In the wake of another U.S. attempt to build Iron Man-style powered armor that crashed and burned, some commentators have concluded that military exoskeletons will always be science fiction. Russian Uran-6 mine-clearance robot and operator with exoskeleton Russian Ministry of DefenseThe Russian exoskeletons, known as Ratnik (“Warrior”) combat suits, are built the Central Research Institute for Precision Machine Building, known by its Russian abbreviation of TSNIITOCHMASH, part of defense giant ROSTEC. Russian troops with unpowered exoskeletons will be able to carry and fire heavier weapons, with a greater load of ammunition, than opponents who lack the technology. That’s science fiction,” Sergei Smagluk, of the EO-1 design team told Russian newspaper RIA Novosti. In the meantime, incremental improvements of the unpowered version continue, with several hundred sets either on order or already in service.

Source: Forbes August 19, 2020 16:17 UTC