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The Ultimate Fighting Machine:
The United states army has a dilemma. They have discovered that
our units are not responsive or mobile enough. This according
to ABC news. We must become meaner and leaner. We must be able
to respond to world situations in a matter of hours rather than
weeks or months. Minutes would be even better. This problem was
illuminated recently, when we were unable to get our choppers
into a conflict before it ended.
The army says we are not mobile enough, but they still can't seem to break out of the military, mind set. Instead of looking for alternative tools, they continue to look at the traditional tanks. These are lighter tanks, to be sure, but still tanks. They are also looking at these huge flying gunships, choppers which can't seem to operate when and where they are most needed. The generals can't shake off the traditional thinking. Leaner and meaner does not mean lighter tanks. It means something different than tanks and more effective.
I submit that what we want is a six million dollar GI. What we need is a one man machine that turns a GI into a high speed, all terrain, mobile wrecking machine. We want one man to be a complete fighting unit. One man should be so equipped that he is equivalent to a tank in firepower, but as agile, mobile, and fast as a cougar. This machine should be as easy to get into place as the current GI's rifle and backpack.
How do you turn a human being into a one man fighting machine, a one man army? First, the GI and this machine must be an integrated unit. It must be an extension of the GI's own mind and body. It must respond to him the same as his hands and fingers do. This will be a triumph of bioengineering. It will be the ultimate uniform. When the GI puts it on, he becomes it and it becomes him.
So, let's start with the skin. Visualize it. The skin of whatever we are designing is quite elastic and flexible. It has a certain surface tension or molecular cohesiveness. When you exert a force on this surface, this cohesiveness increases in direct proportion to the force applied until it becomes a dense solid. It is structured such that any glancing hit bounces away.
We said this machine must be agile, mobile and fast. That translates into light weight and small. I visualize something no larger than a Harley Hog with a sidecar, but not with wheels. It must have legs or tracks or both. This is the stuff of science fiction.
This thing must be powered by some kind of super battery, reactor, or very efficient fuel cell. It needs an engine which can run all day without recharging or refueling. Also, the machine must be person specific such that only one person may activate it. This means some kind of retinal or voice print recognition.
Our man-machine must have the firepower to replace the Abrams tank which is much too heavy, slow, and difficult to maneuver. The Abrams cannot get into place fast enough. The six million dollar GI can go anywhere and get in close. It can do excessive damage, but has no nuclear capability. We should be able to move in without excessive risk to our troops and take control of a situation. Just the threat of massive damage should be enough to control most situations.
We should be able to move controlling firepower into anyplace in the world within four hours. We shouldn't have to station troops overseas to do that. Perhaps these things could be para-dropped in with the GI aboard. If you want to be police, let's be police, but, let's do it right. I want fighting machines that can't be destroyed easily. Then our GI's can't be harmed easily.
The people who operate these things will be a very special type. They must be a compete integration of raw courage and high intelligence. Those two things are usually mutually exclusive. There must be a careful selection process and an intensive training program. Fortunately. We will not need large numbers of these people. If the machines are as effective as I visualize them, a few thousand will be sufficient. Surely, no more that 100,000 to control the world.
This may all seem to be impossible, but I think not. When I
was a youngster, I had the notion that some things were impossible.
That was when a soda-pop cost a nickel. There was no television,
or nuclear power. Spaceships were the stuff of pulp magazines.
Radio was a novelty. Not everyone had a receiver and telephones
were for emergency communication. Transistors had not been invented
and no one had heard of a thing called a computer. Now I believe
that nothing is impossible. I have seen what science can do. Give
science the goal and it will be achieved. Believe that.
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