Depleted Uranium Forums (DU-BBS)

...there is an immediate need for methods to deny enemy transit while simultaneously maintaining our own. An effective solution is found from the basic tenet: to get from Point A to Point B, one must have sufficient traction with the ground. In response to this challenge, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking innovative proposals to develop Polymer Ice, a polymer-based artificial ice material that achieves effective mobility control by the precise and reversible reduction of ground traction. The Polymer Ice program aims to replicate the properties of “black ice,” a thin, translucent, slippery coating of ice on roadway surfaces that forms spontaneously in cold temperatures, but for use in a broad range of hot, arid environments such as found in Iraq and Afghanistan. A non-toxic reversal agent, carefully matched to the chemical characteristics of Polymer Ice, will be developed to rapidly restore traction when applied to a Polymer Ice-coated surface. Most importantly, incorporation of the reversal agent into combat boots and tires, to achieve instantaneous traction restoration on contact, will provide true asymmetric mobility capabilities to our war fighters.