HULC Exoskeleton System Ready for Soldier Tests

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Our men and women of the armed forces are some of the toughest people on the planet but even they can use a hand sometimes. Terrorists…prepare for a bionic ass whuppin’.

The HULC (Human Universal Load Carrier) allows soldiers to carry weights of up to 200lbs (91kg) with little effort and is designed to reduce the strain of carrying heavy equipment. "It does not impede your range of motion whatsoever," says HULC project manager Jim Ni.
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The first thing I pictured was Ripley in the loader mech in Aliens; calming myself, I thought about Troy Hurtubise and his mobile ballistics suits; I found slightly less than I expected, but I am still blown away. This is an awesome step forward for the armed forces.

I wonder if this has been lingering in the pipe as long as the LW project.
 
Carrying 200 pounds effortlessly is cool, when they start being able to carry 2000 pounds then I'll be scared!
 
Exavior said:
Isn't that called walking?
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Nope!
It's called the Airborne Shuffle. The US Army has been doing long distance slow speed runs since the 82nd was first formed as an Airborne unit. The 82nd covered more ground during WWII that a lot of vehicle mounted units, thus proving the effectiveness of being able to run all day long, instead of just sprinting for a mile or so.
 
I wonder how long until soldiers start wrapping armor around these things and mounting .50 cal machine guns on the shoulders.

Future war is going to be horrifically brutal, but very awesome!
 
R4CK3R said:
Future war is going to be horrifically brutal, but very awesome!
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I hear what you are saying and I am very interested in exoskeletons myself. Just remember, war will always boil down to one person killing another. :(
 
I was in the Army 86-89 and was the RTO (radio telegraph operator) in an Airborne Infantry unit and carried the PRC77 or the Prick77 as we called it. It used really heavy mercury batteries. I was stationed in Alaska so I also had to carry all of my cold weather gear, ammo and food. My pack would weigh over 100lbs and at the time I only weighed 155. This thing would have been a god send!
 
Cabn12 said:
I was in the Army 86-89 and was the RTO (radio telegraph operator) in an Airborne Infantry unit and carried the PRC77 or the Prick77 as we called it. It used really heavy mercury batteries. I was stationed in Alaska so I also had to carry all of my cold weather gear, ammo and food. My pack would weigh over 100lbs and at the time I only weighed 155. This thing would have been a god send!
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I have a vivid memory of me trudging through the Denver int. airport in 1986 with 2 dufflebags, a camera bag, and a general mechanics toolbox, heading for Ft. Wainwright Alaska for Arctic testing of some prototype equipment. had over $100 worth of excess baggage charges. Awesome views, Hellish cold, considering I was stationed in El paso Texas at the time, and didn't even own a heavy winter coat. would have loved to have had an exoskeleton that day.
 
How useful would this be if you needed to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge?
 
w4ffles said:
How useful would this be if you needed to dodge, duck, dip, dive, and dodge?
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Read this from the article: '"It does not impede your range of motion whatsoever," says HULC project manager Jim Ni.'

You can move much, much more ammunition with these than you could just trudging along carrying it by hand, and into places you couldn't ever reach with a truck and a lot quieter than if you moved it in by chopper. That means you can position to out flank and out gun the enemy faster than he can move and probably without him being aware of it. Combined with body armor like Interceptor or Dragon Skin you'll be pretty well protected from small arms fire. Short of a lucky head shot or someone hitting you with a .50 cal machinegun or better, or with explosives, you'd be very hard to kill and better able to get to cover quickly without having to drop your gear.

I imagine eventually they'll produce armored suits using this technology. Urban warfare and house-to-house fighting would take a whole different turn when the bad guys guns don't work on you and you can move into a structure with impunity.
 
yeeesssss I can't wait until we spend tax payer dollars on this shit! Brb gonna mail my check book to lockheed-martin! :eek:Maybe they'll finally start adding tesla coils to drone aircraft!!1 It'll be so fn rad. :eek:Yeeehaw.
 
motomonkey said:
I have a vivid memory of me trudging through the Denver int. airport in 1986 with 2 dufflebags, a camera bag, and a general mechanics toolbox, heading for Ft. Wainwright Alaska for Arctic testing of some prototype equipment. had over $100 worth of excess baggage charges. Awesome views, Hellish cold, considering I was stationed in El paso Texas at the time, and didn't even own a heavy winter coat. would have loved to have had an exoskeleton that day.
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I got to Wainwright in Dec of 86. I thought it was weird that we drove an hour south to Greely the cold weather testing facility.
I wonder how this HULC would have worked at minus 60?
 
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