Future Fighters

Waaay back when, Keith Laumer wrote a story called The Hounds of Hell (I hope I remembered the title correctly, no longer have the book) wherin he described PAPA - Power Assisted Personal Armor - exactly as described in this. Well, his had other features, such as a light-bending technique that made it effectively invisible... Great read.

Personally, I think making our troops safer today outweighs making them safer tomorrow, but progress will follow it's own course. That course will be determined by people, and those people will have conflicting agendas, so it'll be a long and winding road. Glad I had my military service committment fulfilled years ago, the dangers actually seem greater these days, from discussions I've had with current soldiers and recent veterans.

I shall now log off and go google Mr. Laumer. If there's any justice in this world, I'll find that tale online and read it again.

yes, lots of powered suits on science fiction. I supposed the step from space suit to space armor to servo amplified space armor to space ships like that are all natural progessions. Time lag in space prevents remote control, so the meat must be in the saddle.

I suspect that the dangers during service operations are indeed greater. Much of it due to the increase in technology. Cell phones being used to set off roadside bombs, etc. It is scary to realize that the technologies we develop for good can so easily be channeled to evil.

To All: very similar to armored suits called Elementals in the Battlemech designs.

Dragon

There was a book called Armor that was dealing with powered armor that was really good. John Steakley was the author. I do not know how armor could ever be powered up like the games/movies/books show, so it would probably be best not to put the men and women in harms way until then, no? I saw some stuff on the Military channel and the Discovery channel that was showing how more and more remote controlled aircraft were being used nowadays.

Dear Ferris, The book was about a man that had been bred as a "Genetic General". The problem was that he thought too much about why he was fighting. He had seen his entire company wiped out by insectoid opponents that humans named "Ants". And that coupled with his internal conflict, caused what is known as a "fugue" state. In other words, he lost him self.

However, the Battlemechs I speak of could be built today, except for the fusion powerplants, and I am working on an alternative.

Dragon

Hmmmm, ok. I thought he was supposed to be some sort of royalty in the book and that he was trying to get away from his world "Golden" because he felt that he wouldn't be allowed to love the woman tht he was in love with (she was a commoner and he was royalty). He joined the navy or something like that, was trained to use the armor (even though it was as a scout, not a warrior) and then sent into battle. that is the only training that I knew that he had received. He became the "engine" in order to survive. His inner self did not want to die/be killed by the "ants" while the miserable "concious" self was longing for it because of the loss of the woman that he loved (at the hands presumably of the people that didn't want him with a commoner - read assasination). At least that is how I remember the book. But if you are talking about some sort of mechanized thing like a walker or something from mech assault that would be cool.

Cheers

Dear Ferris, My congratulations and my apologies. The former for your memory and the latter for my lapse in memory. I went back and read the book last night. You are correct.

Dragon

Thank you oh wise one. No apologies needed because no offense was taken.

You are both correct, to a degree, the book was awesome.

If you look up Steakly you will find that "supposedly" he is in the process of writing a second novel. The person that wrote the page, or essay, seems to be enthralled by the novelist though. Still, it would be really cool to know what happened to good ol' Felix. Dragon, what do you think? Huh?