Actually, one of the advantages of powered armor, if we could make it strong enough to resist anything that wouldn't kill, say, a tank, is that if used right it could reduce civilian casualties by allowing soldiers to get closer to the enemy, use less powerful offensive weapons, and be more discriminating in their choice of targets. Also, the R&D for powering such suits might just be where we finally get the funding to develop the Shipstone-style superbatteries we need to make electric cars truly competitive with the infernal combustion engine.
Of course, what will probably turn out to be easier than making it a suit with the operator inside is making a humanoid drone that the operator can control remotely -- a natural evolution of the Predator from aerial to ground-based weapon. The "suit" in the linked article really has more in common with the loader from Aliens than with anything from Iron Man or (the book) Starship Troopers, anyway.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2010-11-12 06:51 pm (UTC)Of course, what will probably turn out to be easier than making it a suit with the operator inside is making a humanoid drone that the operator can control remotely -- a natural evolution of the Predator from aerial to ground-based weapon. The "suit" in the linked article really has more in common with the loader from Aliens than with anything from Iron Man or (the book) Starship Troopers, anyway.