Department of Defense Gadget Show

blackp writes "DefenseLINK has an article about Force Protection Equipment Demonstration IV. This year they had over 2,600 gadget and equipment for defense and government agencies. The list includes kevlar suits, body heat camo, a RoBoCop Suit, even biometric identification. Some pictures are available, although somewhat limited. This show seems perfect for the geek with a big budget." Or the government with a big budget. Still, some neat things on display.

Comments

Unfair?

[ObviousGuy]

Back in the 'good old days' of warfare, either side was equally equipped to take on the other. This resulted in long, bloody wars that finally ended when either of the sides was exhausted and horrified at the death and destruction. Following these wars (from the Punic to the American Civil War) a long period of peace followed until the horrors of war were forgotten and the fools in power became ambitious. This type of peace is sometimes called "balance of power" because both sides are deterred from battle by the knowledge of the other's equal ability to wreak damage in return.

However, as modern times have arrived and technology growth quickens for those who have it and lags for those that do not yet it is becoming clear that the balance of power has been broken and the United States has become the sole military superpower in the world. During the Cold War there was a deterrent to war which was called MAD (Mutually Assured Destruction). The Soviet Union provided a balance of power to the United States through it's ability to rain an equal amount of world-ending nukes on the U.S. as the U.S. could do on the USSR. With this knowledge, neither side was too willing to jump at the chance at sneak attack though the possibility was wide open with the introduction of ICBMs.

Now the USSR is no more and the U.S. has risen to the top of the technological ladder. As the rest of the world crawls slowly towards the fulcrum of the Balance of Power, the U.S. quickly moves away from it. The technological prowess of the U.S. military is unmatched and continues to improve, which in turn continues to make the balance of power tilt more steeply in the U.S. direction.

Without a balance of power, other countries get antsy. They do not and can not have the expectation of a fair war, nor can they assume that the sole superpower is benign. So they turn up their rhetoric criticizing the U.S. Every little diplomatic faux pas is taken as a grand gesture of disrespect and threat of military aggression. No peace can possibly exist in such an atmosphere. What may seem like peace is only a thin veneer covering a boiling cauldron of dissatisfied lesser powers waiting to boil over or destroy the peace from within.

What the U.S. needs to do is placate our allies. The U.S. would be seriously hurt if allies were to turn against it because of the balance of power issue. Even now France and Germany and Russia have turned their collective backs on the U.S., this after enthusiastic support only 2 years ago. We cannot afford this kind of desertion of allies. It would be wise to simply give up this development of new weaponry and concentrate on making the existing technologies cheaper and more reliable. Even regressing several decades in technology would help bring about a better balance of power.

Re:And only a peace creep could be so smug.

[ObviousGuy]

Here's the thing I was trying to get at before I was modded down to -1. Fighting wars is inevitable, but a rapid buildup of military might so far above and beyond even the next most powerful country is a sure-fire strategy for hastening the next war.

What the soldier, sailor, or airman cares about is irrelevent. They are training for war and of course they want the latest and greatest gadgets when they go into battle. But they are not the ones who decide military strategy nor State department strategy. We hope that those in the upper echelons of government have the insight and foresight to avert wars when at all possible. When these leaders are only focused in war waging instead of peace making we end up with a situation not unlike what we are faced with now, i.e. a world suspicious of the United States and its motives.

There was a great SNL skit back when Reagan was President where Reagan and his policy advisor were preparing for a meeting with the Russian premiew. The policy advisor role played as Gorby and asked the President, "With a fully functional missile defense shield, won't the USA be able to attack the USSR with impunity?" (paraphrased) The President just sat there with a puzzled look. It was pretty poignant. This is the biggest problem with a huge unbalance of power. The smaller states must ally amongst themselves *against* the larger power and be wary of even the slightest aggressive move on the large power's part. This is because they must either look out for their own safety or trust the larger power not to abuse its dominant position. Only one of those choices is a real option, and it doesn't bode well for either the dominant power or peace in general.

Re:Was there

[refactored]

I would strip search and check my opponents weapons and clips for real ammo _twice_ before I took part in any such game.

Like my brother, he was in a training maneuver where the officers said that they would come under fire from guys using blanks.

The fact that there are no such thing as "blank tracers" lent their feet wings and it was several hours before the brain dead @#$#! ossifers could find them all again..

Re:A Robocop Suit?

[astro]

You know, Frank Miller (Ronin, Sin City, Give Me Liberty, numerous other graphic / comic masterpieces) wrote the screenplays for RoboCop II and III (see here) - you might give them another look. I wonder if you are falling into the unquestioned sequels == bad trap... I thought the whole RC series (so far!) was great, and I am fully looking forward to the Robocop comic mini-series due this summer.

Even the (late eighties / early nineties?) Robocop TV show had its moments - look closely and you could see Subgenius posters hanging tattered on alley walls, things like that.

Deus Ex Equipment

[CaffeineKills]

In deus ex we see thermoptic camo and sophisticated robots. In the force protection equipment demonstration we see thermoptic camo and sophisticated robots. Maybe not the political/social situation but the technology is sure coming closer... And I sure as hell am gonna grab one of those big bots and ride it around everywhere. Do YOU wanna mess?

Re:A Robocop Suit?

[ringbarer]

There's a difference between comics and movies. If you took your tongue out of Miller's ringpiece for a moment you'd realise that the two apocryphal movies were poorly scripted abominations, designed to pander to the 'whizz bang explosion' audience instead of being a metaphor for the "American Jesus".

The original Robocop movie was a work of art, the others being toy commercials. So please, grow the FUCK up.

To follow on, the mid 90's TV series had one or two good moments, but was weighed down by the 'anti violence' paradigm of the times. What good is the concept of a noble knight returning from the grave if he cannot exact bloody justice?

It took over a decade before a sequel of sorts came out which even ATTEMPTED to capture the spirit of the first movie. This was the "Prime Directives" mini-series. It had blood, violence and satire. And apart from a few leaden, ponderous moments, it kept the audience's interest.

And again... Miller is an overrated HACK that couldn't write a script if his life depended on it.

So fuck off, pedophile-chops!