"Powered exo-skeletons coming even closer" Topic

The article is primarily about Raytheon's tethered suit:
link

Be certain to follow the links in the article to the video.

Less elaborate and powerful, but probably more useful in the field, is the HULC (get it?) exoskeleton from Lockheed Martin:

link

And this video actually shows a simple (and rather brilliant-if-obvious) "armored" version— an attachment for a SWAT ballistic shield (which I know SWAT guys will appreciate— those shields are frickin' heavy).

It's hard to tell for certain from company videos of course,
but I'd say the LM thing is pretty much ready-to-go— and will likely be cheaper. But I see utility for both, as the HULC doesn't look like it has quite the lifting capabilities of the Exos2.

Great, they just came up with a way to have soldiers directly shot at with RPG's ! Give that they grow in the wild in most 3rd world countries.

I bet surgeons will love to see those new battlefield injuries.

The HULC can be worn UNDER current IBA with a little modification (which is probably high on someone's list of things to do). A bit hard to hit an infantryman directly with an RPG, but the times that it has happened were survivable if the warhead doesn't go off.

Run an 8-minute mile with 200lbs of gear in Astan? I know about 50,000 people who want one, NOW. Hell, *I* want a HULC for hunting season!

The Exos2 is more like the Aliens Powerloader. If they ever get the power supply small enough to be self-contained, it might be usable for coup d'main assaults, but that's really about it right now.

Run an 8-minute mile with 200lbs of gear in Astan? I know about 50,000 people who want one, NOW. Hell, *I* want a HULC for hunting season!

At that point you could forgo a gun or bow and chase down and kill game with your bare hands!

Can you lie down in one of those? I have never served in the military but I gather being able to lie down is a useful thing in combat.

Or is the idea to get to the battlefield in them, carrying your gear? Dragoon style?

Can you lie down in one of those?

The videos show the guy in the Raytheon Exos2 doing pushups. The HULC video specifically mentions and shows the wearer lying on the ground, doing the infantry crawl. Not sure how it handles the weight of any backpack load in that position— it seems to me like the wearer would basically be handling all the load when crawling, plus the weight of the HULC system itself. Fortunately, that appears to be fairly light.

So it would seem you can lie down with the HULC, and at least get very low to the ground with the Exos2.

I was thinking about this and realized that both devices have inherent civilian applications. The HULC certainly offers possibilities for loading, SAR, firefighting, etc.. I'm also wondering if a form of it wouldn't be effective for assisting with certain medical conditions to increase mobility, balance or strength.

The Exos2, of course, is currently much less versatile, but the implied power-levels make it clearly viable in heavy-loading work, even as a tethered remote power-source design.