Milipol is an annual professionals-only exhibition of military and security technology, all vying for a piece of the $350 billion market. I covered the 2009 Paris event for Gizmodo.com. You can check out my articles here.
I spotted some pretty interesting products. There was a new version of the reactive body armour d3o (called "Flow" - lighter, stronger and more reactive), which the company is trying to move into military clothing.
"Reactive armor" in this case means that it is a foam insert that is soft, light and flexible when manipulated, but instantly stiffens and absorbs shocks when a struck with force. How cool is that?! D3o supplies the foam to clothing and gear manufacturers, who create products for the end user. If you ski, snowboard, ice climb or ride motorcycles, you might have used some of their gear.
As of today it can't stop bullets or stand up to shrapnel, but their marketing manager told me that something along those lines is in the works.
More fun stuff included FN Herstal's new Armatronics suits, which adds some serious electronics to the gun's hardware. It incorporates an electronic "kind-of bluetooth" networked black box inside the handgrip that logs ammo, bullets fired and so on, as well as a "moving red dot' fire control unit for a grenade launcher. The latter is really cool - a laser rangefinder in front of the weapon calculates the distance to target, finds the firing solution, and then moves the red dot to aim the tube grenades. Here it is, held by a funny looking Japanese tourist, or maybe he was a journalist.
Other fun stuff ranged from Star Trek style tricorder sensors, to ruggedized notebooks that I'd love to test out.
