Super Sexy LandWarrior Gets Another Shot

What do you get when you combine sexy technology with (presumably) sexy military men? The super sexy LandWarrior unit! This fella has actually been around for awhile, in various states of testing and failure, but it seems that it has just received a fresh breath of life from a live combat test.

The soldiers that were outfitted with the LandWarrior, which provides smooth GPS and communication between soldiers, digital maps via eye monocles and electronic rifle scopes, among other things, came back reporting many good things about the hardware. The major problem was that the package weighed in at nearly 16 lbs! But, the savvy soldiers were able to trim it down to about 10 lbs and removed features that they didn't like or did not find useful. After making suggestions on upgrades and changes they'd like to see, the Army has OK'd the production of more test suits. The $102 million funding request that came with that, however, may be a bit daunting for our budget.

I've never been in the military myself, but I grew up in the Air Force and my older brother was in both the Marines and the Air Force. If you ask me, anything that will make the soldier's safer and allow them to do their job more efficiently is perfectly OK by me. Of course, there are those that say the benefits don't outweigh the costs, but it seems the majority of the soldiers liked it, and the Army sounds like it's on board as well.

High-Tech Soldier Suit, Crawling Back From the Dead
[via: Engadget]