Dam!
"Thats all i can say lol"

Yeah just imagine how effective a single soldier could be at clearing buildings. You could have small arms fire bouncing off you, melee weapons would become useless and you would be protected (if not fully) from explosives!

Have one platoon of fully armored marines and you could dominate a city.

Someone's been watching too much Iron Man.

Think about the amount of energy you would need and bieng a walking tank has it's advantages but the gizmos and gadgets would make you a walking
target dummy for RPGs.Also as AndyTbone pointed out if the terrosists got the technology we would be back at square one and most likely even more deaths.possobly a type of poison injection in the armour would sort this but I'm not sure if thats possible

It's theoretical dude, lighten up.

I found that wiki article last year,and when I mentioned the powered exoskeleton to my older sister,she thought it was the most disgusting waste of tax dollars she ever thought possible! She kept ranting for what seemed like hours,preaching how stuff like that should stay in the "piece of crap" video games I play.

I'm in favor of this, to tell the truith, and it's not exactly a "dumb" idea as most other people think.

90% of modren warfare is on the ground, urban combat. Having someone in a heavily armored, person-sized tank to walk into office buildings-turned-bases would be a great advantage- similar to when the first fully-armored knights walked into the medival feilds of battle. Very few weapons (at that time) could really hurt them.

Power Armor increases strength, which means that a person's carrying capacity increases expoentially (more ammo, supplies, etc.); it reduces limb fatigue (always an issue with heavy gear), and if they can get some nice armored plates most rounds shot at the power armor are simply deflected. You only really need to worry about explosions and RPGs; not only can they punch through most armor (8 inches seems to be the nessissary amount to be "rocket proof") but the concussive blast can cause brain damage- we're seeing this with our on soldiers returing from Iraq and Afganastan, who are now surviving explosions that would be normially fatal.

Of course, when we come out with Power Armor, someone's gonna come out with something to drop 'em easily as a normal soldier. And it will balance out eventually.

Thats the thing though, we don't have a small portable power source to fuel Fallout style powered armor. In the Fallout universe they made the break through of "cold fusion" so the mini nuke power plants on the backs of PA was good for 100 years of maximum operation. No so for use today.

Yup. Our most efficient batteries peak at 8 hours. Not too bad... until you realize that Power Armor will likely be deployed in areas without an ample supply of electricity.

The "power" part of power armor is the most difficult; we seem to have all the basics down for making it, we just need to figure out how to make the thing run on a single charge for at least 24 hours, at which point serious production might start.

Correct, power supply is the biggest issue. Cost is also a consideration, as a high enough price tag would deep six it faster then the Crusader program.

Power Armor would have it's uses but it would also have extreme limitations on it as well.

First off the thing can stop small arms okay but if the enemy is using something like an M2 the bullets would probably go right through the thing like it's nothing. Also as others have stated RPGs, grenades and explosives would take it apart rather easily and there not heard to get and/or make. The thing is pretty much only useful for urban assaults meaning deploying a platoon of them out in the country at small FOBs is out of the question. Transporting personel wearing them is going to be difficult at best if not near impossible with most military vechiles considering the bulk of the armor. It would be useless in beach assaults considering if the boat your on sinks the armor is going to cause the wearer to most likely drown. They didn't say how much the thing weighs but I'm guessing you won't ever be parachuting wearing power armor. They didn't say how the armor reacts in magnetic fields, EMPs and deadzones which could become problematic with moving troops over an area. The video also doesn't mention maintence either like how often does it need to charge up and how long does the charge last.

Could theoretically, maybe... But miniguns are rather specialized weapons, not suited for this purpose. If your power armor needs heavy weapons, I'd go with a carried M2 or something. Miniguns have the advantage of ROF, but that kind of ROF is useless for shooting at ground targets, since nothing on the ground moves fast enough to *need* such insane ROF.



Yeah, MOUT is basically the only place where power armor is a better value than an IFV. But in MOUT, it could really shine.



The issue with power armor is the increased maintenence. You're not going to be able to stay in the field for long if it keeps breaking down. Assuming you've nailed the power issue with some sort of FO style fusion battery.



Yes, .50 AP rounds would kill it easy... That's why you'd have vehicles with armor rated for higher calibers to deal with those. You don't send in your expensive power armor troops unsupported, you use them as another option in a plethora of choices.



Grenades would actually be fairly ineffective vs full body power armor, since most of a grenade's killing power comes from the shrapnel, and a powersuit would stop shrapnel handily except to areas that by design have to be flexible. (Neck, joints, etc.)

Also, the main advantage of power armor comes in close in combat, ie room clearing like Falluja and such. If you're clearing a room, you don't have to worry about RPGs, since those can't really be used indoors. Only grenades and SAF.



'Real' power armor actually isn't as bulky as FO-style tanksuits. See BLEEX* or the proposed FW2020.

*BLEEX is just a prototype load bearing exoskeleton; but you still wouldn't have to put in that much armor to render it protected versus SAF, and it still isn't as huge as FO power armor.



You can parachute hummers and even some light tanks. I'm sure you could parachute power armor. It can't be more than a ton or two anyway, because otherwise you won't be able to use stairs.

Heh, I've noticed one thing about this thread- All references to power armor are in MILITARY settings...

Yeah, Power Armor is good for a strike team, but eventually once the Military has several versions of Power Armor, they may start selling/releasing the tech for civilian uses (once their version is superior.)

A non-armored version would work wonders at loading docks for cargo ships, as well as the construction industry as a whole. Presumably Power Armor would have a coolant system (due to being trapped in a tin can with the sun beating down on you), and if this is the case, Firefighting rescuers (the guys who go into the burning buildings) would have an easier time dealing with the heat and flames. Power Armor may be introduced to police forces, probably as specialized SWAT units (honestly, how many robbers pack RPGs?) And certianly useful in disaster relief (such as earthquakes.)

