Are you sure those shells are unguided? I remember plans from years back in the UK to put solid state phased array radars on morter bombs, and then using something like magnetorestrictive elements to wiggle the shell a bit and produce guidability. Even if there isn't guiding, something might be done for damage assessment or improved targetting if you can tell where the shell's gone. And if there's a camera, think of the press photos. Remember, the US sells wars the way hollywood does action movies. The visuals are all important.
As to remote controlled tanks, this is entirely in tune with the 'no-US-casualties' policy that's existed since Vietnam. There are also plans for robot infantry that were covered recently. Of course the corollory to a 'no-US-casualties' policy is that there is little concern about allied casualties, and less about enemy civilians. I can quite easily see the 'teletrooper' attrocities in some of Ken MacLeod's fiction coming along real soon now.
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Date: 2003-02-19 03:06 am (UTC)As to remote controlled tanks, this is entirely in tune with the 'no-US-casualties' policy that's existed since Vietnam. There are also plans for robot infantry that were covered recently. Of course the corollory to a 'no-US-casualties' policy is that there is little concern about allied casualties, and less about enemy civilians. I can quite easily see the 'teletrooper' attrocities in some of Ken MacLeod's fiction coming along real soon now.