Iron-man style power suits ‘to be used in war zones within 5 years’

LONDON - A US defence technology is developing Iron Man-style power suits, which will be used by soldiers in war zones in the next five years, the firm said.

The XOS2 - pronounced “exos” - suit produced by Raytheon Sarcos allows the user to carry 70kg with apparently little or no effort and punch through four planks of wood at once.

The combat variant is a waist-down suit intended for use supporting heavy backpacks and the logistics version is a full suit intended to be used by personnel carrying water, supplies and ammunition boxes or tank shells.

“If you push at the boards (planks), you are, like, “I’m never going to be able to do that” but then you walk up and do it and away they go,” The Telegraph quoted Raytheon test engineer Rex Jameson as saying.

Iron Man actor Clark Gregg, who plays Agent Phil Coulson in the films, tried the suit at the firm’s research lab in Salt Lake City, Utah, last week.

“It’s the closest thing we have at the moment to the Iron Man suit. That it’s becoming real so quickly is remarkable,” Coulson said.

The firm expect to release a version of the suit which is “tethered” first, which means it is attached to its power source permanently, before improvements are made to allow the wearer full independence of movement.

“We would expect them to appear in theatre [war zones] probably in about five years for the tethered version and perhaps three to five after that for the untethered version,” said Dr Fraser Smith, the firm’s vice-president of operations. (ANI)