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Article 6886 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: olson@dstl86.gsfc.nasa.gov (Paul Olson)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy,rec.arts.sf.misc,alt.cyberpunk
Subject: Re: 21st Century Soldier
Message-ID: <11SEP199212055913@dstl86.gsfc.nasa.gov>
Date: 11 Sep 92 17:05:00 GMT
References: <ig2FqB2w164w@kryton.UUCP> <185borINNj1l@agate.berkeley.edu> <4SEP199212055495@dstl86.gsfc.nasa.gov> <1992Sep10.172333.4545@oracle.us.oracle.com>
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In article <1992Sep10.172333.4545@oracle.us.oracle.com>, mfriedma@uucp (Michael Friedman) writes...
> 
>Given that very little fighting today is done hand-to-hand why do you
>think this is an important feature?  Today artillery and tanks are two
>of the biggest killers on the battlefield.  The infantry system
>described will let US soldiers fight better especially in certain types of
>terrain, for example places with lots of obstacles like forrests and
>cities, where tanks and artillery are not as useful.
> 

O.K., give the infantry all kinds of high-tech electronic equipment.  Train
them on it.  Make them dependant on it.  Then put them up against a third world
army who is medium or low tech, but has a number of cheap tactical nukes made
from materials supplied by Iran who bought their nuclear capabilities from
China (see the news from this last week).  The high tech soldiers move in, only
to have all of their electronics (visual, audio, communications, cooling vests,
etc.) wiped out by an electromagnetic puslse from a nuke which was detonated
overhead.  It doesn't even need to drop on them.  They are now back to
hand-to-hand combat against a foe who has been trained to fight that way.

Just because it hasn't happened, doesn't mean it can't.

Dr. Forbin


