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Quite simply the mule no longer serves a purpose.

I am not sure which mule you speak of - living or robotic. I linked this above so you'll probably not see it:
http://olive-drab.com/od_army-...

The US military still uses animals for carrying stuff and for transportation - they've done so fairly recently. Google has a bunch of other information - if you're curious.

At risk of being pedantic, you're not absolutely correct. If the mule (or horse) was limited and could *only* carry it's own food then they'd have not used them for years and years as a pack animal. I forget which episode it is but either War on the Eastern Front or Soviet Storm gets into some of the math and it's viable to use a mule or horse for a period of time that's longer than this thing runs on batteries and the number of batteries that it can carry.

Is there a finite time that the animal can maintain that pace and work load? Yup. It's why they refreshed them and why they took great care of them (usually). That way they'd have some reserves. I'm willing to speculate that the pack animal can last longer than this BD robot can while being forced to carry its own weight in energy storage. Of course that's probably not applicable to every single location but it's almost certainly applicable to many other situation. There have been many instances where the supply wagon/train has not been able to effectively provide the required food and the animals have done well enough and for quite some time.

In fact, you might be interested in this:
http://olive-drab.com/od_army-...

Here is a bit more information about carrying capacity:
http://horsetype.com/text.php?...

Space X has invented the V2.

but did they download an attack helicopter?

No, but this guy had purchased enough parts from government surplus sales to build as many as 88 Cobra attack helicopters.

I had a friend who worked on investigations into this kind of thing. She told me about a guy they caught who had 1 fully functional Apache Longbow helicopter and another that was about 70% complete. I couldn't find a link for that one. But it was around the same time.

Make crap up? Instead of sounding like a dick, you should have attempted to correct me in a more polite manner. Do you talk that way to your family, friends or coworkers? I doubt it, Mr condescending internet know-it-all tough guy.

Here are my articles:
http://olive-drab.com/od_army-horses-mules_lastpack.php
http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/DC-Decoder/Decoder-Wire/2012/1023/Presidential-debate-101-Does-US-military-still-use-horses-and-bayonets
http://usmilitary.about.com/od/jointservices/a/militarydogs.htm
http://www.defense.gov/home/features/2006/working-dogs/

Limit your Google search to the past year only and you will get articles talking about robot mules. Robot mules are being developed to support front line troops starting with the marines. And If you actually read your links you would have noticed that they are dated from 2007, or 5 years ago. They also only describe their use by special forces in unique situations (mountainous regions in Afghanistan). There are no plans for deploying pack animals as ground support to front line troops (AKA grunts or ground pounders). Horses are used but their number is minuscule and limited to special forces and parades. That means you wont find grunts riding horses nor will you see mules delivering supplies to solders on the battle field.

Think before you speak.
 

That would be the M880 it was a pig performance wise and a serious gas hog and not worth a shit tactically, it was replaced by the HMMWV M-998, a capable diesel hog.

That would be the M880 it was a pig performance wise and a serious gas hog and not worth a shit tactically, it was replaced by the HMMWV M-998, a capable diesel hog.

Hate to burst your bubble, but an RPG can not take out a heavy tank...light armor yes (armoured Hummer, some APCs...light transports...etc...but heavy tank...no. Having said that, you might be able to get a *very* lucky shot from a building (high angle of attack against one of its weakest, lightly armored sections; and RPGs are known for being *VERY* inaccurate to boot) and damage its engine...not that it won't still kill you immediately after. Or, you might be able to cause it to throw a tread, which again....will still turn an kill you.

To kill a tank, you need something like a Javelin (http://www.olive-drab.com/od_infweapons_at_missil es_javelin.php) or other seriously large and bulky missiles/rockets. Seriously, a large shape charge is required to penetrate current heavy armor...and an RPG does not qualify. Classic examples are TOWs, Dragons (http://www.olive-drab.com/od_infweapons_at_missil es_dragon.php), and the SMAW (http://www.olive-drab.com/od_infweapons_at_missil es_smaw.php). Obviously, Soviet weapons of the like also exist....but the RPG is not one of them. The RPG is a general purpose anti-light armor weapon; but it mostly used as an anti-personal support weapon.

