RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Apparently, the Chinese and Russians (Armata T-14) are in the vanguard of Unmanned Ground vehicles, or UGVs. But this trend has now emerged in scale model Tigers too, it seems. http://hackedgadgets.com/2009/06/01/aut ... -a-webcam/
Mind you, if you strip the technology out of autonomous vacuum cleaners or lawn mowers, and shoehorn it into your prized ABS and alloy beasties, you could have units of panzers patrolling your garden, or tank park, whilst you sip a lazy summer julep as you are ensconced in your deck chair...

Along this line, if you're wanting some quality autonomous tank reading, look for a series of books written by Keith Laumer, called BOLOs. I bet a bunch of folks on here would enjoy them. I've been reading them for years.

Bill

capt midnight wrote:Along this line, if you're wanting some quality autonomous tank reading, look for a series of books written by Keith Laumer, called BOLOs. I bet a bunch of folks on here would enjoy them. I've been reading them for years.

Bill

Thanks for the tip, Captn. My list of writers to explore grows longer by the day! In fact, my coffee table's already labouring under the weight of 'priority' reads.. , and the shelves are sagging with the next lot to catch up on. I see that Laumer died some time ago but writers, especially sci-fi writers, often anticipate technological breakthroughs long before they happen. On the Forum, I expect Painless has probably leafed through a few of his books.
I'd never heard the 'Bolo' term until you mentioned it, but checking in the 'search' box here brings up a few references in archived threads. With drones being to the fore in the modern world of surveillance and warfare, 'Driverless' tanks are an obvious development. Where wars are conducted remotely, pilots and tankers are not actually mashed up by cannon shells, or spalling. What better then for crew life-expectancy, than an Armata T-14 with no actual crew on board, eh? They can be sipping a vodka hundreds of miles from the front line, safe in the knowledge that if the tank is wasted; they won't be. Thus- by extension- WW3 could actually be fought like W.O.T. The combatants go home to their loved ones, and their vehicles to the scrapyard.

Here's a take on BAE's Black Knight autonomous tank. It looks pretty cool. and here's an article on it with more pics:
http://www.army-guide.com/eng/product.php?prodID=5357

43rdRecceReg wrote:

capt midnight wrote:Along this line, if you're wanting some quality autonomous tank reading, look for a series of books written by Keith Laumer, called BOLOs. I bet a bunch of folks on here would enjoy them. I've been reading them for years.

Bill

Thanks for the tip, Captn. My list of writers to explore grows longer by the day! In fact, my coffee table's already labouring under the weight of 'priority' reads.. , and the shelves are sagging with the next lot to catch up on. I see that Laumer died some time ago but writers, especially sci-fi writers, often anticipate technological breakthroughs long before they happen. On the Forum, I expect Painless has probably leafed through a few of his books.
I'd never heard the 'Bolo' term until you mentioned it, but checking in the 'search' box here brings up a few references in archived threads. With drones being to the fore in the modern world of surveillance and warfare, 'Driverless' tanks are an obvious development. Where wars are conducted remotely, pilots and tankers are not actually mashed up by cannon shells, or spalling. What better then for crew life-expectancy, than an Armata T-14 with no actual crew on board, eh? They can be sipping a vodka hundreds of miles from the front line, safe in the knowledge that if the tank is wasted; they won't be. Thus- by extension- WW3 could actually be fought like W.O.T. The combatants go home to their loved ones, and their vehicles to the scrapyard.

There has been a series of books with short stories based on his ideas. Most are really good and capture the "feel" of his books.

One of the best books is titled "Road to Damascus" by John Ringo and Linda Evans. A really fantastic read. You have to look tank stories that have continental and global siege units!

Bill

I see that Ringo and Evans are keeping Laumer's imagined Bolo world alive. If, when he died, there was still a rich seam of story material to be mined, then it's a valid pursuit for like-minded authors to take up the task where he left off. At nearly 800 pages, though, 'Road to Damascus' would take a fair bit of freetime to absorb, but the reviews look fairly promising. So I'll certainly bear it in mind. As interesting as a fictional assessment of future armour trends can be, (and writers do often accurately anticipate future worlds), I'd be interested in looking at account of state-of-the art tech, and where it's expected to go in the next few years. Drone tanks look as viable as drone planes.
Kalashnikov is building a robotank. The Company already have the seven ton MG wielding 'Soratnik', but a 20-ton beast is planned. Kalashnikov has yet to share details about its 20-ton robotic tank, but then it is said to be about three times the weight of Soratnik or on par with a U.S. Army M1126 Stryker ICV.

43rdRecceReg wrote:Apparently, the Chinese and Russians (Armata T-14) are in the vanguard of Unmanned Ground vehicles, or UGVs. But this trend has now emerged in scale model Tigers too, it seems.

Autonomous Tiger Tank.jpg

http://hackedgadgets.com/2009/06/01/aut ... -a-webcam/
Mind you, if you strip the technology out of autonomous vacuum cleaners or lawn mowers, and shoehorn it into your prized ABS and alloy beasties, you could have units of panzers patrolling your garden, or tank park, whilst you sip a lazy summer julep as you are ensconced in your deck chair...

Is it fun though ?

• phpBB [video]

Surely this is the overlap in the Venn diagram between UGVs and our hobby.

A .50 BMG round scales well to a 3" projectile at 1:6, just saying.

Raminator wrote:

• phpBB [video]

Surely this is the overlap in the Venn diagram between UGVs and our hobby.

A .50 BMG round scales well to a 3" projectile at 1:6, just saying.

Yep, I'd concur with the overlap.
You have to be impressed with the mars Rover-like quality of the suspension system though. I'd really ike a model tank with similar handling characteristics.
However, I'd be more than uneasy in my deckchair, on the beach, if one of those showed up . With that weapon waving around like some inebriated Conductor's baton, it could easily make for a brown swimming trunks experience.
You never know if the guy in the operating bunker has just flipped his lid, or just received a 'Dear John letter'. Or maybe he thought he'd let his stoner girlfriend have a go with his new RC toy