In terms of tech, 2014 is the year our military went a bit wild. Now, the military has even found a way to upgrade your common soldier’s helmet, by adding air conditioning to keep our troops from overheating.
The actual helmet design looks like something you would wear in Halo, visor and all, and was developed by the US Army’s Edgewood Chemical Biological Center in order to provide chemical and biological protection, as well as fresh air. The Edgewood Center started designing high-tech respirators back in 2013, and their new helmets are lighter and use less energy than a traditional respirator.
The helmet is equipped with a battery pack and an air-purifying face mask, which connects to a blower unit though a hose. The attached unit then sucks in air through the filtration system built into the side of the mask, which creates a flow of fresh air. When the soldier exhales, the filtered air is shunted through the helmet’s eye cavity in order to prevent any outside biological or chemical contaminants from infiltrating.
After testing the technology by modifying the army’s general-purpose M50 mask, scientists concluded that the Edgewood Center’s design performed just as effectively as that model, making it through crawling, running, rifle and combat drills. They also concluded that Edgewood’s helmet was much more comfortable.
There’s no word on when this new helmet will actually be issued to US soldiers for common use, but Edgewood researchers are continuing to improve the design for now, with plans for a face mask that can monitor a soldier’s vitals and physiology.
For more information on the helmet, you can visit Live Science.
Source Discovery
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