Not G. Ivingname said:
Therumancer said:
Yeah, any kind of robocop or Crysis exoskeleton would just simply be to impratical/expensive if not out right impossible at the moment. We need more nimble troops more able in CQC for urban warfare, our tanks can take care of the desert warfare when the need arises. However, the HULC could indirectly make our troops more armed as exoskeletons are suppose to. Being able to put pretty much all the wieght of gear and extra ammo on the HULC, and since that could be thrown off at the drop of the hat, more body armor could be put on a soldier while still having well over a hundred pounds less our boys don't have to carry directly.
Well I don't think mobility is the issue with powered armor and such, it's just that the cost/benefit analysis of equipping infantry that way compared to building tanks and such makes it impractical.
I don't think the HULC would be practical as you describe it, since that's pretty much the same thing (a primitive combat exoskeleton).
Testing aside, where I think this will be useful is simply for logistics. Vehicles can require special tools and machines to re-arm and reload in some cases. Rather than having a forklift or whatever to move ordinance like missles, bombs, and weapon pods, you could just have a HULC or two which takes up less space. Looking at the thing you could fit it in a crate or storage compartment fairly easily.
Using something like this it could very easily mean that it could be very easy to set up combat air fields or whatever on the fly. You don't have to worry quite as much about how your going to get the trucks to move bombs around or whatever, if you can just ensure every helicopter has a HULC stored on it or whatever. In theory this means that if you have the weapons, and you have the vehicle, you can load it relatively quickly.
The glory of the "Rambo" schtick aside, real warfare is pretty much resolved in the end by war machines. Loading our infantry up with tons of body armor and heavier weapons is kind of pointless given the purpose of infantry, if we fight properly they probably shouldn't need those kinds of things (and anyone doing recon/special forces stuff is supposed to be covert, not carrying around 100 pounds of extra Kevlar and a minigun or whatever even if that was practical). This kind of system could be used as an ultra portable WALDO for supporting said war machines.
That is to say if ever implemented I'd imagine it would mostly be used by either maitnence workers or in a pinch perhaps pilots/drivers themselves.
