British Army Looking For Gamers For Their Smart-Tanks

concertina226 writes The U.K. branch of global defense firm General Dynamics is working on a futuristic state-of-the-art smart-tank to replace the British Army's aging armored vehicle fleet, to be delivered to the Ministry of Defense in 2020. The Scout SV armored vehicle is the first fully-digitized armored fighting vehicle to have been built for the British Army, and is far bigger and more durable than any of its existing tanks, which are now at least 20 years old. The tank comes in six variants that can be customized with a tools for different missions, and has numerous sensors, cameras, and sights to offer real-time intelligence on weather conditions, target acquisition, and reconnaissance — all crucial battlefield data required by commanders to access and direct situations. "With the capability in the Scout SV, we're really looking for the type of people who play Xbox games – tech-savvy people who are able to take in a lot of information and process it in the proper way," says Kevin Connell, the vice president for General Dynamic UK's Land Systems Regiment.

Comments

Sign me up

[Tyr07]

I consider myself capable of flying or driving anything from remote aircraft, aircraft carriers, submarines, and tanks in a remote setting.

Re:Sign me up

[Tyr07]

Oh god how embarassing. I totally thought that if I made a random post online to slashdot that British military personal would come to Canada, knock on my door and recruit me.

How do you even keyboard?

Re:Sign me up

[Tyr07]

Yes, I don't actually enjoy games that have respawn nearly as much as ones that don't, or have expensive consequences.

E.G I love Eve online, losing a ship is expensive, it doesn't respawn, you have to buy another one, full cost. Except if your alliance helps you out.

Or games like diablo 3, hard core mode only.
Simulation mode in war thunder, planes and tanks get a single life.

I wish there were more games that had that consequence that makes you really not want to die or lose your assets, but a lot of people don't go for it.

Great

[fleeped]

Let's increase the mental distance between killing people. "With the capability in the Scout SV, we're really looking for the type of people who play Xbox games – tech-savvy people who are able to take in a lot of information and process it in the proper way," AKA: "With the capability in the Scout SV, we're really looking for the type of people who play Xbox games – trigger-happy twitchy gamers who are able to follow commands, complete objectives, ask no questions, question no commands. No critical thinking required"

Re:Great

[SuricouRaven]

Not really. Armies today usually go to a lot of trouble to avoid killing civilians, if only because it's really bad politically. Compare to WW2, when Nazi and Allied forces alike were eager to carpet-bomb entire cities in order to diminish the enemy's manufacturing capability. America went further, and droped nuclear bombs.

I imagine though that, in the event of a truly existance-threatening war like that, the 'no civilian deaths' ideal would be swiftly abandoned. If your country is at stake you can't afford to hold back, you do whatever it takes to gain an advantage.

Ambiguity, or change one word

[wonkey_monkey]

British Army Looking For Gamers For Their Smart-Tanks

Well they can't have my smart tank. They can build their own!

British Army Looking For Gamers With Their Smart-Tanks

Now that's a headline.

No they're not

[duplo]

They say they want creative soldiers, but they will not achieve this.

The minute they join recruit school, they will have all creativeness beaten out of their brains. The only way to do things correctly in the military is to follow a procedure.

By the time they are in a position of making a decision to use their creativity, they are too old and now there is 8 ranks beneath and 2 above them acting to inhibit their creativity.

It won't happen.

Re:No they're not

[dltaylor]

Being wildly creatvie is, however, still discouraged. The men (in the infantry), vehicle commanders, wingmen (in the air) must have some idea what you're going to do, or just you trip over, or kill, each other. Don't know where you're from, but think Amercan football: the defence is typically the more "creative" side of the line of scrimmage; but there are still "plays" (coverage for pass receivers, stunts in the line, blitzes by linebackers and/or defensive backs); yes, it is necessary to adapt to what the offeense is trying to do, quickly and on-the-fly, but missing your assignment while being overly creative more often than not results in good things for the offence.

Re:remember when

[captjc]

Yeah, I miss the wholesome arcade games of the 80's, like Battlezone, Red Barron, Scramble, Rush 'N Attack, and Missile Command. No military propaganda there. Nope.

I Suggested systems like this years ago

[NicholasGlendening]

And the tanker I was talking to said that a tank was far too complex for one person to control. To that I replied "Fighter jet." He got rather angry for some reason...

Re:Surely not the "largest" tank?

[tlambert]

From TFA:

the largest and smartest tank ever designed for the British Army

Surely, instead of spending money on smart tanks, they should have all those former Nokia employees laid off by Microsoft build them feature tanks instead?

PS: I'm still wondering why they need soldiers *inside* then, rather than having them be drive-by-wire, just like airborne drones?

Re:No respawns

[some old guy]

Except maybe for the head wounds (commanders), severed hands/fingers (loaders and gunners), and the occasional hand-held ATGM.

Re:No respawns

[RenderSeven]

Best job I ever had.

Perfect!

[Dreth]

If they get pwn3d they can blame it on lag.

xbox gamers only?

[danknight48]

I drove tanks, flew planes and helicopters, even had control of power sources.

Urban Assault http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U...

Wasted talent sitting here, wasted.
If only i had an Xbox with ultra realistic autoaim/autopilot gameplay (sarcasm)....

Re:remember when

[Anonymous Coward]

Last. Star. Fighter.

Re:What they are really looking for is...

[Wootery]

Xbox gamers who would like to die a really horrible death trapped in a metal box.

As I understand it, very few have died inside a tank in recent history.

As far as I can see on my quick Googling, the British Army has never lost a Challenger 2 tank, despite being battered in various warzones. Some US Abrams tanks have been lost in Iraq, however. (According to this page at least.)

Re:People who play xbox are not tech savvy

[Anonymous Coward]

No, if they had technical skills they would be playing on a PC.

Recruiter Bait.

[Fieryphoenix]

This sounds like the garbage that any military recruiter will spew to entice you to sign up. "Oooh! You're really good! We need your hawt leetness! What? You didn't get a position in the Scout SV playing real life video games. Eat it soldier, you'll serve where you're told."

Re:Surely not the "largest" tank?

[LWATCDR]

1. The Scout SV is not a tank.
2. The size of a tank is not measured by volume but by weight.
3. The article is just flat out terrible as far as accuracy.

Since the two item are no where near a cube in shape going for L,W,H is just not a good plan.

So Hard Finding Tanks

[Greyfox]

Now if they were looking for DPS, they'd have recruits coming out the ass!

Tea!

[Sqweegee]

I was relieve to see that the tank still comes with the ability for the crew to make tea. An important armored fighting innovation the British have had in all their tanks since WWII! (background about 20s into the video)

Re:Surely not the "largest" tank?

[Talderas]

A crew of 6 for an IFV is bizzare. 3 is usually sufficient (commander, driver, gunner) but they contain room for usually 6 soldiers as well for 9 men in the vehicle.

IFV vs APC is a function of the purpose of the armament on the vehicle. For something to be classed as an IFV is must have a 20mm armament and its armament must be used in a direct fire support role. APCs are unarmed or have armament for self-defense.