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do you believe that in the future walker vehicles will be viable option for military use or should treaded & wheeled vehicles be kept in service?

As in like a Battlemech?

Battlemech?

Never.

Unless it is the unseen Scorpion or Goliath mechs - more walking tank than bipedal death machine.

No, I could however see them being used for construction purposes.

Not any time soon, as cool as it would be science still has a long way to catch up with Science Fiction. The computing power would be astronomical, we would need some type of cold fusion to power the thing. Some kind of artificial muscle because hydrolics just wouldn't cut it. Carbon fiber nano tubes if put into mass production could provide a light weight/high tensile strength material.


I would love to see it happen. But not in the near future -next 10 or 20 years. Although technology is moving so freaking fast now a days who realy knows. If they did sign me up for the Walker army I am there in a heartbeat. =o] Interesting topic btw.

It's this thread again

As I've said before, explain how a tank is improved by putting it on complicated walking mechanisms. If anyone ever comes up with a good one I'll stop saying walkers are a cool sci-fi piece but realistically ridiculous.

Actually we have walkers, just not of the gundam variety. The ones that are less of a suit and more of a tank are rather crappy though.







None would be combat worthy though, at least not proper combat. Surprisingly if I recall correctly they only need a 12ish horsepower engine.

If I recall correctly there is even a commercial one, it walks extremely slowly and can shoot pink foam balls from an air cannon mounted on it, can't find a picture of it though. This is another commercially available one, only costs around $350,000.

Problem with stuff on legs is that they are mechanically very complicated and probably very easy to knock over or shoot the legs off. Also things walking on legs tend to stand high, and most military vehicles try to be as low profile as possible.

Like's been mentioned before they'd attract a hell of a lot of fire, and thus would need a great armour system, so I wouldn't see the thing being viable in any kind of battle involving things like tanks or just troops armed with heavy weapons. Sure perhaps the thing could be used in theatres where tanks aren't viable and its mostly down to small arms (ie jungles); where it would make a half decent support unit, but that just brings up another whole load of problems. Powered Exo-Skeletons might be an alternative, but they suffer from the same flaws of energy consumption, armour etc. Yeah, I guess think we'll be sticking with Challengers and T-99s at least for the next decade. =P

I declare a war on trees!

n0t_u wrote:No, I could however see them being used for construction purposes.

Agreed, infact I remember reading somewhere on the net that the Japanese already use robots and such on certain construction sites, or were planning to, one of those anyways. But as far as battle goes, walkers really dont have a place in the real world. Anywhere a battle tank cannot go/shoot into, a plane will easily drop its payload on, or hell better yet, someone random guy pushes a button, and a missile from 1000 miles away lands within 2 feet of the target.

The only "walkers" I can see making its way to the battlefield will be powered suits for personnel.

Never anything larger then can fit in an average hallway. Regular vehicles or helicopters do everything else better.

Once the powersupply issues in the Sarcos XOS are brought undercontrol I could see something walkerish hitting service but not anytime soon. Examples of workable walkers in science fiction are probably Avatar and the 3rd Matrix. Both single man fighting suits. More towards powered armor than vehicle.

I can't see that a "walker" would be all that effective, especially (as has been mentioned prior to this post) given the complexity and vulnerability of such an apparatus. I could see a fusion between wheel/tread vehicles and mecha technology though, with the end result looking something like the wanzers in Front Mission that utilize treads rather than legs. They would be able to retain the stability of tread vehicles while also having arm-like appendages that could perform heavy lifting or other strenuous activity that couldn't be accomplished easily by conventional vehicles/equipment. Although now that I'm thinking on it, I have a hard time imagining what such activities might be. Maybe something along the lines of clearing rubble from areas requiring somewhat finer manipulative capabilities than one might find in an crane or other piece of construction equipment?

Flying things are the way of the future. So only a flying walker.

A flying WALKER! Thats where we have been going wrong

Why don't we get a flying tank? People landing via parachute has to be trained so they don't break anything and having a giant piece of metal with legs means that its going to be stiff and narrow and break something when it hits the ground. Flying tanks could just roll away when they land.

Ooh, what about a flying submarine with tracks?

halonachos wrote:Why don't we get a flying tank? People landing via parachute has to be trained so they don't break anything and having a giant piece of metal with legs means that its going to be stiff and narrow and break something when it hits the ground. Flying tanks could just roll away when they land.

