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Dow Corning helps Army develop high-tech battle suit
AP ^ | 8/25/2003
Call it Superman meets the Terminator meets Predator meets Universal Soldier. A futuristic battle suit being designed by Dow Corning, the U.S. Army and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology would, among other advantages, give soldiers the ability to leap tall walls with a single bound, blend in to various backgrounds with the push of a button and repel bullets.
"Life is finally starting to imitate art," Jean-Louis "Dutch" De Gay, a systems engineer at the Army's Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass. told The Bay City Times for a recent story.
The Future Warriors project, as it has been dubbed, is headquartered at the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at MIT. The program, which involves work by Dow Corning, Du Pont and Raytheon, aims at replacing the outdated battle dress uniforms with new garb replete with features aimed at dramatically boosting soldiers' odds on the battle field.
The military says soldiers should be wearing the new suits by 2025, and some of the advancements will be in use by 2010.
Dow Corning, which is based in Bay County's Williams Township, is developing electronic camouflage — a fabric that can be programed to mimic desert, woodlands or other environments.
The fabric also would have the ability to become rigid to repel a bullet. It also would seal to guard against attacks with chemical or biological agents. Other features include vital sign monitors, artificial muscles that would allow soldiers to jump walls and a mechanical exoskeleton enabling the soldier to carry up to 300 pounds with little effort.
Dow Corning and other companies are using nanotechnology to make a suit that is lightweight and comfortable, said Gregg A. Zank, Dow Corning's venture business research and development director. Nanotechnology is a science that involves miniaturization and the creation of materials with new physical properties.
"For the future, for the demanding applications, we need to push the envelope," said Zank, adding that while the Army will be the first customer, the suit also will be available for nonmilitary commercial applications such as police work or fire departments.
Much of the work Dow Corning is carrying out on the suit involves lightening the soldier's load through the use of silicone-based materials. In addition, the company is working on integrating communications systems into the suit such as electronic maps and global positioning systems and explosives detectors woven into the fabric.
As many as 10 Dow Corning employees are part of the Future Warrior project, working both in Massachusetts and Williams Township.
De Gay, a former Army General says the new suit would have been extremely useful in the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts, noting that the BDU's currently worn by soldiers are essentially throwbacks to the eastern European theater.
The project, said De Gay, is part of the military's effort to create an unmatched fighting force in the next 25 to 30 years.
"By roughly 2010, you will see a brand new soldier with a brand new suite of vehicles to take that soldier into battle," he said. "It will give us the ability to make the soldier, in conjunction with the platform, the most lethal, the most sustainable, the most survivable."
AP ^ | 8/25/2003
Call it Superman meets the Terminator meets Predator meets Universal Soldier. A futuristic battle suit being designed by Dow Corning, the U.S. Army and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology would, among other advantages, give soldiers the ability to leap tall walls with a single bound, blend in to various backgrounds with the push of a button and repel bullets.
"Life is finally starting to imitate art," Jean-Louis "Dutch" De Gay, a systems engineer at the Army's Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Mass. told The Bay City Times for a recent story.
The Future Warriors project, as it has been dubbed, is headquartered at the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at MIT. The program, which involves work by Dow Corning, Du Pont and Raytheon, aims at replacing the outdated battle dress uniforms with new garb replete with features aimed at dramatically boosting soldiers' odds on the battle field.
The military says soldiers should be wearing the new suits by 2025, and some of the advancements will be in use by 2010.
Dow Corning, which is based in Bay County's Williams Township, is developing electronic camouflage — a fabric that can be programed to mimic desert, woodlands or other environments.
The fabric also would have the ability to become rigid to repel a bullet. It also would seal to guard against attacks with chemical or biological agents. Other features include vital sign monitors, artificial muscles that would allow soldiers to jump walls and a mechanical exoskeleton enabling the soldier to carry up to 300 pounds with little effort.
Dow Corning and other companies are using nanotechnology to make a suit that is lightweight and comfortable, said Gregg A. Zank, Dow Corning's venture business research and development director. Nanotechnology is a science that involves miniaturization and the creation of materials with new physical properties.
"For the future, for the demanding applications, we need to push the envelope," said Zank, adding that while the Army will be the first customer, the suit also will be available for nonmilitary commercial applications such as police work or fire departments.
Much of the work Dow Corning is carrying out on the suit involves lightening the soldier's load through the use of silicone-based materials. In addition, the company is working on integrating communications systems into the suit such as electronic maps and global positioning systems and explosives detectors woven into the fabric.
As many as 10 Dow Corning employees are part of the Future Warrior project, working both in Massachusetts and Williams Township.
De Gay, a former Army General says the new suit would have been extremely useful in the Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts, noting that the BDU's currently worn by soldiers are essentially throwbacks to the eastern European theater.
The project, said De Gay, is part of the military's effort to create an unmatched fighting force in the next 25 to 30 years.
"By roughly 2010, you will see a brand new soldier with a brand new suite of vehicles to take that soldier into battle," he said. "It will give us the ability to make the soldier, in conjunction with the platform, the most lethal, the most sustainable, the most survivable."
