unit preview: Spetznaz

[Kal-el]

soldier of the future:

US looks to create robo-soldier
Guns that hit targets around corners, computerized helmets, a grenade-launching pickup truck that foils pursuers with oil slicks and smoke screens. The U.S. Army is investing in a host of new technologies that might someday revolutionize American war fighting.

The Soldier of Tomorrow
In this artist's concept of the soldier of the future, microphotonic materials embedded in the soldier's suit camouflage her right leg.

As the U.S. Special Forces unit approaches the enemy compound, a sentry shouts an alarm and the soldiers duck beneath a hail of gunfire. The point man drops to the ground and stretches a flap of his battle suit in front of him; with the push of a button it hardens into an instant shield. Two commandos move left, away from the forest cover into a rocky outcropping. As they move, the browns and greens of their camouflage change to shades of gray. Two move right, but one man is hit in the leg. Immediately, sensors relay information about his injury and location to field headquarters, where doctors instruct his suit to administer painkillers, apply pressure to the wound, and harden into a cast around his leg. Sensors tell HQ which soldier is closest to the wounded man; new orders and the target's position appear on the rescuer's heads-up display. To reach his comrade, the soldier must cross 20 feet of open ground—which he does with a single leap through the air.

That's the sci-fi scenario the U.S. Army has charged the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to make real. The Army last week chose MIT for a new $50 million research center, with the goal of creating the uniform of the future. The center, called the Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies, will develop new materials that industrial partners—including DuPont, Raytheon and two Boston hospitals—will integrate into futuristic battle suits.

Pentagon Rolls Out 'Latest, Greatest Prototype' Soldier System
"WASHINGTON, May 23, 2002 – DoD engineers are developing the 2010-era Objective Force Warrior even before the next- generation Land Warrior is fielded in 2004.

Project managers from the Natick Soldier Center in Natick, Mass., rolled out a prototype Objective Force Warrior for the Pentagon press corps today.

Project Engineer Dutch Degay called the prototype the "latest and greatest" individual soldier system. He explained the Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki tasked the Natick lab to "completely rebuild the (combat) soldier as we know him.

 

[zm1285ghaa]

Wow. Great unit. Very impressive, very useful.

 

[Scimitar-cat]

Balou, just good words in Russian

- menya prosto porazila Vasha rabota - vy designer ili hudozhnik? Kachestvo Vashih unitov vyshe, chem v samoi igre !!

Snimayu shlyapu pered Vashim masterstvom!

May I also ask if you are going to make some mesoamerican units and maybe amazonian jungle-warriors with poisoned arrow-pipes?

Would be great...

 

[Yoda Power]

Balou is from germany im not sure if he understand russian.

 

[FlakJacket]

Just to be awkaward, have you considered- or is it possible, giving them the hidden nationality power or invisibility to reflect the fact that they were aparently trained to infiltrate opposing countries, perform sabotage- pillage- and anti VIP work- kill the odd passing King unit in regicide?

And on a slightly related note, is it possible for two different units to use the same animation? Since Spetsnaz troops wore standard military uniforms to hide in plain sight as it were, I figured it might be fun to give them the normal infantry animation as a more expensive version and this obvious one as a cheaper version.

 

[Sneus]

Keep on creating great units Balou.

BTW I love the parachute animation that's strong.