Inventor Slims Down Exoskeletal Body Armor

The Hamilton Spectator is reporting that inventor Troy Hurtubise, creator of the "bear-protection suit" made famous by taking a hit from a moving vehicle, has slimmed down his design in hopes of landing a lucrative government contract. From the article: "He has spent two years and $15,000 in the lab out back of his house in North Bay, designing and building a practical, lightweight and affordable shell to stave off bullets, explosives, knives and clubs. He calls it the Trojan and describes it as the 'first ballistic, full exoskeleton body suit of armour.'"

WOW! Could it live up to his hype?

[Salvance]

WOW - if it pans out, this device is amazing. It only weighs 40lbs, and can withstand the impact from a car or elephant gun? If he can really mass produce it for $2,000 a piece, I would think the government would buy thousands (especially considering decent upper body armor can cost the same amount, and provides limited protection in comparison).

Re:WOW! Could it live up to his hype?

[Yold]

Wouldn't want to be wearing one in the desert (jungle, etc), probably a reason why there is limited government interest. Unless this things has some sort of personal AC unit... but that would probably require portable energy beyound military logistical capabilies.

This isn't a matter of discomfort; dehydration and heat exhaustion would probably make this thing useless for large scale deployment. Maybe good for police forces, or soldiers operating in very hostile condtions, but probably too expensive and immature for mainstream deployment.

Re:WOW! Could it live up to his hype?

[God'sDuck]

For extended deployment, yeah, this would be a bear. But I would think for SWAT-style military deployments into occupied buildings, this would be brilliant. Send four "hardened" troops in ahead of the "soft" troops to clear the building, then let them return to base to cool off.

I would think it would also be handy for the guy who draws the short straw to man the Humvee turret -- in which case AC lines could easily be run up through his feet.

Troy's history

[Ron Harwood]

For those not in the know:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Hurtubise [wikipedia.org]

He's got his own documentary (via the National Film Board) and he won an ignoble prize...

Re:While it would rock if this were the real thing

[Anonymous Brave Guy]

It would also be interesting if one guy with a few thousand dollars could develop better balistic defence in his back yard than the entire US military machine (or indeed anyone else's military machine) has achieved ever. I'm guessing that if anyone takes him up on his challenge, and fires a sniper rifle at him of the kind being used in say Iraq, he's going to win a Darwin award. :-(

Re:WOW! Could it live up to his hype?

[jafiwam]

Or, more reasonably for the "prison take-down" teams they use to subdue unruly prisoners.

The first two guys are in these as they get a bit better use of limbs than holding the standard assault shield.

Then, the weight of them is a bonus because it'll help them pin the prisoner down.

Re:While it would rock if this were the real thing

[Mr. Slippery]

This guy is kind of a known crackpot. Do a search on his name plus "Angel Light" or "God Light" if you don't believe me.

Thing is, crackpots can still make brilliant discoveries. Newton was an alchemist; Tesla made all sorts of bizarre claims about death rays, "thought photography", and the like.

Hurtubise's bear suit work seems legitimate, so to the extent that the "Trojan" is an extension of that, extreme skepticism doesn't seem called for. OTOH, the "God Light"...well, maybe dude got hit in the head too many times while testing his bear suit or something.

Re:WOW! Could it live up to his hype?

[Yold]

Yea, my point didn't come across that clearly. This is an ideal piece of armor for very specialized applications. Don't know what direction the military is moving with mounted armaments, I'd think in the future we'll see joy-stick controlled metal-storm/.50 cals where the gunner is inside a vehicle with software aided remote targeting. Best defense is a good offense you know (especially with RPGs and IEDs).

SWAT-style applications are a good potential use. Especially for urban police forces. I am skeptical of how much military use this thing would see.

Quit Now or Find Another Market

[mpapet]

As someone with personal experience in the area of gov't contracts, there is no way on dog's green earth this guy is going to get anything but a "don't call us we'll call you" from the Fed's.

What most citizens fail to comprehend is the contracts for things already supplied in very large quantities to the Fed's don't change. They don't until enough moral/political outrage is generated from a given situation that "something must be done!" In the meantime, you get no straight answers from anyone anywhere on the Fed's side.

He may have a great product, but this is where business acumen is important. The guy has two practical options from a business perspective:
1. License the technology for pennies on the dollar to the guys already supplying armor to the DOD and then get screwed by them because they know they didn't pay the guy enough to lawyer-up for the battle to establish the obvious years later. This is a classic move in big-business. Buy innovaters then put their innovations on the shelf where they are "safe."

