WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. military wants someone to develop a spray-on synthetic "ice" to slow fleeing enemy fighters.
"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," states the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency in a new solicitation for proposals to develop "Polymer Ice."
The artificial polymer aims to mimic the properties of black ice -- the "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."
Better yet, its antidote would be provided to U.S. troops and their vehicles to give them traction when the people they are chasing don't have it.
"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. This is akin to having the ability to run effortlessly on wet ice, while adversary mobility is simultaneously severely restricted," the notice states.
The antidote, a reversal agent, would also quickly dissolve the Polymer Ice without leaving any toxic residue.
"Such a system will provide unprecedented situational control and sustained operational tempo, including the ability to shape the terrain by constraining adversaries to specific areas, control ingress/egress to buildings, degrade the ability of our adversaries to shoot and chase us, and gain time for our war fighters to act rather than react," DARPA states.
Proposals are due April 24.
