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The Soldier of the Future
An anonymous reader writes "Land Warrior, the Army's wearable electronics package, was panned earlier this year by the troops who were testing it out. They were forced to take the collection of digital maps and next-gen radios to war, anyway. Now, Wired's Noah Shachtman reports from Iraq, those same soldiers are starting to warm up to their soldier suits of the future."
Let's see, Apple is building an entire business around user friendly appliances and have a pretty good reputation for user interface design. Why not see what they can do with it?
This is my sig.
...will be a machine, which may or may not be controlled by a techie in an air-conditioned office.
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones. "
"I bless every day that I continue to live, for every day is pure profit."
Yeah ... they're starting to warm up to it ... kinda ... except it's still too heavy and it doesn't work right ... and a bunch of stuff has been taken out of the original concept ... but yeah, it's great!
IOW, it's still a POS, just not quite as much a POS as before. And, oh yeah, it costs money the Army doesn't have.
Jesus. I was a grunt back in the dark ages (late 80's) and I can't tell you how glad I am that we didn't have to lug that crap around with us. The amount we did have to carry was already a killing load; the senior NCO's, who got their start in Vietnam, always told us exactly what we should throw away, and were unanimous in their opinion we were still carrying too much stuff. (And they had heard the same thing from their Korea-veteran sergeants.) Sorry, I don't believe that today's infantrymen are that much bigger and tougher than we were -- the human body hasn't changed, but the amount of crap the brass wants to load onto it keeps going up and up. And this is in the desert! Pretty soon the Iraqis won't have to kill American soldiers, just wait for them to drop dead of heatstroke.
The correlation between ignorance of statistics and using "correlation is not causation" as an argument is close to 1.
The Iraqis run around with just guns and walky talkys, and they seem to be doing just fine...
I certainly hope the brass have read Arthur C. Clarke's 1951 short story, Superiority. Anthologized in Clifton Fadiman's Fantasia Mathematica, which a lot of libraries still have.
A rueful officer explains how his advanced army with a brilliant research division was "defeated by the inferior science of our enemies."
The story describes how they were continually being equipped with new and advanced weapons. They were constantly delayed while their ships were being refitted. They are constantly discovering that gadgets that seemed wonderful in tests and demonstrations have minor glitches that basically render them useless until the relatively small problems can be solved with them can be solved.
"Given time we might even have overcome these difficulties, but the enemy ships were already attacking in thousands with weapons which now seemed centuries behind those that we had invented...."
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Islamists, are not the problem it's the crazy ass people with guns that are the problem.
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/09/when-the-soldie.html
If you believe that computers will ultimately possess high intelligence, then you had better prey they don't develop with the morality of the Dick Cheney and his neo-GOP friends. If so, the next day after the computers realize they don't need us and can defeat us will be the last day of mankind. We had better hope they develop with something more like the morality of Gandhi.
Indeed. I believe it was Gandhi who said, "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." For a nation with such Christian traditions, the leaders the US elect sure don't act like they believe in Christian values, and even as someone who isn't religious by nature, I'd rather people respected values like "thou shalt not kill" wherever realistic.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
"more like the morality of Gandhi."
So instead of neo-GOP racists we'll have Gandhi's racism? Sweet.
You look at Dick and the neo-Cons but you never look at actual REAL conservatives.
Not a Twitter sockpuppet... but I wish I was.
No matter what they end up paying for the system, the guy wearing it is going to be killed by someone eating rice or falafel who cost all of $200 to train and equip. What kind of kill ratio do you need for an even trade-off, 1000:1?
Kwisatz Haderach
Sell the spice to CHOAM
This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
(2) As far as Iraqis (not foreign fighters) there's something to be said for knowing the neighborhood in urban warfare, knowing the language, and actually having local friends. That's why guerilla war works. And remember that the death of an Iraqi can be used to recruit more fighters there, while a US death will work *against* recruiting.
-b.
Even though there are those that are trying that it won't work so let's look at the other questionable options. Chemical weapons? Iraq used those a great deal on Iran and still lost. Nukes? Pick a steep mountain valley and hope your nuke kills more than a few goats and that the guys you are after are not in the next valley (mostly talking about the problems of potentially using them in the Afgan campaign which is one reason they were ruled out in 2001) - or nuke a city and have nothing left to hold but a nuked city and your enemies spread out in the hills just got a powerful new recruitment tool and the goodwill of half the world.
You are talking about dropping nuclear weapons on the city of an ally. You really are not paying attention.
You're a naive philosophical ostrich. That level of civilization is not yet possible. It will not ever be possible as long as we have people such as:
- and of course, the people who listen to them
Please stop spouting off garbage until we can resolve the real problem (political greed).I won't join Slashcott. OTOH, If Beta goes live, I just won't be back until it's fixed. Sorry Dice.
You cannot make military equipment semi-disposable.
*There just isn't enough room in the supply chain to handle it.
Military logistics are not trivial matters that can be solved by waving a wand.
Consider two things:
1. The military has been building stuff to mil-spec for decades and has always had supply delays & shortages.
2. To make something semi-disposable, there will be significant increases in the main cost drivers of any "small" budget item: procurement, transport, storage, and tracking. Not to mention repair, which means a support staff.
Semi-disposable = more expensive
All your plan does is shift the costs around and not necessarily in a better way.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
We can decide to be reasonable and rational and agree to set rules on the competitions short of life and death battles to the death.
Pacifism leads to death unless you have non-pacifists around to protect you. Being reasonable and fair is fine and good, and we should strive for that path, but one must also be willing and able to use deadly force in defense. Even in modern times, over a small number of generations, we have seen a population split, the two halves become isolated, one become pacifist, and when the two halves reestablish contact the pacifists are murdered and/or enlsaved by their blood relatives. Sorry, read this in a book so I don't have a link handy, the people were Pacific islanders, timeframe 19th century IIRC.
Let's also not ignore the consequences if your POS semi-disposable ultimate soldier computer breaks in the middle of a battle because you jostled it the wrong way. What are you going to do, call for suppressing fire while you run back to base to pick up a replacement?
"Hey, guys, could you stop shooting at me for a minute? I have to replace my eyepiece."
SRSLY.
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
I was under the impression that the flamethrower was retired because of the severe reduction in life expectancy that results from carrying around 70 pounds of highly explosive flammable liquid in a tank on your back.
SRSLY.
2 for 3. Armor adds weight, weight hinders mobility, and mobility protects you better than armor.
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
Of course it's about killing. The only reason for a soldier not to get killed is so they can do more killing. It's only a bonus that they get to come home in one piece.
As for saving American lives... why does it matter if their American? I'm for saving lives period. I've lived on the other side of the great divide. I've been in the military. I've since decided that it's wrong to think about being just an American citizen and defending this country. To truly move forward we must think of ourselves as global citizens and care for all people. It's when we divide ourselves into groups (American, Iraqi, etc...) that we forget to see the humanity in others.
As for the other bit - the context should be obvious even if you can use loony to describe other people with extreme and sociopathic views.
I suspect that the US military is not "prohibited by United States law"...
If you are criticizing the comment on Christians who don't act like Christ, please be aware that it's directed at a group of religious adherents and not a race. Furthermore, he was mainly concerned with India's colonial masters who self identifies as Anglican Christians. Do you think Christ would support colonialism?