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Military Device Will Sense Through Concrete Walls
Juha-Matti Laurio writes "DefenseLINK News is reporting that 'troops conducting urban operations soon will have the capabilities of superheroes, being able to sense through 12 inches of concrete to determine if someone is inside a building.' By simply holding the portable, handheld device named a "Radar Scope" up to a wall, users will be able to detect movements as small as breathing. The Radar Scope hopes to eventually give troops the ability to see up to 50 feet beyond a concrete wall to decrease losses in urban combat."
Forget military use (killing), how would this work as a survivor searching tool (saving lives) after earthquakes and such? I bet DARPA won't let us "private secor" folk make it useful though. You know: "because people could use it for terror and someone might be killed by that terrorist. Save lives wih a weapon - stupid liberals"
US Democracy:The best person for the job (among These pre-selected choices...)
Keep in mind, the eggheads at DARPA (they paid me once, too) would love nothing better than to actually tell their families what they do for a living.
Imagine something like the quakes in Turkey or Iran, and they could find survivors from under the concrete slabs. Kids could point to the TV and say "my daddy made that!"
Don't confuse politicians with individuals.
now we can make sure we kill everyone before moving along.
It would also be a good publicity tool, and the military is perfectly capable of using those (and, I might add, comprised of much better people than the grandparent apparently believes). Look at the thousands of lives they saved with relief efforts in the wake of the South Asian tsunami, among any number of similar incidents. Much of the technology used for that operation was developed with military purposes in mind, too (ships capable of creating water onboard, worldwide logistics systems which are "fault tolerant" when the fault involves literally wiping entire cities off the map, helicopter airlift of supplies and medevac, the best first responder medical teams in the world, etc).
Help poke pirates in the eyepatch, arr.
No, fuck you, you piece of shit armchair patriot. I served in the Marine Corps, so don't tell me about taking care of our troops. I scavenged parts from the trash to make working equipment, because working equipment wasn't in the budget. Wanna talk about extreme case modding? I saw guys design and build electronic test equipment inside old suitcases because we couldn't get real stuff. Our aircraft were so old that the parts to maintain them simply weren't made anymore. Yet those same aircraft are still flying in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This spells the end for revolutions, for insurgents, freedom fighters whatever you want to call them. This is the final nail in the coffin of home made firearms against your government. Oppressive governments rejoice!
Sad?
So you are sad for the romantic freedom fighters, but not for happy rescue workers?
Good idea, lets stop helpful technological advances in order not to let the evil government agents look through walls.
4Z5TX
There are two ways a conventional army can win guerilla wars: by attacking the civilian population, or by staying out of guerilla wars.
Britain lost the American revolution to guerillas; America lost To Vietnam's Viet Cong; Soviet Russia (and decades before, Britain) lost to Afghan guerillas.
Nazi Germany managed to prevent major uprisings by being willing to kill civilians and indeed who villages in reprisal; nevertheless partisans still harassed the Nazis in Ukraine and Russia.
America managed to put down Philippine independence at the turn of the 20th century only through widespread torture (including the newly rediscovered waterboarding) and the destruction of entire villages.
Britain put down the Mau Mau Rebellion, again by resorting to torture and atrocity, but the pyrrhic victory lead to Kenyan independence anyway, a few years later.
France used torture and atrocity and terrorism to barely keep down the Algerians, but in doing so almost led to civil war in France.
And we now find that
So the lesson of history is pretty clear: to win a war against committed nationalists, the occupying power has to be willing to put aside the laws of war and human decency, to torture and terrorize the subject populace. Even so, the conventional occupying power will lose unless it devotes a considerable proportion of its total resources to the occupation.
What did Britain gain by trying to prevent Americans independence? What did America gain in Vietnam? what did Britain gain in Kenya, or France in Algeria? What did the Soviet Union gain in Afghanistan? What does American stand to gain by staying in Iraq?
Sure, just as we were told we were "halting Communism" in Vietnam, some politicians will tell you that we're winning the "War on Terror" by distracting our military in Iraq. Even if that's true, we'll leave eventually, and we'll leave behind lots of munitions and lots of Iraqis with experience killing Americans. You think some of them won't decide to bring the war home to us?
Guerilla wars aren't won by occupying powers; and even if they are won, what's "won" is no benefit to the occupying power.
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
This spells the end for revolutions, for insurgents, freedom fighters whatever you want to call them.
How will this device stop a car full of exlosives ready to be detonated by distance? Roadside bombs? Suicidie bombers? A suicide bomber with a car full of explosives will drive his van to a checkpoint and blow it up. No need to see if "someone is hidden". Or when a bomber walks into a crowded place, same thing. And roadside bombs or mines are pretty much safe from this device.
Also let's suppose the US is doing a raid in some town against insurgets, how can they determine with this device that people in the house are evil up to no good or just law obiding citizens? They can't. They still have to go in. IMO, all this will allow is to conduct searches much faster. Instead of going to every house door by door, you scan the area and go inside where there are people. Problem is, you still have to go inside without first blowing the house up because you can't just afford killing everything that moves.
This kind of nonsense comes up every time a new piece of technology is developed. These (new pieces of technology) will destroy our way of life and we'll all be the slaves of (our new evil overlords). This kind of bullshit will never happen. That's because regardless of whatever the new technology does, the politicians or the military or the evil profit-mongers will still need people to work for them and get things done, and that means that those people have power. Power is all that is necessary to facilitate a revolution.
Now, if the technology makes everyone but our evil overlords obsolete, then we might be in trouble. But, they also wouldn't have a good reason to enslave us, so they would have to so only for their own amusement.
You only need to look at Vietnam and Somalia. Also, urban fighting isn't about just urban fighting. It's about interacting with civilians, making them feel at ease with you and not giving them a reason to shoot you in the back. It's also about getting useful information from them you wouldn't get by riding past in a Hummer. It's also about looking around you and thinking about where you are before you shoot. For God's sake get on your feet and walk around rather than running around in vehicles.
So this thing will really be able to distinguish between bad guy holding pipe bomb and joe citizen holding thermos or can of pringles? hmmm....
You want to look after your precious troops? Don't piss off other countries. Pay more attention to your fucking airspace. Don't flip out and have hundreds upon hundreds of innocent (Civilians + Troops) lives lost. As I once read on a sign, "Bombing for Peace is like Fucking for Virginity." -- not everything can be solved by blowing shit up.
Just because there's one criminal orginization doesn't mean the whole fucking continent is evil, folks. If you think that's how life works, take a look at the US. Serial killers? check. Rapists? check. Murderers? check. War propaganda? check. (Disagree with me there? take a look at Uncle Sam. How many other countries have a commonly known figure that tells people to join the army? I count none.)
I know this is going to get modded as Flamebait or Troll, but trust me, it isn't. I have many a friend in the US. They agree with me. Matter of fact, that goes hand in hand with what I said in the prior paragraph about how it 'doesn't mean the whole fucking continent is evil, folks.'
It's never just a game when you're winning. - George Carlin
"The Bush administration didn't anticipate the mess in Iraq,"
That's because the Bush Administration made sure to fire the generals and experts who did anticipate the mess.
As Richard Clarke and others have made clear, the Bush Administration decided, immediately after 9/11, to go into Iraq. They weren't about to let facts get in the way of their "vision".
God save us from "visionary" leaders.
There are so many things the Bush administration "didn't anticipate" or got wrong, or mismanaged: warnings before 9/11, WMDs, the cost of the war, the insurgency, Katrina, spying on Americans in violation of the law.
Now, if Bush were the guy managing your 401K, and making mistakes of a similar magnitude, you'd say, "look, the guy may or may not have his heart in the right place, but his keeps screwing up, and I've got to get a new money manager before I go broke."
It's that simple: whatever Bush's motives, he's bankrupting the country, literally and metaphorically. It's time for a new manager. Surely your country's future is as important to you as your 401K?
Opinions on the Twiddler2 hand-held keyboard?
