Posted: Fri Oct 22, 2021 11:13 pm
Dtn wrote:if a mecha doesn't have a sword or axe it should at least have 16" guns
Like this? sword √ 16" guns √ mecha √
Because sometimes even national leaders just want to hang out
https://forum.nationstates.net/
Dtn wrote:if a mecha doesn't have a sword or axe it should at least have 16" guns
Antipatros wrote:An idea that you're seeing with some future tank designs is increased drone integration (for example, a tank launching small quadcopter drones, or mixed platoons of unmanned and manned tanks).
Would it make sense to add a crew member who helps to manage/control these drones, or should the tank commander be tasked with this? Many countries used to have radio operators in their tanks (who also often controlled bow machine guns), but then removed that position later on.
Hurtful Thoughts wrote:Antipatros wrote:An idea that you're seeing with some future tank designs is increased drone integration (for example, a tank launching small quadcopter drones, or mixed platoons of unmanned and manned tanks).
Would it make sense to add a crew member who helps to manage/control these drones, or should the tank commander be tasked with this? Many countries used to have radio operators in their tanks (who also often controlled bow machine guns), but then removed that position later on.
I've ran into the idea of letting the driver play with that when not actually moving the tank.
But then it depends on what sort of drone it is. If it's just a glorified helicopter-mounted periscope with autopilot, then there's not really much-added workload and it'll improve the driver's situational awareness and the TC's if the TC gets a video feed of what the driver sees the same way they can see what the gunner sees.
That way the TC gets the situational awareness without the added workload.
The downside is now you may end up with a driver trying to pilot 2 or 3 vehicles simultaneously whilst being shot at.
Although most UGVs have a "follow the leader"/Convoy AI system so they can be collectively controlled with some ease. And Quadcopters can be virtually tethered to fly within a certain distance of the battlegroup at all times.
Sometimes it's a moot point since the control vehicle is often an APC following behind the battlegroup.
Gonswanza wrote:Hurtful Thoughts wrote:I've ran into the idea of letting the driver play with that when not actually moving the tank.
But then it depends on what sort of drone it is. If it's just a glorified helicopter-mounted periscope with autopilot, then there's not really much-added workload and it'll improve the driver's situational awareness and the TC's if the TC gets a video feed of what the driver sees the same way they can see what the gunner sees.
That way the TC gets the situational awareness without the added workload.
The downside is now you may end up with a driver trying to pilot 2 or 3 vehicles simultaneously whilst being shot at.
Although most UGVs have a "follow the leader"/Convoy AI system so they can be collectively controlled with some ease. And Quadcopters can be virtually tethered to fly within a certain distance of the battlegroup at all times.
Sometimes it's a moot point since the control vehicle is often an APC following behind the battlegroup.
Adding to that, most localized UAVs like Fire Scout are readily deployed independent of the vehicles. In the case of Switchblade, a single man could carry it into the field and launch it themselves, though it's better to have two men work as a team to make things more efficient, again, independent of any vehicles in the area, freeing up space on those vehicles for things like APS or remote-controlled machinegun turrets... Or even electronic periscopes for the commander. Or a combination of these things.
Hurtful Thoughts wrote:Gonswanza wrote:Adding to that, most localized UAVs like Fire Scout are readily deployed independent of the vehicles. In the case of Switchblade, a single man could carry it into the field and launch it themselves, though it's better to have two men work as a team to make things more efficient, again, independent of any vehicles in the area, freeing up space on those vehicles for things like APS or remote-controlled machinegun turrets... Or even electronic periscopes for the commander. Or a combination of these things.
I'd still give the driver access to the TC's periscope/CITV for better obstacle-avoidance.
Worst case, give him remote-override of a CROWS-mount if they get immobilized and they need to lay down some lead.
Hurtful Thoughts wrote:I'd still give the driver access to the TC's periscope/CITV for better obstacle-avoidance.
Worst case, give him remote-override of a CROWS-mount if they get immobilized and they need to lay down some lead.
Austria-Bohemia-Hungary wrote:Hurtful Thoughts wrote:I'd still give the driver access to the TC's periscope/CITV for better obstacle-avoidance.
Worst case, give him remote-override of a CROWS-mount if they get immobilized and they need to lay down some lead.
Just give the driver an MFD with access to the gun camera like in the CV90 tbh.
Gonswanza wrote:Adding to that, most localized UAVs like Fire Scout are readily deployed independent of the vehicles.
