Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: grapeape
They will fight to the death for their weapon systems that are fundamentally unsound.

That's what liberals say about all new military technologies -- "fundamentally unsound". They confuse what is capable in theory with what has been implemented in practice, and never give the engineers the time to work out the problems.

The Osprey design is a very old and very well-known engineering problem that many have failed to solve. In theory, the engineering problem can be solved and doing so would have huge military advantages, and the DoD has the patience and money to see that it actually does get solved. That the Osprey works at all is a testament to the engineers who were able to solve a number of longstanding theoretical problems surrounding those types of designs.

This is no different than ABM systems and hyperkinetic rocket motors. People dismiss them because they are buggy and unreliable for decades, but once the systems finally come together people wonder how our military functioned without them. Difficult engineering rarely works perfectly out of the box, and some problems will never be discovered until put into use, something true of just about everything.

39 posted on 07/19/2006 4:48:31 PM PDT by tortoise
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies ]


To: tortoise; Robe
tortoise said this:

"That's what liberals say about all new military technologies -- "fundamentally unsound". "

Liberals don't say that conservatives do.

In the techno-addicted modern military many have forgotten that these systems have to be shot at and abused. I do not care how neet-o it is and the engineering wows it took to get it in the air. Marines have to fly it into combat. I have not met a single marine that wants to go into hot zone in that thing.

Robe said basically not to cut and run and that deaths are the price of aviation. Well you can do all of the personnel testing and leave the grunts out. You can fly it into the hot zones and tell us how well it works, if you survive. Marine aren't Guinna pigs.
47 posted on 07/19/2006 7:32:29 PM PDT by grapeape (I like to make myslef feal superoir by pointing out peples spelin erer's and thpos)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 39 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson