With Technology Today Are Battlemechs possiability,

With todays technology can an armored robot called battle mechs be designed and made operative and add a new demention war.
These war machines could be designed to carry anywhere from
20 tons of armor- 100 tons of armes and armor and stand about
18 meters tall. It would be an intresting under taking. Oh well
just a thought.

It sounds like a pretty wild idear
could you imagin what wars would be like with them

scarey thought!!

Impossible. Mechs are too big and too easy to find and destroy. Even with extremely thick armor they are easy targets due to their small manuverability.
They look cool, but suck on a battlefield.

I would like to say yes but I don't think we have LASERS and capability to keep the piece of crap mech balanced while stopping. Possibly a small mech but a large one nah.

hummm i dont know.. i would initially think mechs were a waste of time because of lack of armour for the weight ratio.... a tank would be much better..

but a stealth tech mech with some sort of rail gun.. and plently of anti tank missles, and sam missles could be dangerous...

it would have to be fast and manuverable..

then again small mechs soilder size could be usefull...

allmost impervious to bullet fire...

cool

Is it technically possible? I would think so, at least to get something that can walk.

Would it be practicle? not at all.

I doubt that such a machine could carry any effective amount of armor (keep in mind, MBTs carry well over 140 tons of armor and weapons) and it would likely be impossible for it to carry any serious amount of weapons. The M1 Abrams carries a 120 mm Rhinemetal smoothbore cannon, same as the German Leopard class. It is well proven to take out just about any armor within its combat range. The Russian T-72 uses a 125mm cannon that (at least in the 90s) was reported to have the highest muzzle velocity of any tank gun.

Also, because they walk upright, they would make one hell of a big target. Even the largest modern MBTs are built rather short and squat so that they can hide in various battlefiled conditions. A mech would make such an inviting target to an MBT or other anti-armor weapon system it would be histroy very quickly.

In addition, they would have a very hard time maneuvering in rough terrain (they have to keep balance. Yes they may be able to step over a few obstables, but they would have a very complex stabilization system. A tank requires no such system, and can easily roll right over many impediments)

And then there is the speed issue. I have no clue what the top end speed for such a contraption would be, but I imagine it would top out at less than 20 mph. Even then, it would need a wide open clear path (it would have to carefully pick its way around or over any obstabcle.) The M1 Abrams can easily do 45mph on virtually any terrain, plow right through almost any roadblock you care to put in its way, and the newer German and Russian tanks are even faster.

I dont think we will see walking mechs on the battelfield anytime soon.

It could be like the one in metal gear solid that would be cool.
But small and adgile is better i think thank one big one.

DR,

140 tons?

MBT?

No?

T-55 36t
T-72 42t
M1, Challenger and Leopards.. around 60t

If you rely on machines too much then they will take over.

A race that depends on machines to fight its battles exclusively will go down once the enemy finds out how to kill the controllers in the background.

*15,15*
Aye, techincally possible, yes.
You could build one, but I think that even the Iraqi police force would figure out a way to destroy it.

Fundamentaly practical, no.

As FULCRUM has said, you could knock it down with just about any tank.
I bet the Sherman could take it down.
As dr estimated, 20mph...
This sounds about right. I have friends who can run faster.

I would love to have one just to go all vigilante on the NWO, but it wouldn't be helpful for field armies.
You'd be a whole lot better off buying an SAR 15 if you want a "BIG" gun.
If you really want to invest in something, go buy an Apache helicopter.

Cheers,
- Tass *40*

Originally posted by THENEO
If you rely on machines too much then they will take over.

A race that depends on machines to fight its battles exclusively will go down once the enemy finds out how to kill the controllers in the background.

*15,15*
Too true, too true.
A simple EMP bomb would knock it out.
I've built small scale EMP bombs (50-60 foot radius) which can knock out electricity.
They can be built in twenty minutes if you know what you are doing.
A rocket launcher doesn't require any electricity to work...
Neither do the old school Shermans...

- Tass *40*

What would be wrong with machines taking over why do we deserve to be the dominat species on this planet?????

With current technology the battlemech is already obsolete. Just the shear size of the gyroscope required to keep it upright would be unusable. About the only way for a battlemech to work would be for a breakthrough in armor technology and then require all armies that have tanks to switch over to the BM at the same time. I always thought it would be cool to drive something like that, so I just play Mechwarrior.

Fitz,

good question actually.
but are machines sentient beings?
can a machine become a living creature and replicate itself?

even if it happens and I believe it can, the machine cannot have a soul unless it takes over a body, I think?

Batlle Mech's could work; hell, the blueprints and corresponding detail information makes it very feasible.

