Electric power flight!

 Still early days?

There are many designs and concepts out there and the few that are operating are still classed as very unstable and dangerous, but as time moves on better engines will be developed and some aircraft will make it to the civil market on the air taxi scale two-four passengers?

Embraer is leading the way with the possibility of commercial aircraft within the next ten years, while several others are moving into combination powered aircraft, just like hybrid automobiles, but the development of new lighter carbon materials is opening the door for some serious models to come to the fore?

Meanwhile the drone is now at its current height of being militeriesed, as seen in the Ukraine on both sides, but they have limited range still and one is only seeing old NATO models being used on the battlefield, rather than anything that is really new.

The future may see drones being used as AI driverless cars in the future and that will be something of a change?

Demise of the MBT?

 A New Kind of Warfare!

The battlefield is a developing place in tactics and technology, ever since Cain killed his brother Able out of jealousy and ever since then most wars stem from bitterness and hatred of each other and at the cost of human life soldiers and civilians?

Enemies come and go, so do causes, but also criminal cartels, dictatorships and maniacs wanting to rule the world. The origins of the Main battle tank stem from World War I (1914-18) and was invented by the British with everyone following to this present day, but not all nations use this type of vehicle opting more for the personnel carrier or armored recon vehicles.

These first tanks were clumsy, but one has to start somewhere and by World War-11 very little had changed, since it was believed that the last war would be the one to end all? The Soviet Union developed a light machine known as the T-34 to outrun the Nazi-German heavy tanks, which were better in pack operations but not isolated in the open steppe!

It was after 1945 that what we understand in shape and design of these vehicles came to the fore, the U.S. Sherman and successive designs up to the present Abrahams, Israel Merkava, Russian t-90 and their electronic countermeasures or deflection equipment. 

But the last few wars in Iraq proved that the days of this type of armor were really coming to and end, missile guided and drones can be very effective now in most weather conditions and the role of helicopters and lighter vehicles equally.

M113, MOWAG and BTR-60/70 Logistics.

Every army needs support!

Recovery, ambulances, engineering, bridge layers, ammunition supply, communications, and missile systems support radars.

Trucks are fine on roads of nearly all types because of four, six, and eight drive chassis, but when we come to mud and wet ground things change a bit?

The U.S. and its allies used the common components of the tracked M113 in all guises and this was the same for both Soviet/Russia with the mass build of the BTR-60/70 and a host of conversion variants. 

Being amphibious was a great breakthtough for the military cutting out the need for bridges and this has proved sufficient for some situations and not all, that is why armies have engineering corps?

But in recent years the MOWAG has become the new vehicle on the block and is now used by a whole host of nations perhaps more so than Russia and America put together?

Day of the Drones. Part-One.

Cheaper and safer?

In the long run lives will be saved in the armed forces by the introduction of battle field drones, air and sea, space and underwater!

Many people are worried and concerned about the introduction of self-thinking robotics, but we have had them in service since the 1960's and at the end of the day, they are only machines?

The British Police were seeing using a drone recently in a Midlands incident, and one believes this was to great effect to end that siege? What is to come will be of great advantage and many military aircraft programmes will be replaced by drone aircraft?

We are someway off still in relation to the drones of science-fiction, but robots are being introduced in Japan to hotels, hospitals and schools!

Rockets. Part-Two.

From the ancient Chinese to Halloween.

Fire works were developed by the Chinese initially for the pleasure, very much as they are used today to mark a celebration or event globally. 

But for a time the humble firework became a weapon from ancient China-Mongolia to the 17th Century French. The British Royal navy, and the U.S developed it as a distress flare.

The rocket came to its fore as a serious artillery piece during World-War-II (1939-45) where all allied and Axis sides had their own versions. Soviet Russia really when for the rocket from its Katyshka platforms to the BM-21 which remains in service across the world.

The humble firework today still finds other uses such as in demonstrations with the police and in pipe-bombs by most terrorists and other criminal groupings.

Invisible Bombers. Part-Two.

Unseen flying Technologies.

With the advent now of micro computers and new material developed in the vacum of space these combined have lead to the design and development of invisible objects to be deployed on the modern battlefield.

Co-alition forces are now employed in fighting the first mass mobile army in modern history, they may have 14th Century beliefs but they certainly know how to use 21st Century technology.

Many new types of drones and UAV, UCAV are being deployed and the air war at one level will be a success, but alas America has had to return to boots on the ground. Perhaps this is the death knell of the Democrats politically in the United States.