re: Thinking outside the Tank

From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Fri Mar 21 2003 - 18:50:27 MST

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    Fortean1 quoted:

    <<The ICT's few dozen Hollywood recruits are a somewhat random representation
    of
    the entertainment industry, a tiny fraction of the thousands who labor there.
    They offer some ideas in the form of short films that illustrate proposed new
    equipment, or video games for training. Other proposals come as drawings and
    mock-ups of futuristic tanks, uniforms and helicopters.

    Among the ideas they have proposed -- and even designed -- as possible
    solutions
    to problems posed by military planners:

    • Modular tanks that come apart for transport by plane and can be reassembled
    on
    arrival.

    • Roman-style shields mounted on skateboards and stored on the sides of
    tanks,
    to be used to conceal a soldier crossing an urban street while under fire.

    • Lightweight  uniforms with inner reinforcement to create exoskeletal armor.

    • Insectlike  electronic sensors that can move around and relay information.

    • Robotic "mules," or unmanned ground vehicles, that carry soldiers'
    equipment
    and sense enemy movement.

    While the buglike sensors sound like something straight out of  Steven
    Spielberg's "Minority Report" (in which mechanical spiders set out to detect
    a
    cowering Tom Cruise), not all of these ideas remain in the realm of the
    imagination.

    Production designer Ron Cobb's sketch for the robotic mule was at first
    greeted
    with skepticism by Army brass. So he was surprised (and not a little
    flattered)
    to learn a few months ago that the Army had asked Boeing to figure out how to
    build a vehicle that looked exactly like his design. >>

    This was a pretty intense article, especially the part (snipped by me)
    concerning the bridge incident and the rioters in Serbia. The Serbians seemed
    not to realize how lucky they really were! The notion that we are at a phase
    where, at least, a large fraction of science fictional concepts; can actually
    make it to the real world is nice. Unfortunately, American Business boards
    of directors, who allegedly are interested on providing new goods and
    services to the consumer, are never so insightful as the US Army. No surprise
    there. So very few new products get produced, because of the insistance of a
    quick quarterly return. Maybe non-public companies are the most resourceful?
    No nagging stockholders to respond to, just like the Army.

    Back to concepts; the ever conceptual, Popular Mechanics has a moveable,
    artificial, island concept, that would be used as a Island-sized aircraft
    carrier. It would rise 120 feet over the ocean, and be about 1000 feet long
    (or greater). It would be powered by diesel generators, and require no new
    technology to construct. It would supposedly travel at a mere 15 knots per
    hour, but basically arrive as a major means to project power, in a
    long-simmering situation. From the drawing, it looks like you could sink it
    with a sizeable nuke, but nothing smaller.



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