Hate to burst your bubble, but an RPG can not take out a heavy tank...light armor yes (armoured Hummer, some APCs...light transports...etc...but heavy tank...no. Having said that, you might be able to get a *very* lucky shot from a building (high angle of attack against one of its weakest, lightly armored sections; and RPGs are known for being *VERY* inaccurate to boot) and damage its engine...not that it won't still kill you immediately after. Or, you might be able to cause it to throw a tread, which again....will still turn an kill you.

To kill a tank, you need something like a Javelin (http://www.olive-drab.com/od_infweapons_at_missil es_javelin.php) or other seriously large and bulky missiles/rockets. Seriously, a large shape charge is required to penetrate current heavy armor...and an RPG does not qualify. Classic examples are TOWs, Dragons (http://www.olive-drab.com/od_infweapons_at_missil es_dragon.php), and the SMAW (http://www.olive-drab.com/od_infweapons_at_missil es_smaw.php). Obviously, Soviet weapons of the like also exist....but the RPG is not one of them. The RPG is a general purpose anti-light armor weapon; but it mostly used as an anti-personal support weapon.

Hate to burst your bubble, but an RPG can not take out a heavy tank...light armor yes (armoured Hummer, some APCs...light transports...etc...but heavy tank...no. Having said that, you might be able to get a *very* lucky shot from a building (high angle of attack against one of its weakest, lightly armored sections; and RPGs are known for being *VERY* inaccurate to boot) and damage its engine...not that it won't still kill you immediately after. Or, you might be able to cause it to throw a tread, which again....will still turn an kill you.

To kill a tank, you need something like a Javelin (http://www.olive-drab.com/od_infweapons_at_missil es_javelin.php) or other seriously large and bulky missiles/rockets. Seriously, a large shape charge is required to penetrate current heavy armor...and an RPG does not qualify. Classic examples are TOWs, Dragons (http://www.olive-drab.com/od_infweapons_at_missil es_dragon.php), and the SMAW (http://www.olive-drab.com/od_infweapons_at_missil es_smaw.php). Obviously, Soviet weapons of the like also exist....but the RPG is not one of them. The RPG is a general purpose anti-light armor weapon; but it mostly used as an anti-personal support weapon.

You know one now.

Well, I guess you don't really know me. But I just popped $65 the other day at iTunes to fill gaps in my CD collection and load my iPod Shuffle with workout music and running Jodies.

Sure, I could have bought the CDs or scoured P2P networks for them, but why bother? *Click*, pay, done. Not scour, scour, queue or wait, wait, sign for the package.

I don't care for the DRM - this only serves as an incentive for folks *not* to pay. The other alternative is to wait for the CDs to arrive. But these songs are staying in iTunes and my Shuffle to help keep me motivated while I work out. I'm not likely to listen to Jodies or cheesy pop songs while I surf or code.

The music industry can't have it both ways. Well, I guess they can, but it's certainly not legit. Legit...hmmm...Too Legit To Quit - guess it's time to spend another 99 cents on a cheesy pop song. Man, I'm lame.

Was it ever true? Well, sort of yes, sort of no

and also:

After World War II there was a period of time when returning veterans, farmers and a few other favored categories of people could buy jeeps directly from the government for $50 or other very low prices

Take a guess which person involved in said prank was the son of a farmer?

If the parent had read the article, he would see that it debunks the idea of buying a $50 vintage army jeep in a crate today.

I would even be willing to concede that the jeep was delivered through crateless means. In the end, however, what it really means is that my Dad was ripped off. He paid twice as much!

Too bad your dad lied to you.

I'm not sure you could have a fully-loaded Winchester without at least some type of active cooling...

This fully-loaded winchester does fine with completely passive air cooling. It even says so in the table, scroll down the page and take a look.

What's wrong with yours?

Having long been a fan of pockets, I have come to realize that pockets built into your pants are not an ideal solution. Not very configurable, and you have to pull out your stuff whenver you change pants. This is where ALICE gear can come in oh so useful.

That is probably because you never drove the first mule.

1/4 ton capacity quad drive. Great for stringing communications line anywhere a jeep could not go. Some towed artillery line batteries would use them to "hump rounds" out to the guns, if the ammo could not be delivered up close via the gamma goats

As of 2000 there were a few running around the woods of Tennessee with roll-bars after they were phased out of the inventory at Ft Campbell.

I would not mind having one, however they are just a little lacking in the 5mph bumper crash tests, though.

You mean like this Mule

Or perhaps this Mule

I think I like the latter better.

Btw, I thought there is only a 8 and 9.5mm film system but not 9mm?