Guns that hit targets around corners, computerized helmets, a grenade-launching pickup truck that foils pursuers with oil slicks and smoke screens. The U.S. Army is investing in a host of new technologies that might someday revolutionize American war fighting.

　　From what U.S. soldiers eat, to how they communicate and what types of weapons they fire, the Army is hoping science and engineering can make GIs better informed, more lethal and harder to injure and kill.

　　Some of the technologies can be quie exotic. Take, for instance, the British-designed Objective Individual Combat Weapon, in the early stages of development. It‘s a lightweight do-it-all weapon, intended to replace M-16 rifles, M4 carbines and M203 grenade launchers.

　　It is said to "shoot around corners," because it is designed to fire shells that can be primed to explode at a determined distance, such as over an enemy ditch, or just past a wall.

　　Then there‘s the "Transdermal Nutrient Delivery System" which is being designed to transmit essential vitamins and nutrients through the skin by an osmotic process, similar to a nicotine patch, providing soldiers nutrition in extreme circumstances. It‘s "pushing the limits of existing food technology," according to the Army.

　　The armor-plated SmarTruck concept, developed at the Army‘s National Automotive Center in conjunction with the private sector, might enable the occupants to disorient the enemy with its headlights, fend off attackers with electrified door handles, launch grenades and emit smoke screens to obscure a pursuer‘s line of vision.

　　"It‘s a test bed to prove that all of these advanced technologies can be integrated onto a commercial platform," says Rae Higgins, a public affairs officer with the Army Tank-Automotive & Armaments Command. "If it were ever to see the light of day, this would be something that would have a role in complex and urban terrain, for anti-terrorist missions perhaps."