The Playstation game Front Mission 3 has a similiar storyline... yet the two do fall short.

In BattleMech, it is cheaper and more cost effective to build an army of tanks and helicopters (I've done this in many gaming sessions). For Front Mission 3, at the earlier levels, the tanks and helicopters are tougher than the wanzers. Unless the Mechs are "upgraded", you'll be at a lose.

I've always been fond of Veritechs... mostly the Destroids; sure, the Destroids are slow, cumbersome, but their wide range of close and long range weaponry would be ideal (then again, with long range nuclear weaponry, I guess those would be a waste of money as well).

Now, as mentioned in an earlier post, how about a Metal Gear Rex? Quick, agile, amphibious, with rail gun and nuclear capability... that'd be great to see, but, once again, it'll never happen.

It's all in a matter of cost effectivness.

It's called a tank,they have been around for awhile,and they have a nice low profile so as not to make themselves a bigger target,and remote controlled combat vehicles are in the developmental stages already.
But what is the point of having a war without any death?,there would really be no reason to fear it then,unless of course you have the masters and rulers wasting the resources provided by the ignorant slaves.
Wow,sounds like a game,gee,it is.

From an engineering standpoint? No, and you wouldn't want to. As DR says, the terrain isn't good and you would have to have some HUGE horking gyros in there to keep it upright. They suck a lot of power, and I'm not sure you could carry a power plant (or fuel one) large enough to supply the power.

I've played around with some robots... Lego-based since I really don't have the machine tools to do anything else (way expensive hobby)

I occasionally attend this users' group:
www.dprg.org...
You can find out more about what they can really do by reading the links here... BTW, they do some battlebots type stuff as well.

Instead of the giant battle mechs, try going a little smaller...

Like EXO-Squad or Armour Core.

Think about it. You're in a trench or stagnat frontline. Tanks are immobilized due to traps or poor oppurtunity. Aircraft are gounded (enemy trrops are too close for effective air to ground assault). It'd be WWI all over again, or Vietnam.

So there you are, squatting against your sandbags, clutching your rifle... dirty, hungry, cold... moral is low. Occasionally you'll hear a shot being fired out of desperation, or the boom of a gernade thrown out of range. And then... you hear it.

*thoom thoom thoom*

You cock your head, shift your helmet... somebody to your right whispers "Get a load of this..." while the guy whose been preaching since leaving boot is busily making the sign of the cross.

*thoom thoom thoom*

Machine guns open fire, people are scrambling to stations long buried by rain and shrapnal.

*thoom thoom THOOM*

You turn your head, peer over the bags, and before you, emerging through the fog and gun smoke, five walking men of iron, arms ablaze from Vulcan gatlin cannons, shoulder launched gernades and flares. The faces of demons and wide fang filled maws painted savagly upon their heads.

*THOOM THOOM THOOM*

--These would be cheaper to build then Mechs. Probably the same price, if not a little cheaper, than tanks.
--Limited combat potential? Yes.
--Cost effective? No more so than another hovercraft.
--Advantages? Just think of the psychological damage alone! Forget Warhammer 40000... this is the here and now. We won't need plasma rifles or monofilament axes... Send a couple SEALs or Spec Ops into a third world, nay, even a drug capital, with exo-armour... the locals will think the End has come!

For some reason, if I were to find myself on a modern battlefied, I would like to be trusting technology that was born somehwere else besides in someones mind while playing video games...

Personally, I'd rather fight with swords and skill... just because a country has the best weapons doesn't mean they're right.

Also, with this new guns in development, they are rely-ing too heavily on technology. Rifles with cameras and computer hook-ups? With most of the soldiers being fresh from high school, would they have the... training (for a lack of a better word), should their equiptment fail?

I've never liked the whole missile concept, either. To me, aiming and pressing buttons via computer is no different than a game; the way the military is going, it seems to me that the book "Ender's Game" might not be that far off.

I like personal honour. I want to know that, in combat (one-on-one or group), there is something to be gained. Sure, keeping a distance and wiping away a platoon or division is more cost effective, safer, "friendlier" to our troops, but yet, surprizingly, the more advanced our weaponry becomes, the higher the "friendly fire" count is.

And war IS a game... children are taught that from the computer to gaming systems, thru boot camp, and into the service. No one expects to die. No one goes in saying "I wanna kill!" They see the games, the movies, and go "cool".

Sure, Mech's are "gamey", but so are computer advanced rifles, when all you do is hold the rifle out from cover, watch the screen, and press the button to fire... seems like Quake. I can't wait for the day when we go to war with that technology, and someone detonates an EMP.