2. Find other markets. One I'm sure would have some interest is the stunts industry in the U.S. If I still rode mtn bikes, I'd look into this to protect my old bones on some of my favorite descents. (The ones that haven't been lawyered away that is) Meanwhile, find a federal contractor who is powerful enough to run at whoever is providing armor now. It'll take 10 years to get a single purchase order, but maybe by the time the guy's grandchildren are running the company they'll be protecting soldiers.

Re:WOW! Could it live up to his hype?

[toQDuj]

Tricky. Aramid polymers (such as Kevlar or Twaron) are a few times stronger per weight unit than steel. Thus a suit made of steel would be a few times heavier than its polymer counterpart. Thus I'd think there's little interest in such beasts.

One interesting snippet though is that bulletproof vests are not knife resistant and knife-resistant vests are not bulletproof. This has to do with the type of weave.

B.

Real Picture or Fake Science

[ThePopeLayton]

I have looked at all of the different news sites and they all have the same picture. I know that it is common for a single set of pictures to be released to the press so the fact that all the sites have a picture doesn't concern me, rather it's that the picture is so low quality.

Today a consumer can easily buy a 8 MP camera so there is no reason that this picture shouldn't be much better quality, also the pixelation, to me at least, screams photoshop.

After reading about all the crack pot ideas this guy has come up with in the past ("God Light", "Angel Light", "1313 paste") why does everybody immediately believe this guy is telling the truth? I personally don't. First the suit looks TOO much like Halo, second whats up with that huge clock or cock?, third whats up with all the different contours on the suit (if this thing was really body armor would it need to be contoured like it had a million gadget built into it, which according to the article it doesn't?).

So I personally think this whole thing is a fake (much to my chagrin). I would love to hear why you think different.

Re:It still would be nice

[zyl0x]

Also, one other point, a lance is much different than a bullet. The lance has constant force behind it (the horse and rider) as opposed to a bullet, which only has the energy for one push. As such, a lance is much harder to stop than a bullet.

Re:kinda like poking a bear with a stick

[JediLow]

The LEDs aren't there to illuminate the person's head... they're there to be flashlights (did you look at the pictures at all?). I'm not sure why you'd want a laser to point at snipers but the location is a good one - you just have to look at them to point.

Re:It still would be nice

[Gryffin]

Then eventually guns got more and more powerful and all the weight was concentrated in a super-thick breastplate and helmet... at the price of leaving the arms and legs completely unprotected again.

Actually, it wasn't until the advent of smokeless powder that firearms really got the upper hand.

I've seen several (U.S.) Civil War-era breastplates in museum collections. They weren't common, hardly rare; they aren't seen in period photos, because they were worn under the uniform.

Most I've seen had a dent or two from bullets that faile to penetrate; apparently even those big, fat .69 caliber Minie balls weren't powerful enough to get through a well-made breastplate.

I can recall seeing only one breastplate that failed: the officer who wore it took a direct hit from a 3" cannon at a range of just a few feet, while storming an artillery emplacement. I don't think it's unreasonable for such armor to fail in that circumstance!

This presumes a need for humans in battle

[rhinokitty]

The government does not have enough money to buy standard body armor for the soliers in Iraq in 2007, they won't buy this. It is too heavy, the soldiers are already carrying too much on their backs. It is not "powered" so its not going to lighten their load, and it does not have climate control, protection against radiation, chemical, biological or telekenetic attacks. It would be better and cheaper to build a fleet of machines to go into battle than to pour money into something like this.

I think radio controlled airplanes with bombs and guns would blast this thing into oblivion and be much cheaper to build and deploy.

Re:you joke but..

[TubeSteak]

The article mentions "high powered weapons", such as an elephant gun. Only problem is- an elephant gun isn't "high powered" in military terms. It's a damn big bullet, but big bullets have low velocities and are horrible at piercing armor because they spread their impact energy across a wide area.

The .306 & 7.62mm rounds have muzzle velocities around 2700~2800 fps.

Elephant guns use calibers ranging from .357 to .70 and have muzzle velocities around 1600~2000 fps, using black powder or nitrocellulose/nitroglycerin and still have more energy than those two rounds you cite.

The larger elephant gun rounds have 5,000~9,000 ft/lbs of energy in them.
How is that not high powered?
Or do you just mean "not fast"

P.S. The definition of "armor piercing" involves the composition of the bullet and not its ability to pierce armor.

Re:Comments

[Anonymous Coward]

And that's the problem. You think the US army has a bad reputation now? There's something about not having a visible face that screws judgement up, on both sides of the armor. The rest of it is fine, but be very careful before adding the helmet....

Bullet proof suits = bring back swords/maces?

[spineboy]

So if these suits do catch on, and if they are really bullet proof, maybe we'll have to go back to pick-axes and other medieval weapons that were used against the knights. The evening news would be much cooler to watch police taking out a suited up robber with a shield and a pick.=, instead of some lousy shoot out.