• Army cancels Humvee Recap, places bets on JLTV
    62 replies, posted
[QUOTE=S31-Syntax;34391067]I'm hoping for more of a... [img]http://mechwarrior5.ru/images/timberW.jpg[/img][/QUOTE] oh yeah? [IMG]http://fc04.deviantart.net/fs43/f/2009/121/0/2/Metal_gear_REX_by_XeRo_ArtistiC.jpg[/IMG]
[QUOTE=GunFox;34392362]I was sitting here wondering how effective something along that design might be. It sucks for taking out armored vehicles, but for the kind of fighting we are doing right now, it might actually be pretty damn cool. The legs, if designed properly, could pull off a hell of a ninja trick. There are microwave towers setup around the United States that were originally intended to serve as a communications network in the even of a nuclear conflict. They are defunct now, made redundant by the robustness of the internet, but they were interesting because the towers could survive a near hit from a nuclear warhead. The reason being that they were designed to, from any given direction, only present a very small amount of surface area on which a concussive blast could hit. So a roadside bomb, for instance, might go off and since the clearance is so high on this thing and the legs present such a minimal surface area, it might ultimately cause little damage or even fail to slow it down at all. The height would obviously be scary, but it would also allow it to defend infantry against enemy infantry attacking from rooftops and from behind cover. Since the height would allow it to see it on top of rooftops and shoot down over enemy cover. I wouldn't even consider fielding something like it without an active defense system. A damn good ADS could defend it, and the infantry squad near it. Explosively formed penetrators would still be an issue though. Obviously this design would skip the massive array of weaponry in favor of more targeting stuff. 30mm cannon and some TOW/Javelin missiles perhaps. A stinger or two for good measure. Triple bonus points if they can deploy out the back of a C-130 from the air. Because paratroopers are one thing, paramechs are terrifying.[/QUOTE] Problem is that it still presents a huge target, plus increased cost in maintenance from all the mechanisms and technical know-whats that keep the thing from tripping over itself, much less any terrain. Don't get me wrong, I fucking LOVE mechs, but they're good for little else than sci-fi wank fuel.
[QUOTE=Zero-Point;34412232]Problem is that it still presents a huge target, plus increased cost in maintenance from all the mechanisms and technical know-whats that keep the thing from tripping over itself, much less any terrain. Don't get me wrong, I fucking LOVE mechs, but they're good for little else than sci-fi wank fuel.[/QUOTE] I used to assume the same thing, but with tech advancing like it is, I'm not so sure anymore. Active defense systems are getting crazy effective and our understanding of developing systems that automatically cope with uneven terrain using two legs is getting quite good. We are still a long ways off, if for no other reason than the lack of an effective power plant, but I can see them being used in a light infantry support fashion. Well, assuming we don't just go hardcore drone. All the armor and infantry in the world can't really compare to a transport aircraft that spews crapton of autonomous rotary wing drones armed with a variety of small arms from grenade launchers to MG's to javelin missiles. That pretty much fucks the entire game up.
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