I'll probably be the one moderated troll or flamebait by this if anyone is - which is fine by me - but think of the absurdity of what you're saying. Should we ban bullets? The Nazis used them to kill prisoners! How about efficient highway systems (which I will admit are a rarity to begin with in the U.S.)? The Nazis used them to make troop movements more effective and transported some prisoners on them! We can't use the same technology and ideas as the Nazis!
You only need to look back to Somalia and Vietnam and all of those silly films which turn those total military disasters into some sort of victory as to how much of a problem they have.
...
You have a consistent failing. You confuse the political with the miliary.
US troops were not defeated in Vietnam or Somalia. In Vietnam, Giap's seige of Khe San was a failure. Giap's Thet Offensive was also a failure. The Viet Cong guerilla force was virtually wiped out during Thet. The North Vietnamese were forced to the peace table and recognized South Vietnam and it's right to exist. We packed up and left, it was 1973. In 1975, years after our departure, North Vietnam launched a fairly conventional invasion of the South. Ironically with US air support the Source Vietnamese army probably could have defended itself. However the political situation in the US prevented such assistance, assistance we had promised. North Vietnam won the propoganda war, it successfully sowed doubt and confusion into the US public, however it did not win the guerilla war.
In Somalia, you confuse high casualties with defeat. The US did not fail to take the building, it did not fail to secure the occupants. The Rangers suffered far higher casualties than expected but they did reach the helicopter they were going for and they were not overrun or forced to surrender. Our departure from Somalia was a political decision.
I don't know, but guerilla warfare is a skill that involves using your brain. Inevitably you also come into contact with ordinary civilians in an urban environment as well, and you have to have at least some idea of what to do and to be able to get along with them
US Special Forces are highly trained in that regard. They were also quite successful in Vietnam and Afghanistan. I think your opening of "I don't know" summarizes your post well. You don't know the miliary or history. You display a pop-history shallow understanding of both.
I would suggest training their troops an awful lot better than they do and giving their soldiers something every soldier should have - soldiering skills! That's why a lot of American soldiers are dying in Iraq. Unlike, especially their British, counterparts they just haven't got it in that kind of environment. Pure and simple. It's a people thing.
You confuse guerilla warfare with peace keeping operations. Soldiering skills are not where US troops are to be found lacking. Peacekeeping skills are where European troops have better training, not in soldiering. Whether this difference matters is open to debate. The problem in Iraq was due to a bad political decision, dissolving the Iraqi army. Perhaps I am mistaken but I don't think that the military was in favor of that one. The Iraqi army's high level leadership should have been removed but lower levels and the common soldiers should have been initially employed for security, under US command.
Mod parent up.
a y#Brief_history LCDsi cation_gp.htm#The%20Defence%20Industry Flat Panel Loudspeakers (and many others)
I'll add to that list; the automotive industry is full of them. First of all there's the night-vision cameras (arguably invented by the Germans pre WWII), radar parking aids, and heads-up displays.
At home you can cook using a microwave oven (invented by a researcher at Raytheon), which probably itself uses a Liquid Crystal Display (much of the development of which was done at the UK Radar Research Establishment at Malvern, formerly the Army Radar Establishment). Or maybe you'd like to listen to some music on a set of flat-panel loudspeakers (offshoot of research done by the British DERA into quiet 'stealth' helicopters).
A list like this could go on practically forever; in fact it's hard to find a product -- any product -- which hasn't been touched by military R&D at some point in its history. To be honest, dollar for dollar, I think it is quite possible that the American public (and other countries too, but particularly the U.S. because we consume so much technology) gets as much if not more out of the money spent on military research by contractors, than we do out of pure research at universities. Not to say that pure research doesn't have it's place, and is almost always inventive in nature, military research is usually directed and innovative, and produces useful devices in relatively short timescales.
Take a look around your home, unless you live on an Amish farm, you're probably surrounded by things, the initial development of which were paid for with defense dollars.
References:
http://www.achtungpanzer.com/ir.htm Infrared and Night Vision Scopes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_crystal_displ
http://www.mod.uk/issues/diversification/diversif
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