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Americas newest bomber!! (pg. 2)
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| fuct4less |
is it just me or does anyone here think that the government and military are getting too powerful?
and sand leaper has a point, why do we have to make ourselves more powerful instead of helping the less fortunate? |
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| occrider |
| quote: | Originally posted by fuct4less
is it just me or does anyone here think that the government and military are getting too powerful?
and sand leaper has a point, why do we have to make ourselves more powerful instead of helping the less fortunate? |
Hehe if you think the military is powerful now, then you must have been asleep in the 80's. The military now is actually much smaller, it's just a lot more high-tech.
Anyway to answer your second question ... it's simple, human nature. |
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| hardcore trancer |
| quote: | Originally posted by occrider
Anyway to answer your second question ... it's simple, human nature. |
it is sad but it is reality!!:( |
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| occrider |
Has anyone actually browsed through the DARPA research programs? Some of the technology they are researching are downright ridiculous.
They need to deploy some of these straight into Korea ...
http://www.darpa.mil/ato/programs/SHM/proginfo.html
Self healing anti-tank mines that uses alguerithms and rocket jets to jump and seal a breach created by tanks trying to run a minefield.
Normally I'm against mines but these seem clearly intended for maintaining static defenses and probably have the technology to be deactivated if necessary. Put a couple thousand of these on the DMZ and we don't need US forces on the Korean peninsula.
Anyway, they also have tons of other projects like the hummingbird warrior :rolleyes: which should give some indication that everything including the kitchen sink is put on the drawing board for potential development but 95% of them never get approved.
http://www.darpa.mil/tto/programs/hum_war.html
At any rate, a large part of our everyday civilian technology comes from military developments so if they build a hypersonic plane hopefully they can adapt it to civilian transport. |
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| Izzy |
| quote: | Originally posted by occrider
At any rate, a large part of our everyday civilian technology comes from military developments so if they build a hypersonic plane hopefully they can adapt it to civilian transport. |
thats usually the case... the only reason i was for the space wars - anti balistic system was because of the technology's possible implications in civilian life.
most time these are programs are done by private companies contracted by the military... those same companies (being the profit entities they are) usually dont settle for just the wad of money they get from the contract with the military, they usually find a way to adapt their concept into real life and profit off us normal folk |
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| fuct4less |
| quote: | Originally posted by occrider
Hehe if you think the military is powerful now, then you must have been asleep in the 80's. The military now is actually much smaller, it's just a lot more high-tech. |
no, i wasnt talking about size, but rather the possible damage america can inflict if we chose to do so.
| quote: | Originally posted by occrider
Anyway to answer your second question ... it's simple, human nature. |
not exactly, usually it seems as though human nature is "kill or be killed". this behaviour is just a more civillized way of doing just that. for once, id like to see a polititian who does not spend money on all that unneeded sht, and actually tells the truth and helps the working class. |
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| occrider |
| quote: | Originally posted by fuct4less
no, i wasnt talking about size, but rather the possible damage america can inflict if we chose to do so.
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Again I would argue it's still less. At the height of the cold war we had 15 carrier battle groups with much the same planes as we do currentely ... now we have only 5 or 6 carrier battle groups. In terms of the amount of armored divisions that we used to have, we have considerably far less. THe majority of the major army bases in Germany: Nuremburg, Kaiserslaturn, etc. have closed down and either decommissioned or moved back to the states. At the height of the Cold War our military doctrine was to have enough regular forces to fight 2 vietnam style regional conflicts at the same time ... now we can barely handle one. So I'll stick by my statements that the military is greatly reduced, in terms of manpower and effective damage. It's not like I'm arguing for more military however.
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not exactly, usually it seems as though human nature is "kill or be killed". this behaviour is just a more civillized way of doing just that. for once, id like to see a polititian who does not spend money on all that unneeded sht, and actually tells the truth and helps the working class. |
It works on a micro and a macro level ... as a percentage of your income and time, how much money and time do you devote towards helping poor people/others? Except for a few outliers, I'm sure that it would directly correlate with the amount of money and effort the government devotes towards helping poor/others. If people weren't generally like this, than we would see more candidates who were more altruistic, or a public outcry to vote for candidates who were more like this.
Edit: Oh and when I say carrier battle groups I mean the Nimitz fleet class carrier battle groups, not the kitty hawk sized carriers which are used in supporting/amphibous operation roles. |
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| Wurm |
| quote: | Originally posted by occrider
At any rate, a large part of our everyday civilian technology comes from military developments so if they build a hypersonic plane hopefully they can adapt it to civilian transport. |
The Star Wars trickle-down is a costly and inefficient way of stimulating innovation.
It actually leads us to rely more and more on gadgetry instead of using simple means of changing our lives for the better. |
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| DrummeRaver86 |
| quote: | Originally posted by Wurm
The Star Wars trickle-down is a costly and inefficient way of stimulating innovation.
It actually leads us to rely more and more on gadgetry instead of using simple means of changing our lives for the better. |
technology is the way of the future, man. |
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| AlphaZonE |
| Nice 1. No more people can now be killed in freindly fire. |
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| rizen |
even though i hate war, i do like the development of new vechiles. must be all the G.I. Joe I watched when I was younger. Example, I didn't like the Hulk movie at all and the only part i did like was when the Comanches appeared :eek:
maybe one day they'll be real smart bullets and bombs that target the actual person, maybe through DNA, causing less, if any casualties. |
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| trintiy |
Having spent 10 years in the military I'll try to answer and clear up some of the misconceptions of this thread.
The military does have a large budget, however their R&D plays a large role in the civilian sector.
The Department of Defense operates a policies and responsibilities for active technology transfer to the domestic civilian sector, including technical assistance to State and local governments, and cooperative technology development with private sector and civilian sector organizations.
In plain english that means any technology developed by the military budget that could benefit the average american or world will be given that technology.
i.e The Internet
You would be amazed at how many product you use everyday that were developed by the military R&D budget. |
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