Hurtful Thoughts wrote:I'd still give the driver access to the TC's periscope/CITV for better obstacle-avoidance.
Gonswanza wrote:This is of course better than ripping open a chunk of the hull to install a launch system for a UAV, plus a control setup and the bungle of cables that would come of that... Along with some mild complications that could arise.
Gallia- wrote:tl;dr
Modern existing tank like M1A1 can just have the loader do all the UAS/UGV stuff and give it an autoloader to handle the ammo. It's probably easier to give the loader a toughbook and a rack of radios than removing the whole seat or something.
OTOH giving drivers periscopes or cameras beyond what's directly in front of them (even this can be somewhat superfluous depending on the TC) is bizarre space alien logic. The short answer is that the TC knows where he wants his gun, the driver doesn't need to worry about it, and he just needs to follow orders. A tank is commanded by the TC like an extension of his body or a warship so the crewmen only need to know what is exactly pertinent to their own jobs.
Future tank like MGCS can have a three-man (or two-man?) crew with a TC looking through cameras of drones beaming pictures to him, or the gunner/TC operating a Black Knight-esque UGV ahead of them using their respective station controls, and driver maintains local SA. Maybe it beeps at them if it sees a dude with an RPG or something but that seems somewhat unreliable. In practice given things like Longbow's automatic target recognition algorithms routinely pinged random sand dunes and electrical towers in Iraq as SA-8s because the sort of calibration requires very extensive local terrain mapping and surveying to work right, so I'm just a bit skeptical of ATR in general.
This is probably what Dumbla does anyway.
Gallia- wrote:The drone obviously drives or flies itself! It just needs someone who can look at what it's looking at semi-continuously, which I suppose the TC can do if it beeps at him when it sees something neat, but it would probably be better if you had another person do this job instead considering the TC has his own optical sights to look through and is telling the gunner where to look. That person can then tell the TC to look at this neat looking thing.
Also giving a driver a view higher up/further back is pretty much the exact opposite of what you want to do for "obstacle avoidance" lol.
Austrasien wrote:It isn't going to be very long before tanks are driving themselves.
Hurtful Thoughts wrote:By same logic the tank could drive itself, after-all.
Gallia- wrote:Hurtful Thoughts wrote:By same logic the tank could drive itself, after-all.
Yes! It's almost as if FCS was the F-4 of AFVs to some nebulous concept's (i.e. Carmel's) F-35.
The only purpose of a drone or tank "crew" at the end of a day would be to observe its sensors, and tell it to shoot things, to ensure it isn't going to be caught with its pants down and make sure the human troops aren't walking into an ambush. Or more importantly, that it doesn't commit an embarrassing mistake that has to be covered up because the robot's ATR mistakes a camera for a RPG, because a "killer robot" will be even worse a PR disaster than "crazy Vietnam vets" or "baby killer gunship pilots" that could cost real people their actual jobs.
There is a similar thing happening in airplanes, except it's been here since the 1990's, because flying a plane is significantly easier and simpler a task than driving a truck in terms of automation (and it's probably that much harder to do manually).
Danternoust wrote:I don't know what's more likely, black budget project cheaping out and not spending another million hours of work into machine learning and target differentiation, and thus using organic computers (someone paired a mouse brain with a flight simulator in 2004) trained from birth to fight in wars...
Or...
Predator drones keep getting smaller and more numerous, and the enemy does the same.
Gonswanza wrote:Gallia- wrote:
Yes! It's almost as if FCS was the F-4 of AFVs to some nebulous concept's (i.e. Carmel's) F-35.
The only purpose of a drone or tank "crew" at the end of a day would be to observe its sensors, and tell it to shoot things, to ensure it isn't going to be caught with its pants down and make sure the human troops aren't walking into an ambush. Or more importantly, that it doesn't commit an embarrassing mistake that has to be covered up because the robot's ATR mistakes a camera for a RPG, because a "killer robot" will be even worse a PR disaster than "crazy Vietnam vets" or "baby killer gunship pilots" that could cost real people their actual jobs.
There is a similar thing happening in airplanes, except it's been here since the 1990's, because flying a plane is significantly easier and simpler a task than driving a truck in terms of automation (and it's probably that much harder to do manually).
And this is why I laugh at MT nations trying to use fully automated armies of straight-up AI tanks and aircraft that would end up destroying themselves if the IFF cocks up much to the amusement of an enemy force that would have man-in-the-loop systems.