In news that is either awesome or terrifying (or terrifyingly awesome), the US Military is trying to build some real life Iron Man suits and they’re enlisting the help of the people who helped design the Iron Man suits for the Marvel Studio movies.
The project is called TALOS and the goal is to invent a suit which has bullet protection, attached firearms, vitals monitors and enough tech wizardry to provide the wearer superhuman strength and senses.
TALOS isn’t exactly a super military secret either. President Obama had previously announced that something like this was in the works.
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The recent news is that in addition to the usual suspects of military industrial corporations being involved (Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics and Raytheon are all working on TALOS), Legacy Effects, the people behind the movie Iron Man suits, will also be lending a hand. And while Legacy Effects may have the most experience in crafting an Iron Man suit, they are also well aware that this is far outside their comfort zone.
“When you’re doing something for a movie it is all make-believe,” Legacy founder Lindsay MacGowan tells the Journal. “Whereas, for the military, that’s really not going to be the case.”
The biggest problem that scientists have encountered in designing an Iron Man-like exoskeleton is that there’s no feasible battery that is lightweight enough for the weaponized body armor. Unfortunately, Tony Stark’s heart-battery is unavailable to the U.S. military.
$10 million has been spent on the project so far but there’s no cap on the military’s budget when it comes to making a Marvel superhero costume a reality. The project is expected to be completed in 2018.
