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Project Mecha
Real-world Projects
Interestingly, much of the research done on exotic weapons as the result of the Cold War reflect the science fiction technology that has been adopted in the mecha genre, probably as such advanced research is often the source for science fiction technology.Most of the research projects done for the SDI program of the United States as well as those within other governments have either been found to be dead ends or have lost funding. However, the research did result in some interesting products that prove the concepts could work.
Powered Exoskeletons
General Electric, with support from the US Army and Navy, constructed the first powered
exoskeleton in the 1960s. Hardyman, as it was called, was a hydraulically-powered man-amplifier.
While it was able to make lifting jobs such as loading bombs onto planes a simple task, its
arms and legs were said to be too clumsy and dangerous to be adopted for general use.The Hardyman idea was later revived by Los Alamos researcher Jeffrey Moore in the 1980s. Moore wrote a concept paper on a powered exoskeletal suit, called Pitman, which was to protect infantry from the modern hazards of war, such as chemical/biological weapons and fuel-air bombs. The skeleton could also enhance the wearer's ability to carry equipment (i.e. anti-tank weaponry or a mix of anti-aircraft and anti-personnel weapons mounted on hardpoints). The design also featured a laminated ceramic torso, able to stop .50-caliber armor-piercing ammunition, and a short-term oxygen supply.
The Pitman concept received no funding, but has interested the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Research into exoskeletal systems is currently assigned to the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. The next century could conceivably produce a form of equipment-packed, lightweight armor, a concept called Body Armor, Powered (BAP).
[Source: Virtualtech Issue 3]
Ground-Based Lasers: MIRACL
The Mid Infra-Red Advanced Chemical Laser, combined with the Skylite
beam steering device, was fired successfully in 1989 in a test to attempt to intercept high-speed
aerial targets with a ground-based laser-beam weapon. It reportedly forced down a Vandal
supersonic missile simulating a sea-launched cruise missile at a range "representative of a real
tactical scenario". The laser is also allegedly capable of generating 2.2 MW at 3,800 nm.MIRACL was fired in December 1997 at an aging American satellite in a Pentagon-authorised test to assess the threat of ground-based lasers as anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons. The test was reported successful, but no details were given as to the results.
[Source: Laser Weapons: The Dawn of a New Military Age by Andenburg and Wolbarsht]
Mobile Air Defense Lasers
Ground-based air defense has been the subject of much research, not only by the US, but also
by Germany, France and the former Soviet Union. HELEX, begun in the late 1970s, was a German concept
for a mobile air defense laser system. As
conceived by its designers, HELEX would be equipped with a high-energy carbon dioxide laser, mounted
on a tracked armored vehicle. The beam could be directed by controllable large mirrors on an
adjustable scaffolding. The French started a project with a similar objective in 1986, called LATEX,
which used a 10MW laser developed by Laserdot.The Americans had a similar system even earlier on, in 1975, called the Mobile Test Unit (MTU), which was essentially a Marine Corps LVTP-7 tracked landing vehicle with a 30-KW electrically-excited carbon dioxide laser squeezed into it. MTU reportedly destroyed winged and helicopter target drones in tests, but results were reported inconclusive. It was succeeded in 1981 by the Mobile Army Demonstrator (MAD), which used a 1.4-MW DF laser, which needed a waste containment system because it produced considerable amounts of poisonous gases during operation. MAD also lost funding, but was later continued by Bell Aerospace Textron with Army funding.
An even more ambitious project was the Air Force flying laser lab, which was a Boeing NKC-137 cargo plane that carried a 400 KW gas dynamic carbon dioxide laser. In 1981 it intercepted airborne AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles, proving at least in principle that an aircraft-mounted laser could be used as anti-missile defense, and opened the possibility of using lasers in an anti-satellite role. The project was terminated in 1984.
Perhaps the most promising project was the Unified Navy Field Test Program in 1978, where a chemical DF laser, in tandem with a Hughes aircraft targeting and aiming system, was used to intercept TOW antitank missiles in flight. There are also unconfirmed reports of a Russian Kirov-class cruiser mounting a high-energy anti-sensor chemical laser, which was successfully used against sea-skimming missiles out to a range of 10 miles.
[Sources: Laser Weapons: The Dawn of a New Military Age by Andenburg and Wolbarsht and Outer Space--A New Dimension of the Arms Race, edited by Bhupendra Jasani]