Peter Sinclair: Take a tip from the lobster

By PETER SINCLAIR

As the lobster worked out millions of years ago, when the going gets tough, the tough grow an exoskeleton.

Secure within its armour of chitin and barricaded behind the fearsome weaponry of its two huge pincers — our own cray has to go about unarmed — the lobster has little to fear other than a determined diner with a set of crackers and plenty of melted butter.

This soldier of the deep has survived the millennia by equipping itself, like a medieval knight, with breastplate, backplate, cuirass, helm and halberd.

By the 17th century, though, our own paladins had carried things a little too far. They had to be hoisted onto their steeds (draught-horses, in fact) with a sort of block and tackle, and God help them if they fell off — like iron sheep, they lay cast until someone could spare the time to flip their visor up and stick a dagger in their eye.

Mobility became the thing, and it wasn't until the First World War that armies even bothered wearing small helmets again. But armour is making a comeback, and soon the average grunt may look like something out of a fantasy novel.

Inspired by the American people's insistence on a zero casualty rate in battle, the US Department of Defense is addressing the problem that human soldiers are slow, weak, soft-shelled creatures with little means of active aggression and no means of passive defense.

Its chief R&D arm, the Advanced Research Projects Agency, is about to spend $US50 million on reinventing Sir Lancelot.

Their exoskeleton will be the envy of any crustacean: a lightweight frame which fits the body to provide "increased lethality and survivability" by not only protecting its wearers but helping them move faster, further, higher and with more weaponry.

Extraordinary heights and distances will become the norm of warfare. Jousts between modern knights could even take place in mid-air.

Self-powered, these energised exoskeletons must run for at least 24 hours without recharging and be easily repairable in the field. Weight is crucial — soldiers often dump unwanted gear.

In addition, they will "help integrate women into combat situations" — fight, in other words. Current arguments against the presence of women on the battlefield armed with anything more than a thermometer are largely to do with the fact that most women don't meet the job's physical requirements.

Exoskeletons, claims a defense industry newsletter, The Knowles Report, could "radically equalise" the sexes, so that a woman would be able operate as effectively as a man.

Darpa's wish-list includes a visor to expand the field of vision plus sci-fi devices to co-ordinate troops, provide information about the tide of battle, even to monitor a soldier's physical condition.

MechWarrior becomes reality. As you read this, the armies of the future, in jeans and baseball-caps turned backwards, are training for war in living-rooms all over the world.

The kids of today may tomorrow become the fearsome beings of their fantasies — swift, smart, deadly, almost invulnerable ...

Just as long as the aliens don't arrive with lots of melted butter.

Links:

Lobster Cam

Arms and Armor

US Department of Defense

Advanced Research Projects Agency

Exoskeleton

The Knowles Report

MechWarrior

E-mail: petersinclair@email.com