I've been neglecting the military side of technology lately, so let's see if I can't make this a special theme week - ahead of some major news next week.
A good to place to start is with an update on the Raytheon Iron Man suit I've mentioned a few times before. Just as the movie sequel hit theaters this past summer, so too has the defense contractor come up with its own second version. The XOS2 suit uses half the power the original did and is scheduled to be in the field within the next five years.
As Raytheon representatives and actor Clark Gregg (who's been in a few Iron Man movies) explain in the video below, there will be two versions of the suit - a waist-down version will be used in combat, allowing troops to carry heavy backpacks. A full version will be used in support roles to load and unload supplies and the like:
It's pretty safe to assume that once these things prove themselves in the field, they'll start to get weapon attachments. The suits lend themselves very well to carrying very heavy weapons such as chain guns or rocket launchers.
The non-military uses are of course obvious - Sigourney Weaver used a big version of one of these suits as a in Aliens (as well as a battle suit to fight the alien queen), so it'll obviously come in very handy for the shipping industry.
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