Are Mecha a feasible alternative to tanks.

I was just thinking the same thing, though another option for mecha along the same lines would be a flight support aircraft similar to the either Gundam DX's G-Falcon or Justice Gundam's Sub-Flight Lifter. That might be an option till they make machs into Veritechs.

Do you really think you can casually make something that will carry that much weight and still be cost efficient? Even ignoring the cost of all of this you can still do the same for a tank.

True, but a tank wouldn't be able to perform well in the air. The main reason I see mechs becoming potentially superior is because they would have a wider range of movement over a tank, provided that the torso can rotate well, along with the arms. A tank does have a 360 degree area, but it lacks vertical range, so it would be difficult to shoot down aerial units. Mechs would have a slightly better chance at downing aerial units.

Then again...there's always the cop-out resolution of combining the two concepts together. After all, Code Geass's Knightmare Frames started out as tanks with ejection cockpits until they evolved to the suitable 4th Generation.

I'd imaging that by the time we develop mecha that are suitable for combat use, that tanks will be able to hit flying targets, a tank crew can already shoot down flyers, but they would have to be packing SAM (Surface to Air Missile) launchers, while the crew is capable of that it still isn't really showing off the tanks combat ability, aside from the fact that it's crew can still fight even while the thing is moving along and shooting other targets. I'm still going to consider that part of the tanks combat ability, since ANY tank crew could be packing a SAM.

The Valkyries would not be limited to just air to air combat, since they would be armed with their machine guns and have the ability to hover. Of course, even that's a bit of a way from where we are now.

If we were to develop mechs like KFs from Code Geass and Valkyries from Macross, it would take a few stages. For tanks, they would need to first have the stage of implementing an ejecting cockpit. Then, they would have to add limbs to said machines to see the practicality of it. Afterwards, they would have to rework the bodies a bit to make it more mech like. Honestly, the 4th Generation KFs and the Valkyries seem quite plausible with modern technology,. though there still needs to be further development.

I'd like to point out that titanium alloy isn't the toughest or the best material to use on planes, carbon fiber is at least 10 times better, since it will never rust, it is tougher, and we can make it in larger amounts than we could any titanium alloy we have.

I am pretty much only concentrating on combat ability and not actually paying attention to cost efficiency all that much for purposes of this post.

The big issue with 4 legged mechs is they have a rough time taking turns (like making a 90 degree turn in confined areas), most bipedal mechs can be knocked down and they can get up on their own, remember those legs are strong enough to make it move at a decent pace, they had better be strong enough to allow it to pick it's happy ass up, while it is harder to knock a quadrupedal mech over, it is a bitch and a half to get it standing back up.

The Macross Valkyries were marvelous machines, their humanoid mode gave them the ability to perform better in close quarters against the Zentradi, as well as the other races the humans in that universe had to beat, mercilessly back to their own planets, because that is how the Macross humans roll. Battloid mode was strictly for fighting in cities and other special occasions, like trying to subdue an angry Zentradi or walking in their ships when you don't know where the hell you were. Battloid mode also was heat efficient, as we all saw Max overheat his VF-1a inside the alien battleship while he was tooling around in there without the coldness of space to make the damned thing cooler all the time.

Im sure someone else posted what Im about to say but:

As kick ass as mechs would be (Veritechs, battlemechs, knightmares, the whole gamut), I envision that we would go to a powersuit. Like, exosuits; elementals from battle tech; or the gear suits(?) from Planetside. If only for the simple fact that they are dirt cheap to manufacture compared to the cost of a bipedal robot in material alone.

I know that games dont emulate or display much of it, but many books with powersuits and mechs in them list mech-jacking the least of a mech's problems. Just imagine if you have 50 little "ants" just tearing the bejesus outta your mech or just picking away at the armor when it was looking somewhere else.

Im a bit of a realist, but that doesnt mean I dont want my own mech...

i think so plus they are way cooler :D

actually, there is one reason why mechs will never exist: cost for their efficiency.

The military won't waste their budget on such a project, when they could use to try and figure out how to make a "clean" nuclear-strength warhead (ya know, so the reason for not using them is eliminated).

Actually, this was brought up in Batman Beyond. The man who became Shriek tried to sell a Sonic Generator weapon to Wayne-Powers for military purposes. Derek Powers's answer: "As impressive as this device of yours is, simple dynamite is much cheaper and just as effective. Cost-wise, it's simply unnecesary."

I was just thinking about how many tons of additional framework and motors as well as wiring a mecha would need to function, when compared to a tanks requirements on such materials, pound for pound a tank is simply a box of armor on treads with another smaller box on top, which has a few guns attached to it, while a giant robot is typically a massive humanoid machine which probably requires armor in awkward locals , such as leg joints.