Inflatable Soldiers

I saw the Hurt Locker recently and the most riveting scene, in my opinion, was the sniper battle in which Voldemort was killed by an Iraqi insurgent operating a Dragunov from a small concrete shack off up the hill. Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) takes over his abandoned M107 and takes off his helmet. Granted, if he gets hit in the head, helmet doesn't help. But his head is actually more visible without the camouflage the helmet provided. William James (Jeremy Renner) takes over as his spotter and leaves his helmet on. That, the spit-and-polish lesson, and the juice box, were all significant imo.

((Using stats collected up through 2007, I'm estimating that Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs, aka roadside bombs) cause around 40% of U.S. fatalities in Iraq. The current number may be higher. Obviously, anything that can be done to address IEDs directly will save lives. My best idea is to create a robotic conversion kit for a Humvee allowing it to be remotely controlled by a local operator. The Humvee would carry an array of pulsed magnetic detection equipment that would identify metalic objects near the road being traveled. A camera on a boom would allow a higher vantage point for visually identifying suspicious metallic mass. Anything suspicious would be fired upon using anti-materiel rifles by U.S. troops operating from a safe remove. The remote Humvee could also "toss" detonation charges before retreating or continuing down the road.

Another idea would be to create a series of quickly deployable surveillance poles. Video data would be delivered via wireless data connection to local hubs. Whenever a convoy is about to travel down a specific length of road, the data would be remotely reviewed (by non-military subcontractors). Poles would be equipped with night vision. Software would extract footage featuring motion. Traffic that doesn't stop or significantly vary its speed would be detected by matching it to a template. Any tampering with surveillance equipment would result in immediate live attentiveness and possibly fast-moving (for instance, a helicopter gunship) response.

But this is an idea specifically for the kind of scenario featured in the sniper battle in "The Hurt Locker."))

As soon as U.S. troops come under fire from whence they know not, they seek cover. At the same time, inflatable soldiers are (somehow) deployed- carefully crafted inflatable decoys that self-inflate under the cover of a temporary smoke screen using compressed CO2. These inflatable soldiers would move slightly using a combination of robotic actuators, internal puppet marionette strings, and swiveling. To be effective, they would need to swivel to face the enemy. Also, they'd appear in a crouched or semi-crouched firing position holding an inflatable rifle.

Now, the sniper(s) firing on the friendly position aren't going to be fooled by the decoys within a certain range. However, beyond a certain range, the enemy will have no choice but to second guess whether the inflatable soldiers are the real thing. Meanwhile, actual soldiers are prone, moving to a more protected position, or simply crouched in the open right among the decoys. Every time the enemy fires on an inflatable soldier instead of the real thing, friendly forces have an increased chance of surviving the encounter.

Inflatable soldiers would weight about ten pounds each and would look like landmines in their undeployed state. They'd be tossed around like Frisbees or launched like clay pigeons. The first stage of their inflation process would turn them upright if they happened to land upside down. They'd be reusable- just open a valve and return to manufacturer to be repacked. They'd be usable in both urban and open conditions. They could be deployed remotely using a radio-controlled vehicle using off-the-shelf RC parts. Their directional microphone and swiveling ability would provide a cue to actual soldiers which direction the enemy fire was coming from. By putting some sort of fine powder inside the inflatable, a penetrating bullet could indicate the direction of origin by creating a plume.

Using modular inflation chambers, it might be possible to make an inflatable soldier stand up to being shot. Sequenced inflation might also make it possible to raise the newly inflated soldier in a way that crudely mimics the natural motion of rising from prone to a crouched position.

The appearance of more soldiers than the sniper originally anticipated might also give cause to break off the attack.

Inflatable soldiers could be used in lots of tactically creative ways. For instance, a small force could initiate an attack on a fixed position by inflating an entire platoon of inflatable soldiers away from their point of attack as a distraction. A single sniper could deploy a half-dozen inflatable soldiers around, but not-too-close-to his own position. After each shot, he could then inflate another soldier as a distraction. The enemy would have no choice but to dedicate some of its attention to the inflatable, even knowing that it was a decoy.

An inflatable soldier would be much easier to deploy in a rapid, believable fashion than an inflatable tank for instance. The organic curves of a human body would also be a more natural shape to attempt using small-scale inflatable architecture.