Deploy a few thousand of these puppy's and problem solved

[Egaladeist]

The Gladiator Robot's First Public Appearance

now this is one impressive Marine !

http://www.primidi.com/2005/08/08.html
The Gladiator Robot's First Public Appearance

[MrLinus]

And here I was expecting a cute puppy (cuteness is the ultimate weapon).

[Egaladeist]

Hi MsM,

Not sure how much a Marine gets paid...but if each one of these replaces the need for even 10 ground troops...at $300,000 it's a bargain...it would pay for itself...and save countless lives in the process.

Eg

And at 3 tons...that's a pretty hefty Marine !

[foxyloxley]

Jeez ............

WARFARE for the video generation
now it not only won't look, sound, smell like combat ..........

it really WILL be a video game, with no damage to them if / when they fluff up.......

you'll NEVER be able to convince anybody that war is hell, for as long as we use toys to kill .........

my 0.02c

Pax

[jinxy]

I always find it funny that people believe you can replace the the soldier/marine and win a war/battle with technology. They miss the fundimentals, like occupation, there is no point in fighting a battle in a given area if you do not occupy and hold that area. You need humans to do that.

Tools like this are just that tools, opperated by a human and not only that the tool needs protection, this is a job the infantry do for tanks. Tanks opperating without infantry tend to get killed rather easily. So what you have with this technology is a tool for a specific and limited role.

So instead of having, say one section of foot soldiers on an advance to contact type of opperation, you now have one machine, protected by a secton of foot soldiers, an opperator and repair backup far further forward of friendly lines than would be the case normaly.

[Egaladeist]

Hi jinxy,

I was not suggesting that these 3 ton Marines would replace soldiers...just ' some ' soldiers.

Like I said if each one of these were to replace 10 soldiers...that's ten fewer soldiers that needs to be placed in harm's way.

So...if you had 1000 of these in action...instead of deploying 100.000 troops you could deploy 90.000 troops instead, as an example. That means 10,000 soldiers ( NG weekend warriors ) can stay home with their jobs and their families.

I think this is a step in the right direction...I can see in 40-50 years or less someone creating a super soldier that is operated from a computer...

Terminator 2050

Eg

[jinxy]

Hi Eg,

They would not reduce the amount of soldiers at the front line, they would increas the numbers. Firstly to be effective these machines would need real soldiers to protect them. Secondly support staff (REMFs)rear echelon mofos, who would normaly be safe some distant from the battle front, would be pulled forward to support and maintain these machines.

If you look at the design of these machines, think about what is needed to keep them working. Mechanic, welder, armourer, optics tech, radio tech etc. Then look at the supply chain, storage movement purchasing etc. Compare that with keeping one 8 man infantry section up to fighting capability.

To assume that one machine can replace 10 frontline troops and those troops will not be neaded in the theater of war, I don't think so. They will still be in theater just redeployed to another job.

Don't get me wrong, i'm all for the use of technology, and I do recognise that it can save lives. Hell we were using a thing called wheelbarrow in N Ireland years ago.

[Egaladeist]

Hi jinxy,

In an effort to combat aging weaponry...among other things the US Army wants 4000 MI tanks at a cost of about 5 million each=20 billion...

they could easily divert 3 billion of that and have 10,000 of these little monsters ready for action...they probably wouldn't be very useful in a full scale conflict like a world war but ...I think they would make an impressive contribution in conflicts like Iraq/Afghanistan.

Not saying this would ever happen ( obviously the Army wouldn't deploy them in this fashion )...but just for the sake of argument...if I saw 10.000 of these puppies coming toward town I'd high-tail my a@@ outta there

Volume speaks words...there are two ways to win a war ( generally speaking )...demoralize the enemy so he doesn't want to or can't fight...and...by overwhelming the enemy by sheer volume of force and numbers...which creates the same affect as the first.

Eg