The U.S. Army’s research arms are busy looking into ways to improve the ability of soldiers to properly fight with more lethality. In recent years, they are looking into augmenting their warfighters with contraptions to enhance their load carrying capabilities without putting more stress on their bodies such as exoskeletons. Now, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) is looking into that direction, but this time, of having a “Third Arm” that will help the soldier carry his/her weapon.

Sounds like it’s in a direction of making soldiers look like Doctor Octopus? You bet it is.

This exoskeleton is designed more for weapons carrying rather than load carrying that other research teams are looking into, and aims to shift the weight from the soldier’s arms to his/her torso. Now undergoing testing, it weighs less than 4lbs. which is light enough to be strapped to the soldier. In a report at the U.S. Army website, redirecting more of the weight to the body of the soldier will make it easier for a soldier to carry a more lethal weapon:

"We're looking at a new way for the Soldier to interface with the weapon," said Zac Wingard, a mechanical engineer for the lab's Weapons and Materials Research Directorate. "It is not a product; it is simply a way to study how far we can push the ballistic performance of future weapons without increasing Soldier burden."

"You wind up pushing that Soldier's combat load up beyond 120 pounds and they're already overburdened," he said last week at the Association of the United States Army's Global Force Symposium. "We [now] have Soldiers in their late teens and early 20s and they're getting broken sometimes in training before they see a day in combat.

Photo: Zac Wingard of the ARL explains the "third arm" during the U.S. Army's Global Force Symposium in Alabama last March 14, 2017. (U.S. Army photo by Sean Kimmons)

While conducting the testing, soldiers wear electromyography sensors on their arms and upper body when carrying and firing M4 rifles to measure muscle activity if there are changes in fatigue when shooting as well as find out if there is improvement in accuracy when augmented with the “Third Arm”.

They will also look into the possibility if the contraption will be more of hindrance rather than a more helpful device such as when if it is in the way of reaching for the magazine pouch or the first aid kit. Though one obvious benefit for having a “Third Arm” is that it allows the soldier to free up his/her arms when doing other tasks while still having the weapon around his/her body held by the device and probably allow him/her to shoot a weapon with heavier recoil.
The ARL plans to test the contraption for other fighting techniques such as shooting on the move, close quarters combat, and shooting around corners.

Another option especially when there is lack of cover when under fire is to use the third arm hold a ballistic shield, allowing the soldier to hold a rifle rather than a pistol.

For now it is a proof of concept, and they hope to “ruggedize” the device so it will be able to handle more punishment and be ready for real world combat situations when a soldier will bump into walls, dive to the ground, shoot prone, and other rigorous activities that soldiers undertake.

Who knows? If the “Third Arm” proves to be a potential exoskeleton for soldiers to use, why not add another arm to it to make it handle more weapons? Doctor Octopus would surely approve that.