Kalashnikov unveils 4.5 tonne bulletproof walking tank

[catbarf]

Exoskeletons are practical and currently in development. They're not envisioned as bulletproof suits of power armor, more load-assist systems that allow a human operator to carry their 100lbs of kit without actually having it hang off their body. We might see it iterate further into something sort of like classic depictions of power armor.

Mechs are pure fantasy, not on the same level at all.
The problem is that all the claimed benefits of mechs can be better accomplished through other means.

An upright vehicle with a tall profile is an easy target on the modern battlefield; if you want better visibility, put a camera on an antenna or use a drone. A tank is always 'prone' and optimally able to stay hull-down, and can do so while moving.

If you want to be able to swap weapons, modular turrets are a thing. They're just not very popular since they, like any other piece of articulation, are complicated and poor at recoil mitigation, even without anthropomorphic hands and inefficient wrist articulation.

And as far as mobility, I'd like to see what a mech does when it steps in a sinkhole. I'm not sure where the myth of legs being better for all-terrain purposes came from, but as far as military design it's really not true at all. I've seen armored vehicles easily traverse rough terrain that no legged vehicle (or accompanying infantry) could handle, and ground pressure is an enormous concern in marsh, jungle, snow, or sand, the combination of which comprise a significant fraction of the global landmass.

It's pretty obvious when you look at the lack of designs for, say, tanks with arms or articulated torsos, that the defining elements of a mech are there for anthropomorphization first and foremost, with these purported benefits being retroactive justifications for inherently impractical design. I enjoy mecha in fiction despite their sheer implausibility, but no military designer takes the things seriously.

[viper__]

Holy shit what if we had permanently prone soldiers that were just whizzing around the battlefield on powered body boards.

[Death-trooper]

If you really think Russia can pull this off, you're delusional...

They'll be bankrupted by then considering how things are going.

[Lovely]

i thought they discontinued bionicle?