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US Military’s TALOS Armor, A Real-Life ‘Iron Man’ Suit, Set For 2018 Debut

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 07:10 PST, Oct 7, 2015

The United States Military is closer than ever to putting a real-life Iron Man suit into combat, as the TALOS project nears an expected debut in the second half of 2018.

The TALOS suit was inspired by the death of an American commando who was killed two years ago, mortally wounded while kicking down a door during a raid in Afghanistan. As the Tech Times reports, the top commander of U.S. Special Operations vowed to prevent similar occurrences in the future, and that desire has given rise to a new generation of protective gear, known as the Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit, or TALOS.

Unlike the suit worn by Iron Man in the movies, TALOS won’t give its operator the ability to fly through the air. It is somewhat futuristic, however, bearing a resemblance in one key regard to Tony Stark’s latter-day “Extremis” armor. This is because the TALOS suit, amazingly, is composed of a liquid armor that will be able to solidify on command.

The exoskeleton is battery-powered and designed to protect soldiers at their most vulnerable moments (like when they’re the first person through the door into a hostile situation). The armor will make them more lethal, according to Military representatives, reducing the strain put on soldiers’ bodies while providing an unusual level of ballistic protection. Technologies employed in the suit’s helmet will give a TALOS operator an improved array of communications and field of visibility.

Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Special Operations Command, took over the TALOS program from his predecessor, Adm. William McRaven, who was responsible for launching the initiative. Votel noted that in the wake of the unnamed commando’s death, Military brass asked themselves if they could do a better job of protecting soldiers at critical junctures like the one that cost the soldier his life.

A coalition of people from the Pentagon, defense industries, and the academic world are currently working to make TALOS a reality. Though many of the technologies that make the armor function already exist, it is the task of the designers to incorporate them into a system which is both more maneuverable and advanced than their current applications. Several prototypes of the TALOS armor have been manufactured, but the system is not scheduled for delivery of a working first-generation suit of armor until August of 2018.

The TALOS system has been in the news before, particularly in the context of government expenditures and waste. As CNN points out, former Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn included a report on the TALOS project in his widely circulated 2014 Wastebook. That report cited a projected $80 million price tag for the project, although the Defense Department acknowledges that it does not know how much the initiative will ultimately cost. Pentagon spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Matt Allen stated, however, that the Special Operations Command had sourced an adequate amount of funding to continue the development of the TALOS armor.

TALOS is also serving to drive several other military programs, according to Votel. He asserted that the project has given a boost to other initiatives, which are designed to enhance current generations of lightweight armor and communications systems.

Though Tony Stark’s Iron Man suit can currently only be seen on screen, TALOS appears set to bring a very real adaptation of that armor to the battlefield in the coming years, potentially changing the way soldiers approach combat.

[Photo by U.S. Army via Stars And Stripes]

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