Re: Nailing Dirtside/Stargrunt Chamber Pots (was Re: [GZG] More re: [OFFICIAL] Salute releases....!)

Samuel Penn wrote:

>I'll be the first to admit to knowing nothing about modern militaries,
>so don't know how similar/disimilar modern tank designs are between
>nations. Do the practicalities of modern warfare force all tank
>designs towards some ideal shape?

Pretty much. All of today's tanks are tracked and have one single,
dorsally 
mounted turret with one single heavy gun + assorted secondary weapons 
(mostly machine guns, but with the occasional ATGM and/or light mortar 
thrown in as well). This general shape is very much enforced by the 
practicalities of today's tank warfare and the technologies available 
today. Sure, there are minor variations in hull and turret shape, but 
they're just that - minor; you don't see multiple or side-mounted gun 
sponsons on today's tanks.

If other technologies would become available - other propulsion 
technologies in particular - then other types of combat vehicle designs 
will appear. Immediately after the appearance of the new technology
there 
would quite likely be a variety of weird vehicles at first, just like
the 
wide variety of different tank designs during and immediately after WW1 
before the current "one dorsal turret, one big gun" proved to be most 
effective, or the wide variety of ironclad designs in the late 19th
century 
before ship designers figured out that the dreadnought concept was the
way 
to go; but eventually the design evolution will almost certainly
converge 
on one "optimal" basic shape.

Later,

Oerjan
oerjan.ariander@rixmail.se

"Life is like a sewer.
  What you get out of it, depends on what you put into it."
-Hen3ry

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