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The Future of Battle Tech
PolygamousRanchKid tips a story about research into futuristic military technology currently being funded by DARPA. The Disc-Rotor Compound Helicopter 'is propelled by rotor blades that extend from a central disc, letting it take off and land like a helicopter. But those blades can also retract into the disc, minimizing drag and letting the Disc-Rotor fly like a plane, powered by engines beneath each wing.' The Vulture program aims to keep a plane in the sky for five years or more, and 'LANdroids' are pocket-sized robots which soldiers can scatter around urban areas to seed a communications network. FastRunner is a 'two-legged robot that can cover a moderately rough terrain as fast as the best human sprinters.' The article mentions the flying humvees we've discussed in the past, as well as projects for 'smart' binoculars and a method for recycling space junk.
Stop with your 3050 era stuff already.. I want low-tech Battle Tech (3025).. ..oh and LAMs.. definable need LAMs..
----- The internet has given everyone the ability to have their voice heard equally as loud.. even if they shouldn't be
FASA... now there's a glorious name from the past.
Yep, I had the Battletech boardgame, played it more than a few times and loved it.
But the highlight of the FASA catalogue was definitely the Star Trek Tactical Combat Simulator, where you could pit all manner of Federation starships against all manner of Romulan and Klingon starships - *AND* have big sheets for each ship where you could boost your shield power, repair damage weapons and do emergency turns to bring certain weapon arcs to bear on the enemy. You could spend an entire evening playing what turned out to be about 2 minutes of real-time ship combat...
And FASA also did the Doctor Who RPG, I seem to recall.
Great days...
Windows 10 is great - I used it to download Linux.
The Japanese had submarine aircraft carriers in WWII, responsible among other things for the only aerial bombardment of the US mainland in history.
DARPA's total budget is miniscule, less than 0.4% of the US defense spending. Their lack of overhead is unheard of in government organizations, 140 highly educated and knowledgeable industry experts whose sole purpose is to identify technology that is several generations ahead of what anyone else is looking at and make sure it gets funded. Besides that, much of what they fund has serious civilian applications in addition to their military uses.
Some things that are being funded today with obvious civilian uses:
Reusable Launch Vehicle
Artificial Intelligence
Powered Exoskeleton
Thought Controlled Prosthetic
Brain Computer Interface
Distributed Satellites