Obama jokes about Iron Man suit, but US Army moving forward with power armor development

Is it finally happening? Will Tony Stark's 100-million-dollar superhero suit finally become a reality?

Apparently, yes. A more realistic version of it, at least.

United States President Barack Obama may have joked about it in a speech he delivered on Tuesday (Wednesday, PHL time) in Washington DC, but the US Army is definitely in the process of making their own suits, a report from tech website Sploid said.



“Basically, I'm here to announce that we're building Iron Man,” Obama said, before a crowd of engineers and Pentagon representatives went hysterical. “Not really. Maybe. It's classified,” the US president said smiling.

In a separate Sploid article written in November last year, it was reported that the US Army Research Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) gave a “very specific timeframe” for building a real life Iron Man suit for soldiers.

RDECOM officially calls it TALOS or Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit.

An article from online magazine The Verge said that the US Army announced its work on it May last year and said it was “hoping to have an initial suit within a year, with an eye toward potentially having it on the field within three.”

Unlike Tony Stark's larger-than-life creation, the TALOS won't have flying capabilities, little missiles, or repulsors.

However, RDECOM wants its armor to be “capable of repelling ammo when applying an electric current” and be able to “store and release energy to prevent injuries and increase performance” according to Sploid. Essentially, they want it to be bullet proof and shock proof. Oh, and fire resistant too.

Some similarities it might have with Tony Stark's suit: body sensors that will monitor the wearer's vitals, including body and skin temperature, heart rate, and hydration, and a head-up display that will give battle information graphics in real time (akin to what Tony Stark sees inside his helmet).

These are similar to what JARVIS does, but given the available technology, Sploid says that it will be more like Google Glass than Stark's home computing system. So no highly highly advanced, artificially intelligent computer with a British accent, then, I guess.

The suit will also have integrated communication systems and a night vision display.

An optional addition is an attachable exoskeleton that will improve both strength and speed using hydraulic mechanisms.

RDECOM wants all these to be integrated in four years. Sploid says that it is a “fairly reasonable goal” given that the technology “is there or almost there already”.

Meanwhile, The Verge said that the suit was “coming along about on schedule.”

A US Navy Admiral told The Verge earlier this month that three unpowered prototypes of TALOS are currently being assembled, with an expected delivery by June. He also said that it will hopefully be field ready by August 2018.  - Kim Luces / AMD, GMA News