Exoskeleton suits will never happen because they’d be worth more than a soldier’s life is to the people in charge. It’ll take rich people wanting to cosplay Iron Man to make anything like that happen.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

We... literally have exo suits right now in reality. They're just... Not that cool? 🤨

[–] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Sure. But they aren't being deployed to war zones because they cost more than a soldier does.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 1 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Sure it's not because they aren't designed for combat? They just help you lift heavy things...

[–] skulblaka@sh.itjust.works 1 points 4 days ago

Being able to lift / tip over / exert lots of force on big heavy things can be a big deal on a battlefield. Imagine being able to just tip over an enemy combatant's vehicle, or even potentially catching the thing by hand at 40mph to bring it to a dead stop. I think the only detail here that is relevant to "designed for combat" is the lack of armor plating or integrated weapons platforms. Armor plating would probably be required, for expense reasons - you need your suit to be at least relatively bullet resistant and suitable for more than a single combat outing. Integrated weapons are solved by just giving the guy in the suit a standard issue rifle, you don't need to bake these onto the suit.

However, I am neither a military manufacturer nor a roboticist. So everything I say should be taken with a grain of salt. But I don't see any reason why these wouldn't serve a similar purpose to other light armor vehicles. A sufficiently armored combat forklift that can sprint across the battlefield if required opens up a lot of new tactics.