https://archive.org/details/FutureStrategicIssuesFutureWarfareCirca2025

A lot of our spending is counterproductive. Like Bob says it will all be blown to pieces at the beginning. So we need lots of little pieces or it needs to be able to hide.

Tanks are a waste because they cost too much and handheld weapons can kill them. I think we should build Ronies. Robot ponies. Guys could ride on these. Make them run by a neural net and make them fast. Foot pedals steer it. They should be shaped like a sharp diamond on the bottom to defeat mines. What if you had a thousand Ronies with anti-tank weapons vs 100 tanks? Ponies would win.

We should have a lot of the WWII type Landing craft tank. 80% of the world’s population live within 65 miles of the coast or something like that. We need to disperse. The idiot Rumsfeld did exactly the opposite concentrating our forces in less bases. It could very well be he meant to do so. 9-11 the false flag attack happened under him. If that could happen then maybe he could also want to see us defeated??? I can only go by his actions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landing_craft_tank

They should have ballast water walls (water armour)with virtual hulls. Maybe two sharpie hulls together like a CAT with the landing craft in between

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharpie_(boat)

Virtual hulls is something I invented, I think, I never heard anyone else talk about it. You separate the function of the hull from the ballast. The walls provide a rigid shape for the hull but are not water proof. Inside the hull you rope in floating bladders. A lot of them. That way any shot or hit or a reef will not sink the boat. It also provides a shock absorber system like the Chinese junks had. They had a compartment in the front with a hole in the bottom. When you hit a wave it would fill and keep the front down somewhat when it went over the wave it would slowly drain. Very much like a hydraulic shock over bumps. A virtual hull would not be close to water tight so it would act the same. You save cost by not having to have the hull be some special water proof materiel. It only shapes the hull. Best of all it would be damn hard to sink.

But while war moves from uniformed mass and large scale operations to handfuls of guerrilla-masquerading-as-semi-loyal-citizens (for example, Islamic growth in Europe) the need for human troops in local positions is still there, perhaps more than ever. Boots on ground and reliable rifles, aided by secure supply lines will in the end count for a great deal. Maybe a militia too, intending not to seize foreign objectives but to ensure the local position is held, will matter if war comes to one’s own country.

My view is also that while say an aircraft carrier takes years to build and planes capable of high-altitude engagement sound sexy, most ground troops will need rapidly manufactured basic air attack craft to deal with what is close at hand. The old biplane approach might look ancient but anything that can stay up for hours and deliver observation, fire and tactical control will matter more.

And, why do I think that? Frankly, what it comes down to is uncertainty. Yeah, we’ve got a lot of really dumb politicians and higher-ranked military folk out there, but the ones who would be fighting this next war we’re talking about? The ones with any sense? They’ve got zero certainty about much of anything, and very little confidence.

Putin’s “Little Green Men” got him Georgia and Crimea; they’ve stalled out in the Donbas and Syria. Likewise, the US military is now just a bit more than slightly burned in the hand, and they’re not likely to go sticking their hand into the fire again, without considerable caution and very limited objectives. China? China has never really been much of an overseas adventuring type–I think they’ve looked at the way things are going, and are not at all certain that they’d win without huge costs, and when your entire population is counting on a retirement subsidized by one kid they’ve put all their bets on…? Yeah; don’t go looking for Xi to calculate he can afford to lose even a few thousand “Little Emperors” and still keep his Mandate of Heaven.

The technological sphere is also too damn unpredictable–Have the Chinese got a quantum communicator? Do the Americans have something up their sleeves…? Can they really, really be that stupid, and have left all that unsecured data out there for the taking?

Nobody can be sure of anything, and because of that…? Nobody is going to do more than nibble at the margins: The cost-benefit ratio is too high to gamble over, and the best bet is to stay quiet, and hope the status quo keeps right on quo-ing…

The next big war will rapidly consume everything and everyone, and if the war goes on for a year or more, the militaries will be equipped and operate like WW I or, in some cases, early WW II forces.

And that assumes no one goes nuclear.