BF2S Forums Are Mech Walkers a practical military vehicle?

The powersuits that the military is currently working on is probably what we'll see in the near future.  What supports infantry best?  Right now HUMVEEs, then APCs, then tanks on the ground; in the air its transport helicopters and attack helicopters.

So could you see a close-in support role for infantry that has the fire power of say a Cobra, but the mobiliy of a HUMVEE? 

Being able to side-step is probably the most notable movement advantage a walker has. 

Having 'hands' to grip, tear, or minimulate objects can be useful, especially for combat engineers (i.e. travel to an area to pull trees from its roots to help make an airfield while underfire).

I can't see Mechs carry more than say 2 or 3 people...so they won't be troop carriers like APCs or Ospreys.

MGS4 seems like a good role for them, infantry support in urban areas.

Being able to switch weapons quickly might be useful (pickup a railrun or a laser gun in its hands instead of having to be retrofitted turret of a tank).


Hover tanks would be kewl because they solve the problem with the 'side-step' that current tracked tanks have...but what about armor protection?

Perhaps armor protection in the future will be like armor in the middle ages?  You got to a point that the weapons (in the 1700s with muskets), do so much damage it no longer matters what kind of armor you have because if you get hit by anything the enemy has you're dead.  Only recently are our troops actually wearing body armor, for example.

A supressive role...perhaps is its best role. 

I still think powersuits will be more useful in the long term.

I'm not sure hover tanks will be better than tracked tanks.  Reason being is that the hover technology may make it vulnerable to underside attacks, or its weight has to be reduced significantly thus having less armor and lighter less effective weapons.

Now here's something for ya...could you make a tank-helicopter hybrid?  Is a mech with jet packs the hybrid?

Why don't we just get robots to do everything for us?

Spark wrote:

Why don't we just get robots to do everything for us?

People are smarter.

I{endo wrote:

Fancy_Pollux wrote:

Much of today's media, such as Star Wars, BF2142, or Anime, depict Mech Walkers as the military vehicle of the future. From a practical standpoint, they seem to be rather slow and cumbersome and would probably do a better job of instilling fear into the enemy rather than destroying it. Not to mention they walk, which make them seemingly easier to counter or knock over. What do you think the future holds for Mech Walkers in the military? Would they be more or less effective than a conventional tank? What would be their main strengths and weaknesses?

Discuss.

imagine a mech walker doing the dolphin dive.

"EARTHQUAKE! RUN!"
"oh, its just a walker falling down. quick, loot the corpses."

A couple of problems with walkers that haven't been raised yet about 2 legged walkers.

Firstly, moving and firing any form of dumb projectile is unlikely due to the inherently bouncy gait of two legged walking. Also the ammo fired would have to be low enough mass and be fired from low enough relative to the center of mass so that the thing doesn't just fall over every time it fires.

Assuming that a walker is going to need a power source, an engine, armor, ammo, weapons, computers, driver(s), the thing is going to weigh literally tonnes. In order not to sink into mud / sand / loose earth the feet are going to have to be massive, we're talking several square meters of foot area per leg just to avoid sinking all the time. Also the cross section of the leg will likely have to be in the region of square meters just to stop the leg from bending or breaking while it holds up that much weight.

Multi (6+) legged walkers are a better proposition as they can still operate after receiving leg damage, are much more stable and can more realistically hold the weight of a huge armored killing machine.


More realistic is lightweight plastic or composite tanks with wheels not tracks. A 50 tonne tank is all very useful when it's in the right place, but moving them in large numbers quickly is just impossible.

Flecco wrote:

Spark wrote:

Why don't we just get robots to do everything for us?

People are smarter.

Ever watch IRobot?

Tanks Suffer from 1 major weakness that the current battles are showing us: They aren't effective in Urban Combat. The shock wave from the cannon would injure their own troop escort, and its inability to navigate tight corridors is another weakness.

From a theoretical point of view, The Anime Mecha(Think Evangelion but smaller scale) would be better as its basically an extension of the persons body, which mean the driver can dodge incoming RPGs and so on. These will most likely become the Power Suits you speak of.

However, the giant Robots the size of sky scrapers wouldn't be feasible as the pressure they exert would mean the foot would be extremely large(much more collateral damage), but it would mean it has nothing to fear from point impact weapons as its momentum is greater than the projectiles. To Illustrate this I give you From the Mind of Chris Taylor and Gas Powered Games, the Galactic Colossus:


Its sheer size makes it hard to stop, but unless genocide is the goal, it would never be implemented.


Also Mechwarriors(or the 2142 walkers) would not be a wise move as agility is the key element and these things lack it.

14Ft tall humanoid Mechs that are in essence an extension of the users body(with only 1 user controlling it) would be a possibility, as these can be considered powered body suits and still maintain a high degree of agility.

Last edited by vpyroman (2007-01-20 20:45:31)

also IMO infantry will eventually make all combat vehicles obsolete... once we make a practical infantry-held rail gun, infantry will be able to destroy almost any ground vehicle with out a problem... air power will be their only threat...that is if the Muslims don't kill us all with a nuke first lol....

Walkers are impractical..eg..see Empire Strikes Back,Scene: 4

And you dont need a speeder to do it...

There are many advantages to a walking design, but its pretty silly to think that a bipedal walker would exist over a quadruped, or any other n-ped design. Reason being, the loss of one leg completely destroys the combat effectiveness of machine. I would say that if walkers were designed like crabs then they would completely dominate the battlefield. Currently, the state of walking robots is laughable in comparison to wheeled/treaded machines. Until the machine is as agile as a living being, then a legged design is simply a disadvantage. When a machine can negotiate large obstacles with a multi-legged design they will be found on the battlefield.

kn0ckahh wrote:

http://comparestoreprices.co.uk/images/ … vyarms.jpg

This image speaks for itself, lawlz.

Stingray24 wrote:

Flecco wrote:

Spark wrote:

Why don't we just get robots to do everything for us?

People are smarter.

Ever watch IRobot?

Ever read Isaac Asimov's books? Much better.