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Darpa Literally Reinvented the Wheel for Army Combat Vehicles

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Re: Darpa Literally Reinvented the Wheel for Army Combat Vehicles

#92

As a military officer, I pray these never make it past Test and Evaluation. They took essentially one part and turned it into 1000 parts. Anyone who has seen what 20 year old Marines do with these machines, let alone what happens in war, will appreciate that this is a fantastically horrible idea in a war zone. I need high reliability, not high zoot. Let NASA have high zoot.

I've seen 20-year-old Marines maintain EA-6B Prowlers, I'm sure they can figure out DARPA's fancy new wheels.

Re: Darpa Literally Reinvented the Wheel for Army Combat Vehicles

#93

As a military officer, I pray these never make it past Test and Evaluation. They took essentially one part and turned it into 1000 parts. Anyone who has seen what 20 year old Marines do with these machines, let alone what happens in war, will appreciate that this is a fantastically horrible idea in a war zone. I need high reliability, not high zoot. Let NASA have high zoot.

What if the failure mode was it just being a regular wheel again? I suppose it's competing against letting the air out of the tyre so it might still be worse

Re: Darpa Literally Reinvented the Wheel for Army Combat Vehicles

#94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And how often do humvees get stuck anyway? I like the product, but it’s obviously wasteful. During the Iraq insurgency what was wanted was armor plating. Literally just 1/4” slabs of steel. This is of a piece with the F-35.

I saw one get stuck so bad in the sand it took three tanks to pull it out over in Saudi. Was sitting with the frame on the ground so no way to dig it out (trust me, they had us try).

> Was sitting with the frame on the ground so no way to dig it out (trust me, they had us try).

A vehicle beached at the frame on sand is a very common occurrence in the desert, and it's fairly trivial to get out if you have a shovel, brains, and are physically well. It's just some work, but sand is incredibly easy to excavate by hand, even from underneath a vehicle.

Re: Darpa Literally Reinvented the Wheel for Army Combat Vehicles

#96

As a military officer, I pray these never make it past Test and Evaluation. They took essentially one part and turned it into 1000 parts. Anyone who has seen what 20 year old Marines do with these machines, let alone what happens in war, will appreciate that this is a fantastically horrible idea in a war zone. I need high reliability, not high zoot. Let NASA have high zoot.

Yay more PMCS!!!

Re: Darpa Literally Reinvented the Wheel for Army Combat Vehicles

#97

As a military officer, I pray these never make it past Test and Evaluation. They took essentially one part and turned it into 1000 parts. Anyone who has seen what 20 year old Marines do with these machines, let alone what happens in war, will appreciate that this is a fantastically horrible idea in a war zone. I need high reliability, not high zoot. Let NASA have high zoot.

20 year olds vary. As a 20 year old in the military, I was elbows deep in the B-61 Mod 10 replacing radioisotopic thermoelectric generators.

Concession: id be damned if I told you that we didn’t goose the new guy bending over the explosives from time to time.

Re: Darpa Literally Reinvented the Wheel for Army Combat Vehicles

#99
post #97

As a military officer, I pray these never make it past Test and Evaluation. They took essentially one part and turned it into 1000 parts. Anyone who has seen what 20 year old Marines do with these machines, let alone what happens in war, will appreciate that this is a fantastically horrible idea in a war zone. I need high reliability, not high zoot. Let NASA have high zoot.

20 year olds vary. As a 20 year old in the military, I was elbows deep in the B-61 Mod 10 replacing radioisotopic thermoelectric generators. Concession: id be damned if I told you that we didn’t goose the new guy bending over the explosives from time to time.

I Googled for "B-61 Mod 10 replacing radioisotopic thermoelectric generators" and I got this →

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B61_nuclear_bomb

and upon further searching, this → https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_generator

I need to ask if thermoelectric generator was a part of the B61 nuclear bomb? Please explain.

Re: Darpa Literally Reinvented the Wheel for Army Combat Vehicles

#100
post #97

As a military officer, I pray these never make it past Test and Evaluation. They took essentially one part and turned it into 1000 parts. Anyone who has seen what 20 year old Marines do with these machines, let alone what happens in war, will appreciate that this is a fantastically horrible idea in a war zone. I need high reliability, not high zoot. Let NASA have high zoot.

20 year olds vary. As a 20 year old in the military, I was elbows deep in the B-61 Mod 10 replacing radioisotopic thermoelectric generators. Concession: id be damned if I told you that we didn’t goose the new guy bending over the explosives from time to time.

Nothing against 20-year-olds, I was one. I know what I did and what my friends did. I'm no angel. But if was running the engineering team on this, I'd make sure everyone had in their mind "the driver is maximally amped-up, young, and male.
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