We have air-droppable tanks already.

Laughing Man wrote:

halonachos wrote:Why don't we get a flying tank? People landing via parachute has to be trained so they don't break anything and having a giant piece of metal with legs means that its going to be stiff and narrow and break something when it hits the ground. Flying tanks could just roll away when they land.

We have air-droppable tanks already.

But air-droppable isn't flying. If the tank itself could fly (or even sluggishly float a bit) then it would gain a degree of maneuverability that is lacking from modern, less awesome tanks. Air-dropping is fantastic for getting the tank in position initially, but it would be nice to be able to bypass tank traps and the like after the initial drop. I imagine the fuel efficiency of a flying tank would be a major issue though.

So something like jump jets for tanks? The issue being you're basically strapping a large bomb into it and giving it a weak point allowing anti-tank mines to be even more effective

Personally I think just improving the tracks so they're sort of on "legs" in a way allowing them to move a little more and allow the tank to travel through rougher terrain. Same as the existing tracks, but each broken into a couple segments which can move slightly. Think of it like a four wheel drive version of a tank.

What's up with this flying tank thing? Do you want us to turn into Eldar?

n0t_u wrote:So something like jump jets for tanks? The issue being you're basically strapping a large bomb into it and giving it a weak point allowing anti-tank mines to be even more effective

Not only that but now your adding greater visibility.

"There is a walker nearby, keep your eyes open"

Suddenly the sound of a Harrier off in the distance (if you don't know, they are loud when they take off, as are most aircraft, let alone what a box with feet would take to achieve lift) and suddenly a little vehicle slowly pops it's head over the tree line, than goes back down and a great thump is heard.

"Concentrate fire over there. Aim for the groin, pilot or vehicle."

We have air-droppable tanks already.

3/73rd ABN Armor was disbanded like mid 90's So we don't have air droppable tanks.....wait...the Sherman wasn't considered a tank....

"Concentrate fire over there. Aim for the groin, pilot or vehicle."

In that order

halonachos wrote:Why don't we get a flying tank? People landing via parachute has to be trained so they don't break anything and having a giant piece of metal with legs means that its going to be stiff and narrow and break something when it hits the ground. Flying tanks could just roll away when they land.

Ooh, what about a flying submarine with tracks?

We have them.

Jihadin wrote:.the Sherman wasn't considered a tank....

I hope you mean the Sheridan

And it was a tank btw, whether they called it one or not. If it looks like a tank, sounds like a tank, and quacks like a tank it's a duck- I mean a tank Light tank to be specific. Silly MBT doctrine and the army not wanting to call it a light tank doesn't change what it is.

Walkers are slow and easy too knock over, a more intredting thought is exoskeltons, a Human Body enhanced to run faster with more spring or be able too punch through walls. Yes please.

Also carrying Heavy weapons becomes easier, railguns for all.

I can't see them being effective over traditional means (like helicopters and tanks), mainly because of how big of a target they are. If it's going to stand twelve feet in the air, it should be able to survive tank shells. If it can't, there's no purpose to it.

Who would operate them anyway? Special Operations people? Or would it be more like helicopters, where a warrant officer is the only person who can pilot it? I just can't imagine how militaries would fit them in, even if they did have one that was battle-ready.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Cyrax wrote:What's up with this flying tank thing? Do you want us to turn into Eldar?

Ha +1

They'd be more viable as a shock factor really. Giant mech walking behind the main force blasting out metal from some speakers. Provides morale and dissuades the enemy slightly or makes them panic a little.

The effort and cost is not worth it.

Samus_aran115 wrote:
Who would operate them anyway? Special Operations people? Or would it be more like helicopters, where a warrant officer is the only person who can pilot it? I just can't imagine how militaries would fit them in, even if they did have one that was battle-ready.

Well they probably wouldn't have a pilot, they would be controlled remotely, as seems to be the way things are going.

Howard A Treesong wrote:

Samus_aran115 wrote:
Who would operate them anyway? Special Operations people? Or would it be more like helicopters, where a warrant officer is the only person who can pilot it? I just can't imagine how militaries would fit them in, even if they did have one that was battle-ready.

Well they probably wouldn't have a pilot, they would be controlled remotely, as seems to be the way things are going.

That's true. You can fit a little computer in there no problem. With the space you save on human pilots, you can fit more guns on it!