But if he was naked, he wouldnt suffer a scratch... funny that.

Any particular reason you think this provides better protection than an Interceptor vest with ESAPI plates? Seems more likely to me it's worse, at just 18 kilos and a ridiculously low price tag. I'd be surprised if it could reliably stop 7.62x51mm FMJs.

I have heard of 7.62x54mmR ammo that supposedly can penetrate the Interceptor + ESAPI, but I can't find hard data on anything that'd fit the bill. If 7N13 with its simple hardened steel core, a slight improvement over the .30-06 M2 AP round all level IV vests have to be able to stop and not quite in the same league as the 7.62x51mm M993, can manage it, that's just bad planning by the boys at Pentagon.

If this dude was at all serious about attracting the military, he would've made the prototype look a bit more like these, although it's a much better Halloween costume as it is.

CryePrecion is a real world company - look at AU's Picture.

http://www.aspensystems.com/pmicroclimate-systems.html

Man-scale portable air conditioning units do exist, and that Aspen Systems has produced a lunchbox-sized, hand-carried unit for the Eurofighter pilot suit (for use prior to plugging into cockpit cooling systems.) The bulk of the unit is the batteries - the current cooling systems are a small portion of the boxes you can see in the link above.

However, the power draw of ~100 watts (to generate the cited 300W of cooling) is a bit beyond solar panels you'd want to stick on a person - you'd need a good share of the body covered in high-efficiency solar arrays to continuously generate 100W.

In Shadowrun, you're better off with batteries or fuel cells. A setting with man-portable laser weapons has some damned good batteries, and by 2070 fuel cells should be able to deliver 100W in a pretty compact form.

They'd probably just make a law making wearing armor illegal because it made you too hard for the criminals to rob.

I was referring to an HEDP round that can penetrate over 3 inches of steel. That, combined with the concussio of the blast would be rough. Those rounds do require a fairly solid surface to cause it to explode. So, it is possible that shooting a "naked" person with a 40mm grenade that it might not explode, not on impact but later when the self-destruct fuse detonates. There are other types of anti-armor warheads, like HESH (High Explosive Squash Head) which would be dangerous too.

The big problem here is that the grenade has a 15 yard or so safety before it even arms. The grenade is also slow with a high tradgectory. Combined that would make for a hard shot on a man sized target.

I think here in Australia is /is/ illegal to wear body armour. I seem to remember a bill board with all the restricted things on them in silhouette with guns and clubs and thing. I'm fairly sure it had a bulletproof vest type thing on it.

-Strobe

Crossbows have a huge restriction in this country. You can't have one that you can raise and fire with one hand/arm. You need a gun license to have one and you must shoot in a club or competition every so often (I think it might be once every 12 months).

Also I don't think there were any boomerangs on the sign. Almost every tourist ends up with one and they go through airports fine so they are probably ok.

-Strobe

Our government doesn't like that either. Medieval weapons (and replicas) need you to be a member of a club and have a license for at least in some states.

-Strobe

Yeah, and, I dont have any clue how 'realistic' things are in Americas army. But it did make me wonder when I played AA. Once, out of pure despiration (my gun jammed on me mid fire fight. And it takes a while to clear a jam in AA) I just switched to GL and blasted a guy pretty much point blank. Course the grenade didnt explode. But it DID kill him. Assumably due to the force of impact to the chest.

Ahh. that game was fun.. for a while. Then the sameness just got terribly dull and boring.

welcome to the army

Oh I dont know. Sure alot of it would be quite boring. I mean I -did- spend over 3 years working nights as a security guard for several companies. So I definately know boring allright. 12hr shifts, nothing going on. Same place, every day... and your not allowed to read, listen to the radio, chatting with others is discouraged etc.

God am I ever glad to be away from all that. But the thing is with the army you can at least see other places. I think if I ever joined up though I'd stick with the reserves. That way I could actually volunteer to go some places. And short of an actual all out war. I wouldnt wind up stuck in the same place endlessly for years on end with no real option to go anywhere else...

I think?

To answer Penta's Question first:
Damn sepreatists! They SHOULD be fired uppon!

Well ok I dont -really- think like that... all the time. Though I do hate about 40% of french speaking Quebecers I run into because so many of them pull this elitist bullshit. I mean they have LANGUAGE POLICE for crying out loud. Thats so... facist? I'm not sure what the proper word would be for that kinda crap.


