(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Top Defense Department scientists recently discussed the Pentagon’s ambitions to create “super soldiers” modeled after the likes of Captain America and Iron Man, according to a recent report from Vice.
A journalist from Vice attended the Nov. 29 Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference, or I/ITSEC, which it described as an annual conference where military leaders come to talk shop and simulation corporations gather to demo new products.
One specific panel caught the Vice journalist’s attention: “Black Swan—Dawn of the Super Soldier,” which reportedly included Defense Acquisition University analyst Lauren Reinerman-Jones, U.S. Army Developmental Command representatives George Matook and Irwin Hudson, research scientist J.J. Walcutt, and Richard McKinley, who works on “non-invasive brain stimulation” for the Air Force.
According to Vice, much of the conversation revolved around the ethical and legal boundaries of creating super soldiers.
“What risks are we willing to take? There’s all these wonderful things we can do,” Matook reportedly aid. “We want our guys to be over-matching any possible enemies, right? So why aren’t we giving them pharmaceutical enhancements? Why are we making them run all week when we could just be giving them steroids? There’s all these other things you could do if you change societal norms and ethics.”
Specific enhancements discussed included giving soldiers synthetic blood, and replacing night-vision goggles with eye drops—to initiatives currently underway at the Pentagon.. A slide from the panel also reportedly showed a “soldier of the future” whose body is “flooded with pain-numbing stimulants” and has the “ability to regrow limbs & quickly heal wounds like a lizard.”
To top it off, the panelists provided a grim outlook for what would happen to super soldiers once they outlive their usefulness for Uncle Sam.
“Termination,” Hudson said, reportedly drawing a chuckle from his colleagues.
While Pentagon officials may have high hopes for futuristic soldiers, congressional Democrats apparently have their sites set lower. Sens. Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin have proposed addressing the military’s recruitment shortfalls with illegal immigrants.
“My colleague from Illinois [Sen. Tammy Duckworth] has a bill that says if you’re an undocumented person in this country and you can pass the background test and the like, you can serve in our military. And if you do it honorably, we will make you citizens of the United States,” Durbin said on the Senate floor Monday.
“Do we need that? Do you know what the recruiting numbers are at the Army, Navy and Air Force? They can’t find enough people. And there are undocumented people who want to serve this country. Should we give them the chance? I think we should.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