What other nonmilitary settings would/could power armor be useful in?

Yeah, I could see PA being useful for a lot of civilian duties, especially cargo loading, firefighting, and disaster relief. Police use probably won't take off because it'd be really expensive for anything but the largest police forces to afford, but besides that, it has a lot of potential in the civilian market.



Gladiatorial games, of course. With chainsaws.

I could also see the underlying tech (especially artificial musculature) finding a lot of use in prosthetic limbs.

Too much bulk probably just go with a M240B since we already use them on patrols anyhow.



Well that leaves the Abrahams and Bradley then. I don't think a Striker's armor can stop a .50 cal round I'm not sure but I think the APC can.




Well if you already have tanks there it kind of defeats the purpose most of the time for using power amored troops.



You still would have a good chance of head injuries from the actual blast not to mention your neck could get whip lashed easily.




True, but it's extremely limited overall. Also how long can you wait around for the power armored unit to show up?




While the FW2020 isn't bad it's pretty much the same as what were currently using as far how bulky it is and wouldn't be a challenge at all. Anything like the BLEEX is just not going to work out. Infantry use HMMWVs you would never be able to get in and out one wearing anything like the BLEEX.



True you can parachute them I always forget that because I wasn't airborne. Anyway you still have the issue of what happens if the Armor shut's off when you're descending would you still be able to maneuver the parachute to land safely? Again why this thing is useful for one application it would be terrible at pretty much everything else.

Miniguns? (Censored) that! Large assault rifles firing .50 BMG? Yes. With the armor steadying your aim, advanced optics allowing you to see enemies far away and behind walls, and computer systems predicting bullet paths, I would imagine killing a terrorist from 800 yrds away behind a wall with one shot alot better than miniguns.

Fair enough; but tanks are starting to get phased out for urbanized warfare. They simply take up too much room for easy movement in a city, especially with all the holes someone could pop out of and fire an RPG or two at it. More likely, a lighter assault vehicle would be used to backup the Power Armor.



One application? Letsee...

Urban Patrols.
FOB defense.
Guards for a caravan.
Assault on enemy positions.
Loading/unloading of heavy equipment.
Decoy (use them to draw enemy fire while someone else goes in with several packs of C4.)

That's six applications right there.

RPGs and most explosives are infective against an Abrahms. It takes alot to take one of them down it's not an easy thing to do only a few IEDS are effective against it.




For urban warfare yes it's useful but not much else.



Depends on where the FOB is at. Granted Baghdad theres FOBs all over the place but if were talking about one out in the Boonies somewhere how effective will it be? You got to keep the the suit charged and would have to at least one soldier there who knows how to fix it when it breaks down also you have to worry about how quickly you can get parts for it as well. Mortar rounds would blow the thing a apart easily. Quite a few IEDS would destroy it.



I'm not following you here since we use up armored vechiles for convoys and place HMMWVs with an M2 or M240B mounted on it in the front rear and middle not to mention the HEMTTs and LMTVs often have M2s, M240B or M249s mounted on them as well. Are you using the term carvan to imply something else?



Alright I forgot to add that part but still if you have the personel avaliable at the time for a task you don't truly need power armor.



My question here is why not just call in an air strike?

We're not talking about major caravans here- what I'm thinking of is the 2-3 HMMWVs that carry semi-important supplies/personnel through enemy territory. But then again, I'm assuming here that the production of Power Armor is far cheaper than that of a fighter jet or tank.



Can an Air Strike be called in all the time? Perhaps theres heavy AA in the area? Perhaps the target base is below bunker-buster range? Maybe there's important intel inside that could be easily destroyed in an air strike? Maybe an enemy commander who needs to be captured rather than killed is in the base?

Even if Power Armor was available and cheap. Regular ground vechiles will always be able to offer more protection then the power armor could since they can add multiple layers of armor or remove the old armor in place of a much better armor made out of a different material with Power Armor you'd have to wait around until a new version of it is issued to you.




No not all the time but most of the time in OIF and OEF.



That's one of the first things the Navy and Airforce take out before ground troops go in. Air supremecy after all is of the up most importance.



I'm highly doubting this. For arguments sake though I'll agree with you. Now that I'm agreeing with you if a bunker bomb can't do the job how would some troop running up to the base and throwing C4 at it destory the base?



Then you clear the building using conventional methods and would have a real reason behind using power armor.



Read the above reply.

Impractical. Tactically inefficient. Heat based weapons could cook you inside of it. Too much money to produce effectively. Would stand out like a huge "shoot me" sign once our enemies figured out a countermeasure for it. Easy target for snipers. Dead weight if any of the systems should fail, and I really don't see anything that can walk standing up to a .50 cal.

Ballistics are more than just perfect aim. Wind, temperature, humidity. What, is the bullet going to have tiny thrusters on it and a computer chip inside it that links up to a satellite that senses varying atmospheric conditions every single second without any sort of latency ? come on.

Hate to burst your bubble... but the military has built working guided bullets for sniper rifles. They use flaps to "steer" to their target.

Downside is... they're probably too expensive to make for anything BUT sniper rifles and are still in the experemental phase. So we won't be seeing them anytime soon.

http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5788178.html

What fighter in Baghdad has a flamethrower?

If this was perfected, it would stop most anything. If it couldn't stop a .50 caliber round, it would be a better chance than regular armor.

Plus if the size was smaller or allowed the user to move quicker, it would be a massive advantage.

I drive a Forklift.