Future warfare

[Sigtrygg]

The aim of this thread is to look ad ground combat as TLs advance from 8 to 15, if you want to know how it works at TL7 watch youtube

I will base this initially on what was presented in CT LBB:4 Mercenary and welcome any one and everyone to update in light of the current Mongoose rules.

I will also be editing the LBB:4 stuff in light or real world developments - we are currently TL10 for tac missile and TL11 for drone technology

Comms and personal electronics are something that is likely to be in advance of what LBB:4 postulated.

 

[Sigtrygg]

So , let's take a look at TL8, with some liberties taken as you will see.

Infantry equipment - The assault rifle remains standard, but is supplemented by the laser carbine. The laser carbine has limited weapons potential, but is used primarily as a target designator and range finder. Ballistic cloth flak jackets are in universal use, with whole body cloth armour equipping front line infantry.
In-helmet communications, light amplification, and passive IR detection equipment are available, although not in universal use. Electronic sights are common on infantry assault rifles.

Infantry support - The RAM grenade replaces the early grenade launcher and most specialized anti-tank grenade launchers. Mortars are now capable of firing cluster bomblet rounds. The tac missile's guidance system now requires that the operator track only the target, not that he guide
the missile. Advanced forms of the tac missile incorporate laser target designation. Tac missiles now range up to 5 kilometers and incorporate follow-up IR sensors to achieve successive hits on composite armor as well as their own teleguidance.
Man-portable air defense missiles now have an effective range of 4 kilometers and a head-on engagement capability. Remotely piloted drones provide sensor capabilities and can be equipped with the equivalent of mortar rounds or RAM grenades.

Artillery - Weapons of 15 cm and larger can now deliver tactical nuclear devices, and guided rounds are available which home on laser painted targets. Towards the end of the period, teleguided munitions are introduced. The first computer fire control system is introduced with remote terminals placed with forward observers to speed response time and flexibility. Air defense artillery now includes man portable air defense missiles, some are heat seekers. Larger air defense missiles are more compact and lethal, and are available for forward area defense on selfpropelled chassis. Rapid fire radar directed auto-cannons provide most point defense.

Vehicles - Both horizontal and vertical stabilization are in use allowing firing of main armament of tanks at speeds up to 40 kph. Top speed for tanks is about 90 kph, with armored cars up to about 120 kph. Tank main armament is in the 10-15 cm range wlth more sophisticated battle computers. Many guns are smooth bores for firing high velocity fin stabilized rounds. Toward the middle of the period the first laser tanks are introduced, mounting a bulky pulse gatling-laser. Ablative anti-laser vehicle armor is available, as are anti-laser aerosols, although the latter are expensive. Most laser tanks mount coaxial auto-cannons to scrub ablative armor off target vehicles, thus limiting the effective range of the laser to that of the auto cannon. Composite armor with a high resistance to penetration is available, although its expense initially limits its use to main battle tanks (MBT).
A special piggy-back HEAP round is capable of achieving multiple hits on the same location, giving a limited composite armor defeating capability, but the primary means of knocking out MBT's becomes direct hits from high caliber HE rounds resulting in crew deaths from concusson.
The air/raft comes into limited military use as a utility transport craft.

So a bit more advanced, with the exception of the air/raft this could be the state of things within a few decades. Drone/robot/AI systems are the main breakthrough Traveller got wrong, and the adoption of individual electronic sights, comms, vision enhancement and AR displays.
There is also the noticeable lack of programable grenade launchers which the Chinese Army already have and the US military are introducing

 

[steelbrok]

IIRC LBB4: Mercenary had a breakdown of equipment by Tech Level with implications for how battles would be fought. Might be a bit dated but a good starting point for this.

 

[Sigtrygg]

That is what I am using, taken directly from the book, thing is some of the tech at TL10 and 11 already exists in real world militaries, so some updates are required, plus Mongoose has changed stuff as well.

 

[MasterGwydion]

I would love to join you all in this convo, but My Traveller Fu is not strong enough. Thank you for this topic though. I am sure I will learn many things that I did not know.

 

[rinku]

Quite dated as it turns out. No one foresaw cheap, portable drones. Some Autonomous vehicles maybe, but not recon using a toy you could pick up at a camera shop and control with your civilian phone.

 

[Condottiere]

To be fair, no one thought we'd be rather more reliant on basic artillery, either.

Or donkeys.

 

[Sigtrygg]

So what changes on the TL8 battlefield from today - drones have better AI, there are more anti drone measures, man portable missiles are a lot more effective, the 25-35mm programmable grenade launcher is included in infantry support weapons.

Artillery relies more on missiles and drones, is shoot and scoot, or even fires on the move.

What else, and what will be the next technology no one thought would have the impact it has (drones).

Will the next generation of chinese robots be battlefield capable?

 

[Condottiere]

James Cameron: Terminator, Aliens, and Avatar.

Terminator - autonomous mobile hunter killer.

Avatar - remote operations, biological.

Aliens - autonomous stationary gun sentry.

 

[MongooseMatt]

I will also be editing the LBB:4 stuff in light or real world developments - we are currently TL10 for tac missile and TL11 for drone technology

And here you bring up something that has been concentrating our minds a fair bit - tech advances in the real world over the past 20-odd years have kind of been kicking the TL progression's rear end. If we were to extrapolate from today's world, you would see a lot more use of drones (perhaps total, with manned systems only appearing in the extreme rear lines) and automated decision-making.

And that is not Traveller as we know it (works for 2300AD though). Traveller has always been, and will always be, about people. Ordinary people. So, bringing real world supposition about the nature of advanced (to us) technology and how that should affect Traveller is something that needs a great deal of careful thought. Reducing the size of computers is one thing. Eliminating people from conflict is a step too far.

There is also a strong argument to completely revise the TL system anyway, as it does have a rapid progression through what we call the 20th Century, and then stretches out many, many years after that. Not saying it needs to be linear, but their is currently a grouping of TLs that on the wider scheme of things may make little sense (it did in the 70s, not so much now).

However, that is a real can of worms that would require it riding on the back of a whole new edition of the game, and we are not even considering that right now, so...

At the current time, with regards to all of this, it is our thinking that we should let Traveller be Traveller. There are sacred cows of the game and setting that should not change, such as the week in jumpspace, slower-than-light comms... and that the focus of the game is very firmly fixed upon people. One path may be more 'realistic', but if it fundamentally changes Traveller, that is a backwards step.

Just some very, very surface thoughts on some very big issues, and we will be keenly watching this discussion to see where it goes!

 

[Condottiere]

Cats, dogs, living together.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Quite dated as it turns out. No one foresaw cheap, portable drones. Some Autonomous vehicles maybe, but not recon using a toy you could pick up at a camera shop and control with your civilian phone.

That was their bad. All of the evidence was there. I flew RC planes in the 1970s and 80s. I even mounted a camera on one and took pictures with it. (I should say picture. I could only make the camera take one picture before I had to manually reset the mechanism.) Granted, it made it hard to fly and I broke a few cameras on landing, but it worked.

 

[Sigtrygg]

Chances are that anti=drone weapons will neuter a lot of what we are seeing in Ukraine, but the lessons learned will inform the next generation of drones.

 

[MasterGwydion]

Chances are that anti=drone weapons will neuter a lot of what we are seeing in Ukraine, but the lessons learned will inform the next generation of drones.

Just remember, an anti-drone weapon is easily anti-airplane or anti-helicopter or anti-grav vehicle too.

 

[Sigtrygg]

And here you bring up something that has been concentrating our minds a fair bit - tech advances in the real world over the past 20-odd years have kind of been kicking the TL progression's rear end. If we were to extrapolate from today's world, you would see a lot more use of drones (perhaps total, with manned systems only appearing in the extreme rear lines) and automated decision-making.

Mongoose has already made massive changes to previous Traveller technologies, tech progression, and the types of equipment available, but is it all suitable for The Third Imperium setting that is now part of all the core rule books?

The CSC is replete with cyborg and biological enhancements, or should there be guidelines in that book for what is not included in The Third Imperium? How about Robots? What should be considered not part of the Third Imperium setting?

As to drones, most professional military analysis I have read considers the mass media version of drone warfare to be massively distorted from the reality now and in the near future.

And that is not Traveller as we know it (works for 2300AD though).

You see Traveller as The Third Imperium only?

Traveller has always been, and will always be, about people. Ordinary people.

Now with cyberware if book covers and NPCs are anything to go by.

So, bringing real world supposition about the nature of advanced (to us) technology and how that should affect Traveller is something that needs a great deal of careful thought. Reducing the size of computers is one thing. Eliminating people from conflict is a step too far.

