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Marine Corps Wants a Throwable Robot
coondoggie writes "The US Marine Corps has a request — build and rapidly deploy more 10lb-or-under robots its personnel can throw into dangerous situations that can quickly gather information without endangering Marines. The throwable robot is part of a family of robots that would range from the 10lb version to one that would act as a central controlling device and weigh close to 300lbs. Marine commanders are demanding ever lighter robots so that troops don't have to offload critical equipment from their rucksacks to accommodate them."
How does a straw-man like this get modded insightful? GP never said we shouldn't have a serious military.
If we cut military spending by 50%, we would still spend more than twice the total defense budgets of all those countries you mentioned.
If we cut it by 50% three years in a row (that could never possibly happen, but go with me), we would still have the largest military budget in the world. We spend more money on "defense" than (approximately) the next twenty countries combined. And most of those countries are our very strong allies.
Anybody that doesn't think we should drastically cut our defense budget is crazy and should be thrown in the loony bin. There is no need in the current geopolitical climate for anything remotely approaching the size and strength of our military.
Figures taken from wikipedia, although they are easily found in many places.