Heroic laptop takes bullet for US soldier

Panasonic has revealed pictures of a bullet-ridden Toughbook laptop that, it claims, saved the life of the soldier who carried it. Apparently, when a sharp shooting Iraqi sniper took a potshot at an American soldier, the CF-M34 Toughbook laptop stopped the bullet in its tracks, saving the soldier from a sticky end.

The Toughbook range is Panasonic's series of rugged and semi-rugged laptops designed for harsh environments. They're ideal for outdoor use, as they are extremely durable and include cool features like anti-glare screens which can be viewed even in direct sunlight.

Panasonic says that its laptop was being carried by an infantry solder in the 82nd Airborne Division when he came under fire. As you can see, the soldier was very lucky to survive the incident; the laptop, on the other hand, doesn't appear to have escaped so lightly.

The bullet crashed through the LCD screen, giving the keypad a good slap in the teeth before wedging itself in the internal hard disk. Presumably it lay on the desert floor bleeding battery fluid for several minutes as its ownder desperately tried, in vain, to save its life.

It is not known whether the laptop would have had a better chance of surviving the assault, had it been installed with the 'ultra-safe' Windows Vista operating system.