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From: kash1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (Kemp Ashby)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Power Armor
Message-ID: <1991Jun27.020204.3941@cbnews.cb.att.com>
Date: 27 Jun 91 02:02:04 GMT
References: <1991May24.030024.8386@amd.com> <1991Jun6.063339.5887@amd.com> <1991Jun12.012726.25617@amd.com> <1991Jun14.080221.20535@amd.com> <1991Jun18.074541.15334@amd.com>
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From: kash1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz(Kemp Ashby)
In <1991Jun18.074541.15334@amd.com> phil@brahms.AMD.COM (Phil Ngai) writes:

>Hm, I wonder how much this thing would weigh and how big its feet would
>be. Could it swim? Cross a rice paddy? What if you spent the money
>instead on rifles and cheap drafted soldiers? I'm not sure how this
>thing could really be economic.

Generally, I agree. However, don't forget that the 'Quantity beats Quality'
argument was somewhat disproved in the gulf, though I appreciate that the
scales are different. Also PA would obviously be more effective in some
settings than others.

>Or even more effective, a squad of soldiers with radios calling in
>air dropped smart weapons. This idea of armor seems of limited value.

Yes, but that means that you need to have at your disposal a large number
of aircraft to target a possibly highly mobile enemy - this doesn't sound
very economic either.

>A dozen soldiers with machine guns ought to be able to hose up the
>PA's sensors pretty well.

Assuming you can hit the target that accurately. How often in modern combat
would it be the case that a man-sized target can be hit often enough to be able
to hose off all of the (probably highly redundant) sensors? What if the range to
the PA is over a couple of hundred yards? Assuming you can even hit the target,
you'll need more powerful weapons than current assault rifles to have any
effect that far out, ie the 12 soldiers you speak of will have to carry
M60s or something - very tiring.
And its not very good for morale to know that you are facing a superior enemy,
even though there may be less of them.