There is something to learn in the idea that engineers have spent incredible amounts of time creating highly advanced automated autoloaders for artillery and cannons, and yet one has to ask is a human with a minimal, useful exoskeleton still better?
note check out the video of the exoskeleton being used to load a Bohdana! Pretty badass show of strength for Ukraine.
Okay, so the new superpowers in the world are apparently Iran and Ukraine.
Who knew?
Ukraine developing the framework for power armor was not on my list of exprctations
The defenders of Donetsk Airport from back in the early days of the conflict were called the “Cyborgs” due to how steadfast they were in its defense, so it’s not entirely unprecedented.
Not really, but I’m all for it. I have no clue how to write “Iron Man” in Ukrainian but let’s go.
The Ukrainian wikipedia page for the Marvel character is Залізна людина, zalizna lyudyna, which is just the literal words iron and man
“Controlled via mobile app”
Exoskeleton as a service?
What does that remind me of? … Exoskeletons… Hmm… ah, yes…
The new equipment is used for both logistics and frontline operations. Military officials emphasize that this helps reduce the physical strain on soldiers, who currently carry 15 to 30 shells weighing about 50 kg each per day — up to 1,200 kg in total.
This seems like a good place to start. This kind of task (carrying ≈ 30 shells of ≈ 50 kg each per day) isn’t really on the high-end as far as “exhausting and physically taxing” goes when you consider what soldiers go through (of course, completely depending on how far they’re carried). However, it does place a significant strain on your body to do it over time. That means they can test these things for this kind of task where the soldiers should be completely capable of functioning without the exoskeleton if it doesn’t work properly. That way, they get testing in non-critical situations before they can scale up the use of these to tasks that humans aren’t even capable of doing without the exoskeleton once they’ve ensured they work properly, don’t break down etc.
Looks like it’s only a matter of time before we see up-armoured assault troops that can carry 100+ kg of gear and shoulder-mounted weapons while taking trenches… must suck to be in the next batch of prospective sunflower fertiliser.
