The Nice Guy At the World's Largest Weapons Expo

pigrabbitbear writes "It was the second day of the Special Operation Forces Exhibition in Amman, Jordan, and the temperature outside the convention center was around 80 degrees Fahrenheit, with a typical chance of rain of zero. Drones of various sizes hovered in the hot blue desert sky. Inside, Ed Atchley had set up a booth for his company, Aspen Water Inc., right next to a 30mm chain gun designed to sink things like helicopters and Somali pirate ships. Atchley had traveled from his headquarters in Richardson, Texas, to the largest weapons trade show in the world, mainly because he makes 'the army's smallest, lightest, least expensive, high output, reverse osmosis water purifier,' he says, and people in the Middle East – including soldiers – get very thirsty."

Comments

Logistics

[girlintraining]

Actually, those booths should be sitting next to each other. All the high tech drones, big guns, fighters, bombers, and armor doesn't mean much if your soldiers starve or run out of water. Sun Tzu said as much -- it was pretty much chapter 1 of The Art of War. It may not be very sexy, but it's like saying the internet is important... and electricity isn't.

Re:Still a bad guy

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not senseless murder. There is a lot of money to be made. In fact, it is one of the few industries that are booming today. Done correctly, murder can be highly profitable for the murderer (displace an ethnic minority to take their land, kill people opposing your government, stealing riches, protect your religion for heretics/infidels, etc.).

What? Do you hate economic growth? The rich killing the poor is what had created most of the developed nations of the world.

Re:Still a bad guy

[Hentes]

This technology could have quite a few peaceful uses as well.

Re:Still a bad guy

[realityimpaired]

Potable water is the most critical resource on the planet. The wars of the future will not be fought over access to oil or nuclear fuel, they'll be fought over water shortages.

Anything that makes water easier to obtain will save lives in the long run, even if it's being used chiefly by the military today.

Napoleon said it better:

[circletimessquare]

'An army marches on its stomach.'

'C'est la soupe qui fait le soldat.'

Nothing, absolutely nothing, matters more at winning wars than logistics. The lethal fighting force is but the edge of a vast engineering and distribution network. Or, if it is not the edge of such a network, it is soon a defeated lethal fighting force.

Re:Napoleon said it better:

[The Snowman]

Nothing, absolutely nothing, matters more at winning wars than logistics. The lethal fighting force is but the edge of a vast engineering and distribution network. Or, if it is not the edge of such a network, it is soon a defeated lethal fighting force.

I spent six years in the U.S. Air Force flying a desk. To this day people are shocked that the only time I flew on a plane was a civilian airliner, and I never saw combat.

When I was in, the USAF was around 300,000 Airmen. Around 10% was aircrew, which includes: pilots, navigators, crew chiefs, AWACS computer guys, etc. It took the rest of the USAF to handle the rest: feed the troops, get them to where they need to go, ensure their computers were working correctly, tracking millions of bullets, bombs and missiles, tending to medical needs, paychecks, etc.

Re:Still a bad guy

[zill]

Definition of SENSELESS:
b : foolish, stupid: it was some senseless practical joke — A. Conan Doyle
c : meaningless: a senseless murder

He probably meant it as "meaningless" I'm guessing. As in, it's meaningless to resort to violence when it only makes the problem worst.