Didn’t I see something like this in Goonies? Oh wait, that was slick shoes. Well, I think the concepts are related.

Apparently DARPA is funding research to develop a synthetic “black ice” that can be deployed to keep the enemy from following them, you know, across narrow bridges. Think of it as a very high-tech banana peel from Mario Kart.

Mean banana

From DARPA:

The unrestricted mobility of enemy forces in the crowded urban battlespace severely reduces the effectiveness of military and peacekeeping operations. This, coupled with difficulties in the identification of adversaries amongst the local populace, creates a dangerous environment that risks coalition and civilian casualties. In response to this challenge, DSO is developing the Polymer Ice Program, which aims to replicate the properties of “black ice” for use in a broad range of hot, arid environments as found in the Middle East. The polymer-based artificial ice material will achieve effective mobility control by the precise and reversible reduction of ground traction. A nontoxic reversal agent will also be developed for both man and machine to achieve instantaneous traction restoration on contact. Polymer Ice will ideally provide asymmetric mobility capabilities to our warfighters while adversary mobility is simultaneously severely restricted.

via Defense Sciences Office – Polymer Ice.

From the BBC:

In a document published on the agency’s website, officials point out that “to get from point A to point B, one must have sufficient traction with the ground”.

Darpa believes a polymer-based compound could replicate the properties of black ice – a thin, translucent slippery coating, typically found on roads in winter – to reduce traction.

The agency’s wish list for the “Mobility Control System” includes the polymer ice or raw materials to produce it very quickly, a spray-on reversal agent and a means to clean the ice up.

“Such a system will provide unprecedented situational control and sustained operational tempo,” said Darpa.

“It would degrade the ability of our adversaries to shoot and chase us.”

via US military looks to ‘black ice’.