Asus has announced a new addition to its notebook lineup with the introduction of the B51E which is a rugged notebook that meets US Military MIL 810F specifications. This means that it's shock proof and can withstand the occasional dousing.

It can be dropped from heights of up to 75cm without taking any damage and according to the press release, the hard drive is "floated on a sponge protection system." We presume this means that it has some kind of shock absorbent protection system.

The chassis is made from magnesium alloy and it has rubber bumpers to help prevent it getting damaged if knocked around. The display has a scratch resistant film coating which is meant to prevent it from getting damaged.

Hardware-wise, the B51E will come with a choice of Core 2 Duo processors, up to 4GB or RAM, Intel's 965GM chipset, a selection of Intel WiFi cards, hard drives up to 320GB in size and a built-in optical drive, and it has a 15.4in widescreen display. Bluetooth 2.0 and a Webcam are available as options.

The B53Q weighs in at 3.1kg with an 8-cell battery and it measures 365x273x38.2mm (WxDxH). We can't be sure about the retail price, but we managed to find an Estonian Website listing it for about €1,130, which seems to be about right for a rugged notebook of this type.

You can find the press release here