Liquid armor and tiny high power engines will be in 2018 special forces exoskeleton prototypes

MIT is developing a next-generation kind of armor called “liquid body armor.”
Liquid body armor transforms from liquid to solid in milliseconds when a magnetic field or electrical current is applied. Scientists at a Polish company that produce body armor systems are working to implement a non-Newtonian liquid in their products. The liquid is called Shear-Thickening Fluid (STF). STF does not conform to the model of Newtonian liquids, such as water, in which the force required to move the fluid faster must increase exponentially, and its resistance to flow changes according to temperature. Instead STF hardens upon impact at any temperature, providing protection from penetration by high-speed projectiles and additionally dispersing energy over a larger area.
Beside liquid armor, army exoskeletons will include Liquid Piston high efficiency engines that would be "in charge" of batteries, i.e. recharging.
Citing article source:
Liquid Piston is developing several small rotary internal combustion engines developed to operate on the High Efficiency Hybrid Cycle (HEHC). The cycle, which combines high compression ratio (CR), constant-volume (isochoric) combustion, and overexpansion, has a theoretical efficiency of 75% using air-standard assumptions and first-law analysis. This innovative rotary engine architecture shows a potential indicated efficiency of 60% and brake efficiency of over 50%. As this engine does not have poppet valves and the gas is fully expanded before the exhaust stroke starts, the engine has potential to be quiet. Similar to the Wankel rotary engine, the ‘X’ engine has only two primary moving parts – a shaft and rotor, resulting in compact size and offering low-vibration operation. Unlike the Wankel, however, the X engine is uniquely configured to adopt the HEHC cycle and its associated efficiency and low-noise benefits. The result is an engine which is compact, lightweight, low-vibration, quiet, and fuel-efficient.

• High power density – up to 2 HP / Lb (3.3 kW / kg)
• 30% smaller and lighter for spark-ignition (SI) gasoline engines
• Up to 75% smaller and lighter for compression-ignition (CI) diesel engines

http://nextbigfuture.com/2016/05/liquid-armor-and-tiny-high-power.html