Not Just Sci-Fi, The Military Really Makes Spider-Man Gloves, And More

Science fiction is not always just for entertainment, it shows how the world predicts the future. However, in the real world, there are a lot of speculative warfare writers and we are seeing more and more of those sci-fi tech like they jump from the screen to right in front of us. The following are seven technologies that can come real in the military in the future.

Spider-Man Gloves

The Z-Man Program, inspired by gecko’s abilities to climb the wall, has developed a synthetic material mimicking millions of fibers like on the feet of geckos which help them stick to almost all surfaces. During the early development stages, Z-Man material was used for two paddles that could hold a 99kg man to climb up a 7.62-meter glass wall.

Iron Man Suit

Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, builds weapons for the military in his movies, so if the real military wants some of his technologies in practice, it’s no surprise. The US military worked on the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS). Although this creation is called the Iron Man Suit, it looks more similar to the armor wear in the Halo game, the plan was to complete and put this suit in use by 2018. The final goal is making the suit bullet-proof, increase the strength and speed of the wearer, pack a series of weapons systems, as well as monitor the wearer’s injuries and health. However, earlier this year, it was announced that this project is dead.

Super Strength

Another suit to enhance soldiers’ strength is XOS 2 exoskeleton. In 2015, the suit already functioned well, which was granted with a SHIELD seal of approval. While TALOS was designed for battle, the XOS 2 was meant for moving and loading heavy equipment. It looks like Tom Cruise’s suit in the movie Edge of Tomorrow, which helped the character lift up to 180kg easily.

Master of Magnetism

Since 2008, the US military has been working on MAHEM, short for Magneto-Hydrodynamic Explosive Munitions. The equipment is capable of destroying vehicles by shooting a jet stream of liquid metal from an electromagnetic device attached to the shoulder. Then, the stream solidifies the target in mid-air and pierce through it.

Curving Bullets

Dubbed EXACTO (Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance), the ammunition can change direction while flying so that it won’t miss the target, even if the target is moving too. Below is a demo video in which an amateur fires EXACTO using an ordinary rifle, EXACTO hits the moving target every single time even though it was fired from a great distance.

Health Regeneration

Do you know Wolverine, the man whose body can heal itself? The US military is working on this capability. While they cannot make soldiers able to heal themselves like Wolverine, the technology can treat diseases like PTSD and arthritis. The final goal for this tech is to make tiny Nano chips that they can inject into patients, the chips will then attach themselves to the brain and give instructions to the nervous system to heal the patient’s body from the inside to outside. The technology can also help in treating brain diseases.

Laser beams

A few years ago, the Pentagon said that they wanted fighter jets to have laser cannons by 2022. This is exactly what we have long expected since Star Wars. Fortunately, the military doesn’t always make laser to kill. At the time, the Navy was already using laser cannons to destroy projectiles.

In December 2014, the military tested a 30kW laser cannon and it instantly destroyed targets with great accuracy. The lasers were not only cool but also practical. A conventional missile fire can cost $2 million, but firing laser costs only 60 cents for each shot.