Gizmodo reports that “this is not the first time that the US Army Research, Development and Engineering Command (RDECOM) has talked about their desire to get a real life version of Iron Man’s suit for soldiers, but now it’s giving a very specific timeframe: ‘The goal is to have a contract in place by next fall and have suits ready for full field testing in about four years.'”

“While the Army’s Iron Man suit—officially called Tactical Assault Light Operator Suit (TALOS)—will not have flying capability, little missiles, or repulsors, the feature list is still extremely impressive.”

“RDECOM wants TALOS to have ballistic and shock protection—using an armor that will get from flexible soft surface to hard metal solid, capable of repelling ammo when applying an electric current. Oh, and fire-retardant capability. The Army also wants the suit to ‘store and release energy to prevent injuries and increase performance.'”

Here’s video posted on the Defense Department’s Armed with Science site: