Mechs/Mecha often get labeled as impractical, and they kind of are considering the limitations of our current tech and how the wars of the future are being fought. But that doesn’t mean mechs aren’t useful.
Think of a human, we are the most advanced animal we know of. Why? Intelligence, bipedalism, and oppsable thumbs. I’m gonna focus on the last two. Because humans are bipedal (walk on two legs) this frees up our arms to do stuff. Like picking thing up, using tools, hitting things, smashing things, and so much more. Also, we have opposable thumbs that allow us to pick things up with great dextarity (I wish we had two thumbs for each hand). This allows for great versatility.
Now, think of a mech, the arms and hands could be used to pick things up, hold different types of weapons. As opposed to having to have specialized vehicles for each role you could have a combat machine capable of performing many different roles. Mechs aren’t just limited to direct combat though. The same mech could be used as an engineering vehicle to dig trenches and build fortifications. Also, the hands allow for unusual objects to be picked up and set down very quickly. For example, a mech could pick up a couple cars and set them down to provide a place for infantry to take cover, or block enemy troops, this is something that even an engineering vehicle can’t do very wel. Or even build bases!
Now, this doesn’t mean mechs are the way to go. Mechs suffer from many problems, in order for a mech to be able to fill most of the roles I listed, it would have to be about 12 to 20ft tall, this makes them extremely hard to conceal behind cover. Also, how would they be controlled, in order to be able to move around effectively it would have to have independent control for each limb, as well as control for all the subsystems need for it to operate. How would that all work? You would probably need two pilots (one for limb control and one for subsystems.
I will probably expand on this later
You don't really need two pilots. Use pedals to walk, stop and motion sensors or gloves to control the hands. A similar mech has been made 3 years ago but it had a sky high cost even militaries were interested in it. It was unbelievable to watch the pilot move the hands and the fingers pretty easily. The arms were agile and powerful and it was very stable but slow moving. Maybe one day something better will be created.
Not just air power , mobile and versatile infantry are also crucial @ainanen
Air power would naturally be the single most important military facet in modern total war, but invasion cannot work without some measure of infantry and armor.
Also note that your comment was pretty much completely unrelated to the main topic :|
@RailfanEthan The next war will not be nuclear because the top nuclear and overall military powers share the global economy and depend on one another for stable internal affairs. Total destruction of another nation will ensure MAD in two ways: the traditional military retaliation way, and also a complete internal capitulation. If, for some reason, the other nation doesn't fire back, your own nation will still be reduced to chaos and your economy will be permanently crippled.
There are, of course, smaller nations that are nuclear powers (see Pakistan and India), but because there are bigger military nations that aren't fond of war, these smaller nations will not resort to nuclear war either. The bigger nations would collectively come down on them to stop them from ruining the global economy and the international production chain.
it's useless because the next war is gonna be nuclear. No more famous generals or incredible strategies. No more capturing towns to advance to the capital. Just bomb and move along.
I covered that in the forum, also, tanks can’t peek out from. Cover like a mech @ThePilotDude
@ainanen also, feet have some use for climbing and melee combat, i think that legs with wheels on the bottom would be best for urban combat (zipping around and going over rubble(im working on a mech that uses this concept))
@ThePilotDude same problem with tanks
@ainanen i wasnt suggesting that the robot had to be bipedal, i was just referencing evolutions creation of us humans
"Because humans are bipedal (walk on two legs) this frees up our arms to do stuff. Like picking thing up, using tools, hitting things, smashing things, and so much more. Also, we have opposable thumbs that allow us to pick things up with great dextarity (I wish we had two thumbs for each hand). This allows for great versatility."
yea, because evolution. but since mechs are just robots and not humans with a long evolutionary history, having them take on a humanoid shape is rather stupid. its much simpler, cost effective (maintenance) and more efficient overall to just have land drones use tracks for traversing terrain and giving them however many robot arms they might need. bipedalism is a scam and tank tracks on human beings is the next logical evolutionary step lol