Author Topic: R/C Planes and tanks  (Read 212 times)

Offline davidpt40

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R/C Planes and tanks
« on: April 23, 2003, 05:20:45 PM »
I was thinking about this the other day.  How long till the U.S. starts using forces of completely remote controlled combat vehicles?  Whats so hard about mounting a few cameras on an M1, controling the turret and engine with servos, and using digitally encoded signals to control it either from satellite or powerful radio staion?  

The only complications I can forsee are (1) routine maintenance and (2) refueling.  Refueling could be done with unmanned fuel trucks modified with a refueling boom.  Maintenance could be done by flying technical crews in with helicopter.

The advantages would be quite significant.  The biggest would be that no U.S. troops are actually in the battle.  The second would be situational awarness.  Unmanned recon aircraft and multiple camera views could display a 360 degree image for each tank.  The third advantage would be not having to stop for crews to rest.  Multiple crews could man the r/c station back at HQ.

Offline Golfer

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okay...
« Reply #1 on: April 23, 2003, 06:06:25 PM »
i'll get the president on the horn and tell him that he and his defense advisors as well as some of the brightest designers and engineers in the world need to check out the AH BBs.  


Next...You dont have the human element.  Looking at a monitor and being on scene aren't the same thing.  Remove the human element, and its no longer warfare.  It's international battlebots, not warfare.

Im not saying that the more guys and gals in harms way the better, by any stretch of the means as i will be training to become one in the not too distant future.  And the U.S. military will not anytime soon be transitioning to a fully automated force to do anything, not even clean toilets.  Are there some things unmanned vehicles are good for?  sure, flying low and slow providing real-time intel on the battlefield.  The marines even have a stow-in-pack R/C airplane i saw used in a television program once that was very similar to your tyipcal r/c trainer.

Anyways, the u.s. will not use forces composed of entire r/c machinery anytime soon.

Offline davidpt40

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R/C Planes and tanks
« Reply #2 on: April 23, 2003, 06:26:03 PM »
Gotta disagree Golfer.  U.S. already has 2 confirmed kills with Predators armed with Hellfire missles.