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From: ke4zv!gary@gatech.edu (Gary Coffman)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Power Armor
Message-ID: <1991Jun14.080221.20535@amd.com>
Date: 13 Jun 91 09:05:31 GMT
References: <1991May24.030024.8386@amd.com> <1991Jun6.063339.5887@amd.com> <1991Jun12.012726.25617@amd.com>
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From: ke4zv!gary@gatech.edu (Gary Coffman)


fcrary@lightning.Berkeley.EDU (Frank Crary) writes:
>kW, or roughly 3 horsepower output. Allowing for efficiencies, I can't
>see such a suit requiring more than 10 hp. Are you saying that a 10 hp
>motor is too big?

No, the motors, or force actuators, are really quite small and light
nowadays. Supplying more than 6 kw for 24 hours to run the motors is
the problem. Note that your power estimates are based on a human just
barely carrying a suit. What is required is a suit that can exhibit the
speed and agility of an unencumbered man or better while carrying
relatively heavy weapons and perhaps even having the strength to bash
heavy doors or tip a jeep. In addition to power for movement, power is
needed to operate the sensor and control system and to supply
enviornmental conditioning for the occupant. Some weapon systems, for
example an electrically operated minigun, would require power as well.
That implies higher power figures than you quote. I'd guess more like
15 to 20 kw peak. Even a 6 kw peak system that can supply 144 kwh
without refueling is not small or light.  A further constraint is that
the power generation be quiet and have a low IR signature.  A screaming
gas turbine would negate much of the stealth advantage of PA.  Nearly
all the technologies to build PA are available or expected in the near
term. The power supply problem is the major stumbling block.

Whether PA is really militarily useful is another question. With the
occupant buttoned up for NBC protection, with a sensor system capable
of working in low light, low sound level, low olifactory level, radar,
lidar, and god knows what else, with protection against most light
weapons, with fairly heavy offensive weapons, and the agility of an
unencumbered man to walk, run, crawl, crouch, or fight, PA would be
a formidable tool on the urban battlefield. Slipping through the
jungle with the enhanced senses provided by PA, it would be a formidable
jungle fighting tool. Sauntering across an open tank killing ground,
it would be suicide.

Gary