Comment Re:Nano-brained designers (Score 1) 653
Didn't everyone learn the lesson? Above the individual level, to be most effective, you aren't going for kills. You are trying to maim as many of the enemy as possible. Military apparatus can get bogged down in attempting to save itself.
If I shoot you dead, you're dead. If shoot you and lodge the bullet in your stomach, you're bleeding and screaming and demoralizing everyone standing around you. I can then try to lodge a bullet in the stomach of the guy trying to drag you away to safety. If you both are still alive after all this, now there's doctors working on you, surgical equipment and resources being used, transportation to get you off the battlefield. If you make it past there, you go home and can't work, can't support your family, and rely on assistance from the government. Do that enough, and you win by default.
Yes, I know the man standing in the thick of things is not thinking this way -- mostly they're thinking about staying alive and doing their job. At the institutional level, where doctrine and procedure is set, this is the thinking behind much of the decisions. This is why armed forces commanders go gooey for remote pilots, battle armor, and everything else, while cutting down the typical bullet caliber. Turns out, smaller rounds used properly will render you non-combative and make you bleed out just as good as large caliber.
This is also why I think only as the absolute last option should troops be deployed. Too many of my friends in the military have more to offer than maimed limbs and broken lives in the name of political machinations.
If I shoot you dead, you're dead. If shoot you and lodge the bullet in your stomach, you're bleeding and screaming and demoralizing everyone standing around you. I can then try to lodge a bullet in the stomach of the guy trying to drag you away to safety. If you both are still alive after all this, now there's doctors working on you, surgical equipment and resources being used, transportation to get you off the battlefield. If you make it past there, you go home and can't work, can't support your family, and rely on assistance from the government. Do that enough, and you win by default.
Yes, I know the man standing in the thick of things is not thinking this way -- mostly they're thinking about staying alive and doing their job. At the institutional level, where doctrine and procedure is set, this is the thinking behind much of the decisions. This is why armed forces commanders go gooey for remote pilots, battle armor, and everything else, while cutting down the typical bullet caliber. Turns out, smaller rounds used properly will render you non-combative and make you bleed out just as good as large caliber.
This is also why I think only as the absolute last option should troops be deployed. Too many of my friends in the military have more to offer than maimed limbs and broken lives in the name of political machinations.