One of the main issues is computers, both electronics and AI. You changed that easily enough. It could do with a massive revision but you did change it.
The Third Imperium has a restriction based on prejudice against what we call AI, in addition anti-drone/anti-robot weapons - such as the ion guns you more than happily introduced into the setting - are a likely real world solution. The directed energy weapons that are entering service will make short work of the kitbash drones - laser and microwave based.

I don't see people disappearing from the battlefield anytime soon, but:
every fighter will control a wing of AI wingmen
every tank and AFV will control a squadron of AI "wingmen"
infantry squads will have dedicated AI "wingmen"

this is near future.

By TL9 we will have a means that we have not thought of yet to counter the AI wingmen - likely cyberwarfare, electromagnetic pulse or some as yet unknown technology.

There is also a strong argument to completely revise the TL system anyway, as it does have a rapid progression through what we call the 20th Century, and then stretches out many, many years after that. Not saying it needs to be linear, but their is currently a grouping of TLs that on the wider scheme of things may make little sense (it did in the 70s, not so much now).

I would welcome this, a lot could be achieved by concentrating on the key technologies and engineering breakthroughs that cause cultural shifts rather than just a better rifle, a more powerful diesel engine, there have been many people post many variations on how they would fix it...
TL1 stone, leather, wood, fire, glue,
TL2 agriculture and city building - the wheel, metal refining, selective breeding
TL3 ocean travel - ship building, trade routes
TL4 states/countries/empire
TL5 industrial revolution
TL6 compact engines
TL7 now
TL8 near future
TL9 new physics - fusion+, stutterwarp, jump drive, gravitics
TL10+ more advanced new physics

However, that is a real can of worms that would require it riding on the back of a whole new edition of the game, and we are not even considering that right now, so...

I can imagine...

My preferred model has always been core rules books completely divorced from setting and then setting books that outline how to use the core rules and any setting element unique to it.
The current edition of Traveller is really Traveller: The Third Imperium the role playing game, much like MegaTraveller was - and there is the issue of changing Third Imperium setting details with every author. The World Builder's handbook mentions the IISS and the TL table is the Third Imperium tech level table.

At the current time, with regards to all of this, it is our thinking that we should let Traveller be Traveller.

But what do you mean by that statement?
Traveller as a set of rules to create your own settings and adventures or Traveller:The Third Imperim role playing game. I am fully aware the majority of the rpg crowd sees Traveller as the latter. When I provide a link to the free facsimile edition a lot of the comments I receive are where is the Imperium?

There are sacred cows of the game and setting that should not change, such as the week in jumpspace, slower-than-light comms... and that the focus of the game is very firmly fixed upon people.

That is setting specific. Are you saying if I want to use Traveller to run The Culture I should forget it and choose a different game?
Or how about if I want a jump 6 drive to be faster than a jump 1 drive over 1 parsec I should use a different game?
I understand the setting has to have core assumptions, but the rules do not.
The next edition of High Guard could have a section of different maneuver drive technologies, from realistic to stutterwarp and gravitic, there could be an FTL drive section with warp, jump, slipstream, stutterwarp, hypergates all sort of stuff,

For ship building you allocate % for FTL drive and let the setting inform what that produces in the setting, or give the referee the tools to decide for themselves.

100t, FTL2, MD 4, PP20, advanced sensor suite, computer 3, 4 staterooms, 10t cargo, 20t fuel, air/raft, 1 hardpoint

The setting decides what FTL 2, MD 4, PP20 mean for that universe.

(I just made this up but will be starting a new thread about this soon too)

One path may be more 'realistic', but if it fundamentally changes Traveller, that is a backwards step.

You have already fundamentally changed Traveller, compare Mongoose Traveller material with previous versions and the differences are obvious. Traveller has always had a reputation as being a "realistic" game of sorts, you can't keep it realistic by denying current technology. The US is not meant to encounter the Ziru Sirka for another 60 years, TL8 and experimental TL9 jump drive.

Not a lot would change anyway, considering the Imperium is TL15 and PCs have access to equipment right across the TL scale, all that would change is that TL7 worlds can have smart phones and remote controlled drones

Just some very, very surface thoughts on some very big issues, and we will be keenly watching this discussion to see where it goes!

I am hoping people can contribute what the current rules have to add to TL8 and above technology as found in CRB, CSC etc.

