Future "use" of 'Kuratas' Mech. (Potential use for war)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iZ0WuNvHr8&feature=player_embedded

I know i'm gonna sound like some sort of paranoid conspiracy nut,

mostly because I am for right now. (Hey at least I'm honest.)

So it's best to take it only as such; just some guy's ramblings and hunches.

In case you didn't know; The "Kuratas" bipedal Mech was unveiled at WonFes this year, courtesy of Suidobashi Heavy Ind. (the same guys that made that Life-Size Gundam Replica.)

Now admittedly being an fan of mechs myself, I can say that this is actually cool, the fact that these mechs show potential and are now just that closer to creating true mechs is indeed interesting.
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This is where my reasons for putting this in the Serious Discussion in the first place. As interesting mechs are; Gundam Mobile Suits, IFOs, LFOs, Knightmare Frames, and Armored Cores; What is it that they all have in common?

To kill.

I understand these newly Kuratas are ultimately used for just fun and recreational purposes, I.e The Launchers are propelled by water and the Dual Gatlings fire only BB's. But my worries lie in what will happen when these become fully militarized for combat use, This doesn't just scream Metal Gear; it almost re-enacts it.

My other worry is HOW the weapon system is used currently; The whole "Smile-Activated" gimmick, It just unsettles me is all. I was expecting it to just be a practical application; triggers or something.

Could you imagine seeing some kid in the cockpit, smiling while harassing others with these sorts of weapons?

And now my final concern; What use these will have in the later years/decades to come, If we consider Hideo Kojima's concepts, That could mean that these will have a place in war-zones and battlefields. Which in turn could kill innocents, those who don't wish or have the abilities to fight.

Look I know at the end of it all, I'm just ranting and assuming, But i'm also assuming the worst. Maybe the Japan Gov. will have the sense to try and keep it as some sort of $1.4 million toy, But for how long exactly? Until when will these have start shooting bullets and actual RPG rounds?

Again, it's always cool on paper and even cooler when realized, don't get me wrong, but it's when people start using it for the wrong reasons.

Reminds me a lot of the Atlas from Mass Effect 3.



How is this different from any other weapon?

Like I said, I was just rambling like a nut.

If you ever saw the P.O.D.S. they have in some of the arcades in Japan then this really isn't that shocking of a step.

Well, soon the next couple of wars we'll be fighting with stick and stones, so don't worry about that.
And I found this mecha cool, I want one.

A tool for one person is a weapon for another.

Almost every invention or new creation has a double side to it, depending on how the person who created it wants it to be.

So you can also think of war machines in reverse, just not quite easily.

But for machines such as this, mechs, they can be decommissioned and turned for construction labor, as just one example of civilian use.

Also, you have to look at the downside of the mech department.

1 mech vs a platoon including mechanized units and air support which could probably hold the same weapons platform as the mech itself.

It will be a long time before a mech is introduced as militarized unit for practical combat, considering that the mechs in production are as slow and fragile as fuck.

It will become a tool of war, don't you doubt that.

Of course it will become a tool of war. Man has always transformed the rough majority of his dicoveries into weapons and has applied most of his knowledge to warfare, and that since the dawn of times.

Look at most of the mathematicians today. They only seek the truth of mathematics, disproving and finding new theorems, challenging axioms, etc. But all their work, or most of it, is reused in computers, for cryptography, for performance, for bio-engineering, for neurological research, for energy research. And all of these can and are being used by the military, so that they can have an advantage on the "other side".

We already use mechas. They're called tanks and drones.

Ah, a Sane poster at last.
But humongous mecha as a weapon platform? ROLF.
Tanks have a lower profile, sloped armor, bigger area to distribute their weight and lot less unarmored joints & axles to get shot to bits (...or spend days, maintaining). Tanks are already maintenance hogs, mecha would be all the more worse.

Einstein's famous quote :
" I don't know what weapons they will fight in the third world war, but I can assure you the fourth will be fought with sticks and stones."

Also, the military already have technological capabilities of creating robots for wars, Tanks and Drones are a first, but they will soon ( in the next decade ) create a much better upgraded version of it.

Let's say tanks that has arms and a built in camera to remove large obstacles out of their way and drones with legs to start walking like a person but take flight fast to avoid ground enemies.

All this is in our range of making it happen.


This isn't a fantasy, shit just got real.

I wouldn't be that paranoid of mechs and drones controlled by humans. I'm paranoid of drones or robots that are set to kill on sight without direct guidance, atleast some humans have morality.

They are experimenting with 4 legs though. Check out Metal Gear Bigdog:


I don't see a use for it to use legs over wheels though. It could make a nice decoy to confuse enemies if it is disguised as an animal however.

I said they're inviable as *weapons* platforms.

As utility tools/vehicles? That could actually work. The Bigdog's job is to help soldiers carry shit over terrain where wheels can't go, so the developers have a solid, well defined goal in mind instead the animu shit most people associate with walkers of any sort. While Raytheon is busy playing up the "Iron Man" angle tp thump up funding & interest in the project (since just like the public, the political establishment is full ignorance concerning all things military), to the actual armed forces, they're pitching the SARCOS & Big Arm exoskeletons as logistical tools to make loading of heavy equipment & ordnance easier.

Eventually this could encompass things like towing artillery / missile / AA batteries/radars, as those things are *already* expensive, vulnerable pieces of hardware where the ability to move them across difficult terrain could justify the greater price-tag in terms of the flexibility to the force owning a couple of these things.

(Probably only a handful, as air-power has largely replaced classical artillery, while missile launchers have ranges that make "having to move them into hills" pointless most of the time.

Maybe in the crazy world where laser AA is actually effective... then both the artillery piece and the (laser?) AA piece itself would be worthwhile investments).

we have enough weapons to destroy the earth more than a hundred time
so what we do about about it ??
we produce weapons that can destroy the earth more than a billion time

I don't see the point of producing more weapons , it seems to me as a way to consume more of the earth precious resources

.....................................

is it me
or this weapon (if it was developed ) will be easier to blow than a tank ??

At its current state of devellopment, yes, because of its articulations being quite vulnerable. But count on the military to get this piece of crap fitted with, oh, I don't know, a force field emitter, with a small nuclear reactor inside to fuel it?

Its just a matter of time, there are many advantages to the mecha that interest the military, including it being all terrain and possibly amphibian.

Force fields? Nuclear reactor cores in tanks? You need to come back to the real world son.

Also, the Kurata really has no advantages over a tank. All terrain? No more so than a tank, it still has wheels. Possibly amphibian? We've had amphibious tanks since before the WWII.

The only advantage I can see for something like this would possibly be movability within urban areas.

Actually, my assumption was based on two things: this and that.
So this is the real world I'm talking about. Not that I expect these to be operational in less than five years, but they will be soon enough.

But its true that tanks have been amphibious since WWII and that they are virtually all terrain.

That reactor is already almost 3 meters tall and 2 meters wide, and it would have to be fitted with enough armored plating to withstand a lot of force if it is to be used in combat. There's a reason we haven't fitted our tanks with nuclear cores already - they're to dangerous and take up too much space, it works on a submarine, but not on a (relatively) small tank. One of these mechs fitted with a nuclear core would suddenly weigh twice of what it already does. It's not a realistic idea.

"Force fields" in the regard of what they're talking about in that article is a long way from what I'd call a "field". A burst of electromagnetic energy that last for less than a second is not what I'd quite call "safe defence", it could never be used practically in combat.

Five years? No way, 50 years for this to leave the experimental labs, with luck. EDIT: - Alright, that might be an overstatement, but yeah, a few decades at the very least.