Army news service (April 4, 2005): science on the battlefield.

Armed robots, liquid body armor, bendable computer screens, and uniforms with virtual-reality capabilities--what once could have been fodder for science fiction novels is now shaping how future soldiers will fight.

Many of the ideas and technologies already being used on today's battlefield or due to arrive soon were being displayed and discussed at this year's Army Science Conference.

One such system, the Special Weapons Observation Reconnaissance Detection System, or SWORDS, will be joining Stryker Brigade Soldiers in Iraq after final testing, said Army Staff Sgt. Santiago Tordillos of the Explosive Ordnance Disposal Technology Directorate of the Army's Armament Research, Development and Engineering Center at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J.

"We're hoping to have these systems in Iraq by early 2005," Tordillos said. "The soldiers I've talked to want them yesterday."

A New Robot Fighter

The SWORDS system consists of a weapon system mounted on a Talon robot, a product of the engineering and technology development firm Foster-Miller. The Talon began helping with military operations in Bosnia in 2000, deployed to Afghanistan in early 2002, and has been in Iraq since the war started, assisting with improvised explosive device detection and removal. Talon robots have been used in about 20,000 missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to Foster-Miller reports.

"It's not a new invention, it's just bringing together existing systems," said Tordillos, who has been involved with the project since its inception about a year and a half ago.

Different weapons can be interchanged on the system--the M-16, the M-2, M-240, and M-249 machine guns, or the M-202A1 with a 66mm rocket launcher. Soldiers operate the SWORDS by remote control from up to 1,000 meters away.

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"In testing, it's hit bulls eyes from as far as 2,000 meters away. The only margin of error has been in sighting," Tordillos said.

The system uses AC power, lithium batteries, or SINCGARS rechargeable batteries. The control box weighs about 30 pounds, and has a daylight-viewable screen and two joysticks that control the robot platform and the weapon.

Four SWORDS currently exist and 18 have been requested for service in Iraq, Tordillos said. Each system costs about $230,000 to produce, said Bob Quinn, lead integrator for the project. When they go into production, Quinn estimates the cost per unit will drop to $150,000 to $180,000.

Tordillos fielded a variety of questions while showing off the system at the conference. Soldiers wanted to know what MOS they need in order to work with the system. There is no specific MOS for it, Tordillos said.

Others asked if Tordillos envisions a time when armed robots will outnumber humans on the battlefield.

"You'll never be able to eliminate the soldier on the ground," he said. "There will be a mix, but there will certainly always be soldiers out there."

Sensor-based Soldiers

Thermal sensors woven into the fabric of the uniform control its temperature, based on the soldier's environment. An on-board respirator, tethered to the soldier's back, provides a continuous supply of fresh air--eliminating the need for a protective mask. Should the soldier have the visor up or the helmet off and breathe in some kind of harmful agent, the uniform sensor would immediately detect it, release tiny embedded capsules to counter it, and inject treatment into the soldier's body.

From the waist down, a skeletal system will allow soldiers to carry two or three times their body weight.

Liquid Armor Protection

The uniform might be made out of fabric treated with another technology featured during the conference--shear thickening fluid. Unofficially referred to by some as liquid body armor, STF is made of equal parts polyethylene glycol (an inert, nontoxic thickening agent used in a variety of common products, including ice cream) and miniscule glass particles, said Eric Wetzel, who heads the STF project team in the Weapons and Materials Research Directorate of the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

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In a small glass vial, the light blue liquid is easily stirred with a small plastic stick, as long as the stick is moving in slow, easy motion. When rapid or forceful motion is applied, the liquid instantly hardens, preventing any movement.

STF has been applied to regular Kevlar material, Wetzel said. The fabric's texture doesn't change; it looks and feels the same as if it hadn't been treated. Using a test swatch of four layers of untreated Kevlar--the normal thickness of body armor--Wetzel is able to stab an ice pick through the fabric. But when stabbing a treated section of fabric with all the force he can muster, the ice pick dents the fabric but can't penetrate it.

Research is being done into whether STF can be of use to the Army, Wetzel said. If it is, soldiers may start getting gear treated with it in about two years.

Warriors in 2025?

Army Staff Sgt. Raul Lopez, an infantryman stationed at the Natick Soldier Center in Massachusetts, spent four days during the conference in what could be the Army uniform of the future.

Dressed in black and wearing a helmet that allowed barely a glimpse of his face, Lopez looked like something from a science-fiction movie.

He explained that the fabric of the form-fitting suit would be made through the wonder of nanotechnology, which involves manipulating atoms and molecules to create things at a scale about 50,000 times smaller than the diameter of a strand of hair. Soldiers wearing the suit would have the ability to blend into any environment, like chameleons.

The helmet he wore is envisioned as the main hub of the uniform, where "all of the action happens," Lopez said. A tiny video camera on the helmet provides 360-degree situational awareness. A series of sensors gives the soldier three-dimensional hearing and the ability to amplify specific sounds, while lowering the volume of others.

Complete voice translation is also provided for what soldiers hear and say. Night-vision sensors, minimized to the size of pencil erasers, are also in the helmet. Maps and other situational-awareness information are projected on the inside of the visor, while everything the soldier sees and hears is sent in real time up to higher headquarters.

"It's all voice activated," Lopez said. "I can tell it to show me where my buddies are, and it projects the information on the visor."

Excellence in Research

Representatives from 31 countries--including Canada, the United Kingdom, Argentina, South Korea, Australia, and Singapore--attended the conference for the first time.

Brig. Gen. Peter Holt of Canada's Defence Research and Development agency believes the working relationship among scientists, engineers, and researchers has been beneficial to all concerned, and that the benefits of collaboration are already on the battlefield.

Staff Sgt. Lorie Jewell, USA