Giant Military Vehical

[RacingManiac]

Thats actually quite true.....the amount of testing most military demands is crazy, from handling of the vehicle to occupant "comfort"(not really comfort but a maximum level of annoyance human can tolerate).....And despite their size and scale of things, the parts are still made with aerospace precision and expense. Versus the rather crude and basic of most industrial earthmover....

 

Working on something of the sort now for their damper, we are working on something with lots of travel and lots of load, but we are still trying to find fractions of millimeters here and tens of grams there......

[DrKalinka]

Think about how much a maintenance that earthmover would need to keep it operational... Now think of a tank... Not much difference, but put the earthmover in a combat environment and it would be useless the first day.

[Stealthbomber]

Think about how much a maintenance that earthmover would need to keep it operational... Now think of a tank... Not much difference, but put the earthmover in a combat environment and it would be useless the first day.

Indeedy.

 

You've only got to slew any 360 in one direction and then suddenly slew it in the other direction and you'll soon have burst hydraulic pipes all over the place.

The hydraulic systems have relief valves and dump valves to try and minimise the problem but a phenomenon known as "liquid hammering" means the shock still does damage.

 

To be fair, a lot of modern earthmovers are seriously high-tech, speedy and fuel efficient but saddle em with 15 tonnes of armour plating, find storage for a hundred shells, 3 crew, 24 hours of fuel and a bunch of computer stuff and you'll suddenly find your digger isn't so nippy or reliable.

[RacingManiac]

...and moving at 40mph.....while doing all that....

[Seraphim989]

The Maus (Die Maus in german though) also sank through the roads... I believe its maiden voyage took it 20 meters down the road before it got lodged in asphalt... Way to go

 

Steel Panthers fixed that little error The Germans built some crazy stuff in WWII both technologically and size wise

[Reborn]

You know, a vehicle of that size is just as impractical as a real-life mech.

 

Too large of a target profile, too easy to disable, too difficult to repair, too difficult to transport, and too expensive to build and maintain. The logistics count against things of that nature.

 

However, exoskeleton power armor is a completely different story. If a reliable power source could be found, it would a formidable addition to the infantry squad, as it can carry heavy weapons that the average infantryman cannot. That and its survivability in an urban environment is higher.

 

If mechs were to become a reality, I see them as being deployed as unmanned units in cities. For a fictional rendition, see the GEKKO units in MGS4.

[BigAl]

This idea was cool on Thunderbirds and in Star Wars but in the real world is pointless. Smaller and un manned is definately the way to go.

[Stealthbomber]

This idea was cool on Thunderbirds and in Star Wars but in the real world is pointless.

 

Although they DO look cool, most sci-fi stuff (including your average battlemech) would be horribly fragile.

They get away with this in movies and games by saying "Umm, it's got shields".

 

Trouble is, energy shields aren't real either.

Realistically, I suspect somebody would need to invent some kind of energy shield before they could carry on and build an AT-AT/Battlemech type thing which would be capable of surviving any kind of explosive hit.

...and then, of course, you could always fit energy shields to an Abrams tank and still have a kickass war machine without the effort of builting summat on legs.

 

Besides, the 6 S's (shape, shine, shadow, silhouette and, ummm, similar stuff) apply to vehicles too.

There's a good reason why MBTs are currently built to look a lot like race-cars (with big guns).

It's much easier to hit a 60ft tall killer robaot (or a converted earthmover) with an RPG than it is to hit a modern tank, especially if all you need to do is hit it in the leg to ruin the crews day completely.

 

Smaller and un manned is definately the way to go.

 

That's a brilliant (if a little nasty) idea.

 

NASA built that tiny Mars Rover is such a way that it could be dropped onto a planet surface by parachute, flip itself over and then trundle around.

If you were to build something similar, fitted with a simple homing device (maybe one that could home in on an IR designator) and rigged with explosives you could build thousands of them.

Load a bunch of em into several helicopters, deploy them a couple of miles from the target in the middle of the night and then sit back while the mayhem ensues.

 

I wonder if there's anything in the Geneva Convention that prohibits the use of anything like that?

[Chimpy]

Why would those little robots be anymore effective than a GPS guided bomb? Or rather how would they even manage to be as effective.

 

Wired for War is a great book on whats currently happening with robotics in warfare.

[Stealthbomber]

Why would those little robots be anymore effective than a GPS guided bomb? Or rather how would they even manage to be as effective.

Very true.

In my defence, I'd say that we're looking at this in the context of coming up with new ideas.

 

I guess it'd depend what resources are available at the time.

For destroying stuff like bridges or bunkers a small gizmo that could be deployed by ground troops (or an army air unit) might be more convenient than involving air-force or navy air assets.

 

On a less radical note, an MBT could deploy summat like this mid-battle as an aggressive countermeasure tactic.

 

There are uses for something like this (assuming it could be made so it could reliably traverse reasonably rough ground) but, on the whole, it does seem that we're already making the best use of available technology to keep killing each other as efficiently as possible.

[Misfit]

I remember reading about some project a while ago for destroying enemy tanks/armoured vehicles. Basically it's a little 4/6 wheeled robot with a shaped charge, operator drives it underneath the target vehicle and detonates.

 

Basically an improved version of the old flaming pigs that were used against cavalry, the Russians attempts at mine-dogs in WWII, the German Goliath and British Beetle. IIRC, however, there wasn't much of a call for it and funding was diverted to counter-IED robot systems.

[Triggerhappychappy]

^^ Works quite well on TopGear, so what the hey...

[shmook]

Eh? You mean the extremely huge digger?

 

Assuming you do if you read the blurb on said link it says...

 

 

Yes it is powered by electricity but that comes from onboard generators, its a bit like trains, all modern trains (steam trains being the exclusion) are electric but most have onboard generators which power the traction motors rather than running from overhead powerlines....

 

a late reply, sorry...

 

i was referring to the eff-off big digger. i didnt read the blurb fully, and just saw electric power.

 

i then added this half-arsed reading to a program i saw a day or two before i posted, it was x machines, or industrial junkie, something like that, which showed a very similar machine, fed off a huge cable which blokes had to keep dragging out of the way when it moved. so, not overhead powerlines, but it was cabled...

 

[Azulsky]

Seems its mostly in agreement that the big Belugas are a no go

 

To continue on the smaller/unmanned route:

 

In 3rd Gen Warfare(Fulda Gap Scenario) something like a modern Goliath would be quite advantageous.

 

Sadly we dont get to fight too many MBT's in 4th Generation Warfare, and the ones we fight are easily taken out by man portable weaponry.

 

The argument for Walker/Mech type constructs is for the most part over as its just plain fact that things with legs can go where wheeled and tracked mechanisms cannot.

However just arent there yet in terms of proper reengineering of human abilities.

 

In my mind traditional armor plating and other defensive measures can be replaced in large part by active defense measures(the anti rpg system) so the extra mobility you get does not in fact ruin its defensive potential

 

The essence of a ground based highly mobile system lies in the fact that grand military strategy going back to WW2 is hinged on air power.

 

The ability to deploy at least moderate assets(say something along the destructive potential of an Apache Longbow) with the troops wherever they manage to find themselves would either replace CAS or supplement it. Specifically the phase between calling for air support and surviving until it gets there is mitigated.