Re: Infantry Walkers!

At 01:54 20/11/98 -0500, you wrote:
>On Thu, 19 Nov 1998, Thomas Barclay wrote:
>> Personally, I think they are a bit unlikely. It is hard to make a 
>> mech walk. It wastes previous space for servos and delicate gyros and

>> control systems, so pound for pound they'd always be weaker than a 
>> vehicle without these glitzy componenets. They seem like a 
>> maintenance nightmare (imagine logistics if every squad had one). 
>> They seem like they'd have to be complex and expensive and prone to 
>> problems relative to simpler designs. 
>
>	I have to agree with your points...  But I still love 'em. <g>
>For me, they are very SF.
>
>> OTOH, If you have PA, they make sense. And they could fill a useful 
>> tactical role. Mark me down as luke warm. 
SNIPPAGE
>	Laterish!
>
>Ken

I also fall into the "unlikely but cool all the same" faction on
walkers,
and I'm really pleased with the DS2 IWs I just bought from GZG.  A
thought
on the maintenance requirements:  The walkers could be equipped with
some
simple AI so that they could do the basic maintenance on each other
while
the crews were eating\sleeping\abluting etc.

There is an excellent SF novel called "The Star Fraction", by ?Ken
McLeod?
in which (in passing) the high tech nations have "teletroopers"- big
PA\IW
size machines, remotely piloted.  I could quite see the "first bloke
through
the door" in future being something like a Honda P-50-Kai!

Rob

"Rob Paul

Dept of Zoology
Oxford University
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Oxford
(01865) 271124
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"Once again, villainy is rotting meat 
before the maggots of justice!"
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