03-31-2017, 08:54 AM
(03-31-2017, 04:29 AM)Lost Rinoah Wrote:(03-30-2017, 12:47 PM)Tanis Wrote: That is in my opinion, a rather incomplete definition for "Power Armour"; if your sole objective in the design is to enable an infantryman to carry heavy ordinance, all you need for that is a Powered Exoskeleton:
(Since the image doesn't seem to want to show, i'll post a link to it instead) https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/001/471/006/large/sam-kh-1.jpg?1447013005
Now, if you integrate a Powered Exoskeleton with armour, then you have what amounts to a suit of Powered Armour, but the armour portion itself is irrelevant to allowing the soldier to carry heavy weapons.
I do agree with your point about the issues with equipping ALL infantry in an army with Powered Armour, loss of maneuverability aside, it would be atrociously expensive, and would leave the entire army vulnerable to tech disabling weapons like EMP, and HERF; however its not difficult at all to imagine specialist units or even an entire service branch in well funded armies that would specialize in fielding entire power armour squads, or platoons, for example: if they specialize in off-world operations, where the soldier is going to need a bulky environment suit anyways, the army might as well pay the extra cost for life support equipped power armour instead, soldiers are expensive and time consuming to train replacements for, Spec Ops even more so.
Aye. I pointed to one extreme end of the spectrum. You pointed to the other. Maneuverability is considered to be more important than heavier armors. As finding a balance between not getting hit in the first place and being able to survive getting hit are the two primaries of armor. And such a suit(exo/PA), although increasing strength, would have a massive negative effect on dexterity and fine motor control. Even in the smallest configurations. Meaning that they'd require heavy armor otherwise wearing them is a flat out death sentance. And yet keeping the suits in good repair when equipped with armor would be an absolute hell for maintenance crews Likely requiring a ten person team to repair each suit in any efficient manor. This is why they were foregone in real life, not even the cost of the suit itself hindered it as much as the design flaws in them.
You seem to have missed my point, i am well aware of the value of prioritizing maneuverability and not being hit, over the ability to resist damage when hit, and on the modern battlefield with fighting conditions constrained to the surface of Earth, keeping a soldiers load light to not inhibit their mobility is critical in most situations; however in certain situations, such as fighting on other worlds, required survival equipment will encumber soldiers movement no matter how light you manage to make it (barring one or two quantum leaps in Material Science), in those situations an appropriately designed suit of Powered Armour may actually compensate for mobility loss from encumbrance.
Your point about the maintenance issues with Powered Armour perplexes me a little:
Requiring multiple support, logistics, and maintenance personnel for every soldier in the field is nothing new to modern armies; as too how many additional mechanics would be needed for supporting Powered Armour, and how complex the maintenance would be, is largely down to how the armour is designed, and how complex its mechanical systems are; in addition there is good old "economy of scale" to consider, a competent team of mechanics and technicians trained to service Powered Armour could reasonably maintain multiple suits, suits that become too damaged for immediate repair would either be sent to off to a refit shop or retired from service and replaced with a new or refitted suit, having a dedicated repair team for each and every single suit of armour would be both unreasonable and incredibly wasteful.
Finally, i find your closing sentence confusing, your choice of words implies that Powered Armour has already been invented, and passed over by armies in real life; too my knowledge only one real military program pursuing Powered Armour development is underway (by the US naturally), and that program has not yet gone very far beyond conceptual development in over a decade, currently the Pentagon is pursuing Exoskeleton development, for use by Ordinance Technicians, and in other heavy load lifting applications around bases and aircraft carriers where an external power supply is readily available, since currently existing power supplies potent enough to drive an Exoskeleton (let alone a full suit of Powered Armour) are nowhere near compact or light enough to be carried into the field.