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If everything goes as planned, U.S. troops may soon have the wall-scaling abilities of the Marvel comic book superhero Spiderman, according to the government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). 

With the help of polymer microstructure technology, the agency has created a unique pair of paddles that will allow a man weighing over 200 pounds with a 50-pound load to scale a 25-foot vertical glass without any ropes or hooks. 

The program dubbed Z-man, will allow soldiers to navigate volatile urban environments more effectively and safely. 

"Historically, gaining the high ground has always been an operational advantage for war fighters, but the climbing instruments on which they're frequently forced to rely-tools such as ropes and ladders-have not advanced significantly for millennia," DARPA said in a statement. "Not only can the use of such tools be overt and labor intensive, they also only allow for sequential climbing whereby the first climber often takes the highest risk."

To overcome these challenges, the agency launched the Z-man program with the goal of developing "biologically inspired climbing aids to enable war fighters carrying a full combat load to scale vertical walls constructed from typical building materials."

Researchers said the inspiration came from one of the best climbers of the animal kingdom: the Gecko. 

Geckos have the ability to scale a wide variety of surfaces including smooth surfaces like glass, "with adhesive pressures of 15-30 pounds per square inch for each limb, meaning that a gecko can hang its entire body by one toe," DARPA said.

The technology was developed for DARPA by Draper Laboratories of Cambridge, Mass.