Heh as for joining the Reserves. Ehh.. I dunno I looked at it. Camerons has at least some of the fields I'd want to get into. I'm not much of an Artillery type myself. I suck at math for starters so unless I had some one telling me what angle to put the gun at etc I'd litterally be eyeballing it and making edumacated guesses as to the proper angle to fire it at.

Though either way. If I did go for the reserves I'd seriously have to get my fattening ass back into shape again. And... I'm really too lazy to do it by myself. I dont like going to the gym and what not alone. I get too bored too damn fast. And none of my friends are the sort to go with me. Sides I dont -really- know what I'm doing beyond a few basic warmups etc and the odd bits I learned when my folks used to make me take Tae-Kwon-Do lessons. ANd personally I'd have prefered something much 'cooler' such as Akido or Jujitsu or some such. Oh well. Money is abit of an issue too. But it's mostly the boredom. That and it would take me at least a good solid year of excersise to get back into shape I think. ANd endurance runs are allways goign to be abit of an issue. I'm the sprinter type. Even when I was at my peak I couldnt run as long as most people could. But for that period of time I could run considerably faster than they could. So I'm not really sure how that would work out. Otherwise I think I"d long ago have signed up.

Course then there's the whole army owning a piece of your ass thing too. I'm not so hot on that little part. Though I really think it would be an overall 'positive' experience. And people like drill seargents yelling at me and giving me shit wouldnt bother me too much. Like my sister who joined the Navy said to one of her drill Seargents back in the days when she was still a cadet. "Oh.. my mother's MUCH worse than you."

Sure. You just have to survive until election day.

Eh election day has nothing to do with it. You volunteer to go various places for a tour. Each tour lasts X ammount of time. You may get ALOT of pressure to sign up for another tour sure. But in the end they cant at least legally force you to stay there without actually delcaring a war when your a reservist.

And if they try that there's usally pretty easy ways of leaking the info to the press. And you'd definatley not be the only one wanting to go home when your tour is done. You upset enough troops to a big enough degree and they WILL turn on you. It's happened before, it'll happen again.

That of course doenst help you if your the exception to the rule. Though Its definately true that some people signing up for the miltiary dont really know what the hell their getting into. There was yet another recent article in the newspaper about our troops in Afghanistan. And how alot of recent recruits wanted to go over to Afghanistan to help but they 'didnt want a fighting position'. Well umm. Guys? Army. What does the army do? Fight.

Sure you can be rear echalon but if yoru an infantry trooper and go over there you ARE going to have to eventually go somewhere where people will probably shoot at you. If you cant stand that idea... you should have signed up in the first place for that kind of job. And if you didnt know that could happen. Thats really your own fault. They dont exactly hide the fact that as a soldier its your job some times to shoot at. And in shooting at others that you will be shot at in turn. If you dont catch on somewhere in basic training where their teaching you how to survive attacks and how to kill other people... then. Man.. I just dont know how you surive going out your door in the morning much less the act of turning on the TV every day.

The problem is that some people don't end up where they wanted to go.

See the point?

they can for at least three months. it's called "stop-loss". doesn't require a declaration of war.

Yeah but if you sign up as a reservist you damn well should expect the -possiblity- of that happening. I at least completely realize that if I wind up joining the military I'm effectively signing my life away for a while. Or at least a good part of it. In the end even if I did wind up in some boring place for a few years. Been there. Done that kinda thing. Bordom alone wont kill me. The degree I go to to relieve that bordom on the other hand.....

My god their really getting that desperate for people these days? Damn.

As for the armor. I dunno. Dont the reservists now also have the new camos? Or is that -still- dragging out?

I mean yeah the reserves get the hand-me-downs first. But it usually works its way down the chain. Course a total lack of replacements wouldnt supprise me either when it comes to the Canadian military. Good ol' goverment has been letting our military slide further and further into the crapper gear wise for years. Meanwhile we have PMs buying 3 new jets for their private fleet they dont need and such.

As to the estimate of 10+ years, I'd really probably shoot at 20-30+ for it to be fairly common. Keep in mind most militaries do it on the cheap. Why spend $40k on a single soldier just so he can have a few extra nifty toys when you can spend $40k on two soldiers who are only slightly less well equipped?