similar to the prototype helmets intended for the F-35 (which are still very heavy, but I am assuming that is something that will be tackled in the next 5 years).
Other sub-systems will be body/health monitoring systems and medi-kits that will ensure those operators are at optimum. Also add next generation communication and situational awareness modules (incorporated into the targeting helmets), whereby the operators know where each member is in real-time, meaning that anyone who is not identified as friendly is probably a hostile. I am sure such stuff is already present but at an early stage, thus this will be more of taking it to the next level.
And finally conventional body armor ...but that has been breathed upon with the research dollars that such teams have. Not close to anything found in movies, but better than anything your Marine or Army rifleman has. In the same way that DEVGRU was shown to be using multi-sensor night vision goggles during the Osama raid, which were different from the typical single or dual tube NVGs used by 'normal' soldiers, or for that matter, normal SEAL teams and Army Special Forces. In the same way that ACE and DEVGRU have better NVGs than SEALs and Green Berets, with that tech trickling down to the SEALs/GBs in a couple of years, and then 'normal' combat units after that ...they will also have body armor that is the best that current conventional technology can produce.
Thus, I anticipate the various sub-systems hitting the bleeding-edge units probably now, trickling down to 'normal' SEALs and Special Forces in maybe another 5-7 years, and maybe hitting normal combat units in another decade and a half.
However, it will be a long time before there is an actual combat suit that is similar to movie-land interpretations, and the sole reason for this is the power source. Without a small, powerful, efficient power source the best to be hoped for is the various 'land warrior' systems shown by the US, Europe, China and Russia that incorporate targeting, communication and health sub-systems.
But no Iron Man.
China does have a separate path they are pursuing. While they are also looking at 'sub-system suits,' they are also looking at genetic modification. There is some very interesting material available on the genetic plays they have been doing on their Olympic swimmers, and how those outcomes can be applied to special forces.
John Leonard, the American director of the World Swimming Coaches Association, asked the Olympic authorities to check if Ye Shiwen, the 16 year old Chinese swimmer who broke a world record at the London Olympic, had normal genetics as her performance was 'unbelievable.'
Genetic work would focus on endurance (erythropoietin manipulation), strength (myostatin manipulation), cognitive awareness, alertness, pain resistance, and speed (ACTN3 manipulation).
Human augmentation will not make these chaps into super-soldiers, but imagine a person who has been trained to the utmost, and then at that apex given the ability to give 110% rather than 100%. That extra 10% can enable a 16 year old to break records in a manner considered impossible, and could potentially make a special operations soldier do things that, while not belonging in comic books, would make it difficult for a similarly trained person to keep up.
The story Starship Troopers (book not movie) had some very impressive body suits involved in direct combat.
How much of our tax dollars is going toward this?
Hey, geniuses at the Pentagon... THEY WERE MOVIES. You know, Hollywood - the land of MAKE BELIEVE!
The ‘suits’ that Robert Downey wore were no doubt a very light PLASTIC and did NOTHING AT ALL, except by special effects GRAPHICS added later in the FILM PROCESS.
Can you just imagine them putting our military in titanium suits or WHATEVER.. -over there in 110 degree heat in the Middle East???
WHAT IS WRONG with our ‘leaders’???
Oh yeah, back to my original thought... MONEY...