Tanks

Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2000 16:45:47 EST
From: Popeyesays@aol.com
Subject: Re: Tanks

In a message dated 2/2/00 3:17:33 PM Central Standard Time,
books@mail.state.fl.us writes:

<<
 If you want to argue extra eyes I will keep my mouth shut.  If you
 want to tell me the tank cdr gets lonely and needs someone to
 talk to I'll pretend short range SS doesn't already exist.  You
 want to tell me we need someone in the tank hefting big pieces
 of metal, come on, strength based manual labor has gone the way
 of the dinosaur everywhere else, you only put humans where
 intelligence is necessary.
  >>

Hefting the rounds is only part of it - he's also learning how to man
other
positions in the tank - driver, gunner eventually track commander. And
Yes,
face to face - see it with your own eyes - get out and look from over
the
next hill is still part of crewing a tank and wilol be into the
forseeable
future

** What? I've seen some work out of DoD think tanks about equipping
EVERY tank with a small RPV with sensors. Why debark the vehicle, make
yourself vulnerable, and your vehicle mission-dead, to look over a hill
when it can be done by something smaller than a human with more visual
acuity and that can work in spectrums a human can't?

- I know tankers, do you?

** Please introduce to one from 2183. I'd like to meet him. There is a
*world* of difference between today and 2183. it's like me saying "I
know how infantry will work in 1999  because I know an 1815 Grenadier
Gaurd". Someone with a narrow view of the world and no larger view of
technology (not saying it is that way with your friends mind you) will
have an impossible time predicting future developments. If you said you
knew someone in DoD think tanks and I knew their hit rate on what the
future will look like is more than about 60% and extended more than
about 2-3 decades, then I *might* consider knowing them to be a huge
asset in this discussion. Otherwise.... its all speculation. I realize
that - but I can also see what we've done with technology over the last
185 years and can at least suggest that it will have an impact. I may be
wrong about the directions of the impact, but saying it is unlikely to
change things in the forseeable future just strikes me as silly. It's
changing the world by the second.... give it 20 years, a lot will be
different. Give it 200 and we probably won't recognize it. You can say
those of us championing smaller, robust, advanced tanks are wrong about
the details, but I'd say we at least have a 1 in n (some big number)
change of being right because we're suggesting one option for change. If
you suggest it won't directly impact workflow (which is what you are
basically talking about) for a tank crew, then I can almost gaurantee
you're not going to be right. Change it will. How is only the question.

** :)	(No I'm not the most vocal proponent of technology... it has its
shortcomings).

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