What’s your favorite super hero?
Superman?
Wonder Woman?
The Black Widow?
What about Batman?
While super heros with super powers are pretty cool, flying, truth lassos, I like the ones
who are just ordinary people who decide to do great things.
And I bet so does the military.
Because it seems the military is taking cues from comic books.
Hey guys julia here for DNews
Bruce Wayne was just an ordinary man.
Okay a really rich ordinary man.
But he wasn’t special, he didn’t have super strength or could grow into a giant
green smashing machine.
Instead he had lots of money.
Which he used to turn his ordinary self into the hero Gotham needed.
His beaucoup bucks went into sweet stuff like tricked out batsuit, batmobiles and batarangs.
As technology changed so did Batman’s toys, in Batman Returns, his staple weapon, the
batarang got an update with an onboard computer.
And comic tech might be coming to life.
Communication on the battlefield used to be cumbersome.
Telephones and other electronics had huge batteries that were difficult to carry and
left little room for other equipment.
Outdated equipment burdened soldiers with over a hundred extra pounds on the battlefield.
Yet, today computers fit in our pockets and so the Air Force is making use of similar
breakthrough technology everyday.
To make it easier to carry around equipment, the Air Force started BATMAN in 2004.
The program stands for Battlefield Air Targeting Man-Aided kNowledge.
Okay i know that last letter is a bit of stretch.
The goal of the program, based out of Ohio's Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, is to “ find
innovative technologies for our operators,” Lt. Anthony Eastin, a behavioral scientist
with the program team, told Defense Tech.
Basically it’s what the acronym suggests, it’s a program assembled from military and
civilian scientists to build a better suit for soldiers.
Some of the technology is sewn right into their uniform.
Some of the features are kind of basic, like red lights on their gloves to help them see
when they write at night.
But here’s the catch, the red lights don’t interfere with night vision goggles.
One of more popular features of the BATMAN gear, is a wrist mount for a tablet or smart
phone.
That way soldiers can access everything they need all within arms reach.
Both simple, yet kind of high tech.
While some of the technology is made in the Air Force's own Batcave, the BATMAN program
also takes advantage of more commercial technologies like Google Glass.
They designed a google glass system specifically for pararescue jumpers, with an app to help
rescue workers keep track of vital signs on multiple people.
It streams real time data like heart rates and blood-oxygen levels of several patients
right to screens by their eyes.
While some of the tech is life saving, some just seems kind of fun.
Like a real life Bathook.
Yeah basically someone in special ops said you know what would be really cool?'
“Something like what Batman has on his belt that he can take out and wing it up to a power
line and get power”.
Yeah that’s a direct quote from a Tech News Daily piece.
All this new BATMAN technology needs to charge and if their batteries die, you don’t want
to leave anyone stranded.
So the bathook or the Remote Auxiliary Power System, as it’s really called, does just
that.
It can be strung up on overhead, low voltage power lines and keep all the field gear up
and running.
But not only is the technology better so is the overall build of the equipment itself.
It was designed to be like like a scaffold airmen could wear, or as the Air Force calls
it a "Human Chassis."
So all the gadgets and gizmos could be strongly attached maintaining the wearer’s range
of movement and agility.
The antennae is placed closer to the torso to improve balance.
and batteries are better too.
They’re lighter by 25% because they use methanol as a fuel source.
That way the pack gets lighter as the fuel is used.
So these advances in technology allow for much easier use and maneuverability than the
clunky communication systems of days past.
So the future might see us in fitbits and google glass and our men and women in uniform
in BATMAN suits.
Speaking of those men and women, the United States Air Force is powered by Airmen, fueled
by innovation.
Every day American Airmen go above and beyond to break barriers both professionally and
personally.
Whether it’s overcoming poverty to become a nurse and officer or becoming the first
female Thunderbird pilot, these Airmen are doing what others once thought was impossible.