The Fremen want to know if it will stop the Shai-Hulud (that is a sand-worm to you and me).

This technology is really going to make Metal Gear Solid 5 a pain in the ass to try to beat.

You'd think they'd want to work on healing soldiers too. But what do I know?!

Is this like a suit of armour made out of molecular level catdoors?

Internet was all about information, which wasn't exactly hard to fathom. We're talking about challenges that deals with physics, chemistry, etc. I would compare this more to the atomic bomb.

I'm confused as to why you'd want the material to be shot-through by friendly forces. Shot 'around', yes. Through, no. That would kill the soldier behind or inside the material. Wouldn't it be better that it stops bullets - full stop. Regardless of the direction they come from?

This whole "Internet" thing is just a fad. It'll pass, and soon be just a memory.

Your healable armor and invisibility will be no match for my needlers and plasma grenades and energy swords.

WORT WORT WORT!

Ah, having read the DARPA document, it appears that there's no mention of it being 'body' armour. Which makes more sense. And makes the article misleading. Having a wall, or a panel on an armoured vehicle that you can see and shoot through seems like a cracking idea.

You don't have to wrap your head around it. It'll wrap itself around you!

With such a lofty goal wouldn't it be easier to say...come up with a weapon where you can just decide who to kill?

I don't think this will ever see the light of day. Consider for a moment that they have yet to deploy Metal Gear REX. Let's get a cracking!

I took one or two classes in physics, and it seems like it would take an awful lot of energy to try to create an invisible wall of anything that would stop incoming energy (i.e. fast moving rounds of ammo and blasts) and to "self heal" itself in case areas of that wall were overcome by too much bombardment.

Isn't the purpose of war to try to get more energy / oil? Maybe it will be solar powered?

Always glad to see the government engaging in yet another fat-cat, taxpayer-funded debacle focused on improving our capability of either killing, torturing or imprisoning other people.

Technosexual ghouls.

It would just be easier to create a robot army to fight for us.

We can call the ground troops T-800's and the flying attackers Aerial HK's.

We can just run them by remote or something.

"Friendly forces will be able to see through it and shoot through it, but hostile forces will not."

Maybe it's just me, but I wouldn't want anyone to be able to shoot through my armor...

If this was accomplished, I'd probably join the army.

Battlefield 2142

put it in a video game!

It sounds to me like their looking to make laser guns and ammor that allows the laser to 'pass through' it. They should be looking at some high polymer glass.

what if a similar mentality as polarized glass would be used...hmmmmm....thanks now i wont sleep at night...i'll be thinking hehehe

Look at me, I'm invisible!

The armor isn't worn, it's a deployed barrier, which mimics the appearance of the terrain behind it. Soldiers standing on the "friendly" side can shoot through to the "enemy" side, but not vice-versa.

Oh yeah, this sounds totally doable. Invisibility should be a walk in the park. I say we throw billions of dollars into researching this every 6 months, rather then healthcare or schools. Who the hell needs to be healthy enough to educate their own children?

Not that this is the best source but I saw a Star Wars documentary on the History channel that talked about using plasma to create clear walls that could do things like hold atmosphere in but let ships out. This seems like an extension of that idea.

Easy! Take 2 parts unobtainium and just add elmers.

Simply put, they are trying to make a force field. Think "War of the Worlds" & "Independence Day". Those tripod things & UFO's can shoot out, but nothing could shoot them (until they both got virus') , whats so hard to understand about that?

Oh, & did everyone forget about Area51? HA!

I mean come on, the military has a crap ton of secret technology, no telling what they have in the works.

"Friendly forces will be able to see through it and shoot through it"

Hahahahaaaaa!!! Hadn't read anything THAT funny for years!

Like:
"Hey, isn't that squad B over there???"
"Yeah, seems like... Let's shoot thru them!!!"

So I wonder what kinda HD Resolution we'd be talkin about here, camo-wise.

@gundark: "Who the hell needs to be healthy enough to educate their own children?"

Just the parents of the soldiers behind the shield. duh

force field

I think this will be awesome. I just hope they figure out a better way of protecting the soldiers and not have them get injured period.

Or, perhaps we could spend some of this tax money getting real-world body armor for soldiers fighting an actual war, right now, at the very moment you are reading this.

Yeah, two words:
Ask Konami

I'll do you better: one word: unobtanium.

Genius.

DARPA actually stands for Diversion Assisted Release of Property from Aliens.

The guy who came up with these requirements just finished watching Heroes from NBC

- invisible
- shoot through?

how about also
- able to melt metal
- travel through time
- learn opponent's capability.

Sounds like someone at Darpa is on the Halo 3 beta...

recruiting must be at its lowest level ever if they go through so much pain to protect soldiers in the battlefield.

Ahh,the good ole days of WW2 when cannon fodder was just that.....

Screw that. You want the enemy to see our
bad-ass Space Marines in full-armor so they piss themselves!

(Or perhaps eat the marines, but that's a technical glitch still being worked out)

@PopeJohnPeepsII

You'd think they'd want to work on healing soldiers too. But what do I know?!

With this kind of technology it's more cost-effective to heal the armor.

You people are all thinking body armor...try thinking armored vehicle, or barriers, I think that's the implementation that they're going for here.

Sadly, I doubt this will ever be cost effective.

I would think that something more along the lines of Predator, protect the soldiers by making them impossible to see is more plausable and cost effective.

@ripfire4:"We're talking about challenges that deals with physics, chemistry, etc. I would compare this more to the atomic bomb."

Bah, 1940's technology.