US Army commissions Iron Man-styled suits

Here's some awesome but scary news: the US Army has commissioned something called a Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS), which is essentially something similar to the Iron Man suit used by Tony Stark in the Iron Man comics, movies and cartoons. The suit will be able to provide the wearer with new abilities like night vision, enhanced strength and protection from gunfire.

According to the press release, the US Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, known as RDECOM, is submitting TALOS proposals. TALOS will have a physiological subsystem that touches the wearer's skin and will be embedded with sensors that monitor a few biometrics, such as core body temperature, skin temperature, heart rate, body position and hydration levels.

This could be a reality soon (image credit: Marvel Comics)

The armour on TALOS will be made with magnetorheological fluids which are currently being developed at MIT. These fluids have the ability to transform from liquid to solid in the span of milliseconds when a magnetic field or electrical current is applied. The armour is said to be strong enough to give the wearer full-body ballistic protection, which means that the wearer will essentially be able to walk through a stream of bullets.

The suit will also have a JARVIS-esque on-board computer that will be able to respond to certain situations instantly, as well as provide the wearer with an enhanced sense of situational awareness. The only thing that seems to be missing from TALOS is the ability for flight. However, once the first prototype is built, it wouldn’t be too hard to imagine flight being a possibility a few years down the line.

The US Army has stated that demonstrations of TALOS by SOCOM will take place in July 8-10.