 

[MonsterX]

If we want to have a game with biological sophonents in it, we have to assume that AI will not progress very much or very fast in the future. This is unrealistic, but necessary to have a game. In 10 or 20 years, this will all look very silly, but since we will all be uploaded to the collective consciousness by then, I suppose it won't matter.

Drones will obviously be something you can get from TL 7 forward, but so will counter-drone measures. And counter-counter drone measures. And counter-counter-counter drone measures. Where this ends up is anyone's guess, but limiting AI puts a limit on this too. In space, it is since there will be limited autonomy: light-speed lag means we need human fighter pilots still. Jamming and signal interference means there is a reason to go into the fight yourself instead of just flying in a drone.

Cybernetics and bioenhancement can actually help humans compete with robots; this was a justification for using squishy humans in the post-singularity novel Blindsight which I highly recommend. But since a lot of people won't want to have a completely cyberpunk future, maybe best not to go too far down that road.

Grav tech opens possibilities for flying everything, and it is not clear if that would look like improved Harrier Jets, flying tanks & IFVs (the traveller way), drones, or flying super-infantry. Probably it would actually be something we haven't thought of yet.

My vote would be to have it be all four of those things rather than something we haven't thought of yet, although it is not realistic and will probably feel retro in a few years, like swordsmen dueling on flying blimps over the mountains of Barsoom. We just try to make the canon tec work, add on some present day tech where it is actually better than what we are suppose to have thousands of years in the future, assume some modest improvements, and try to figure out how this all should work out in terms of doctrine - this is complex, but mostly just pull it out of our arses and where it gets close to our PCs we add in some realistic seeming details so that their suspension of disbelief is not shattered.

 

[collins355]

To be fair, the drones thing has slowly appeared in canon material as editions moved on beyond Classic Traveller.

Even CT/Striker had armed drones (but you had to reach TL13 to get them!) - see CT/Striker Book 2 pp8-9 and Book 3 p23. If you look at your LBB4: Mercenary you'll see recon drones (but not attack drones) feature on page 42, and you can get them starting at TL9 - so nothing to complain about!

Using DGP's Robots Handbook you could design what we'd call today drones. They were just called robots at that time.

By the time we got to TNE, drones were an integral part of the setting. For example, in Reformation Coalition Equipment Guide there is on page 27 a fully spec'd drone. Although it is listed at TL12, the only TL12 part of it are the batteries. And on p.118 there is a sensor drone used for recon of a planet remotely. In TNE / FF&S is was clearly intended that you could design drones just as easily as manned vehicles, it was just a matter of fitting the right control systems. I've designed numerous grav, ducted fan or propellor drones, armed and unarmed, using FF&S for campaigns over the years. Using Vampire Fleets and FF&S you could design AI-controlled drones - and these were of course a key part of the TNE setting.

In T4 you again had "robots" that an ordinary person today would call drones. T4 / FF&S2 allowed you to design them and remote vehicles of various sizes from very small to large.

 

[swordtart]

Guided missiles are drones and we have had those from the get go in Traveller. In the real world have had remote controlled weapons since WW1 (and possibly some of the innovations of the American Civil War could be classed as that depending on how broad your defintions were).

The recent change is largely doctrinal or ethical rather than technological.

A change of direction has to overcome a great deal of inertia in the military. It will often be adopted by special forces long before the mainstream military adopt it, generally because of the additional training burden. Generally armies are equipped to fight the last major war.

We have weapons in service that most people won't hear about for decades. Many innovations only come to light once records are declassified. Once you know what the enemies weapon is you can start to develop countermeasures and that process is often quicker than the process to develop the weapons. It is often far easier for a large group to point out the flaws in a system than for a small group to design them out in advance - Am I right Mongoose

I have real issues with the TL6-8 band as the differentiation seems somewhat arbitrary. The breechloading metallic cartridge, self-propelled vehicles, chemical warfare etc. significantly changed warfare. I don't see WW1-Modern war being qualitatively different. Things got better and faster but it was really incremental improvement. TL 9 plus is fine because it hasn't happened yet so who knows.

We are still using WW1 technology in modern warfare. The rifle that equipped troops before that conflict was a long range weapon, it got shorter after WW1 because we will "all be fighting in trenches" encumbered by our anti-gas gear. We got the first tanks which would "end the war" and be infantry-proof. We had aircraft dropping bombs and the interwar years were dominated by the bomber threat as no-one was safe - the expectation was that Britain would suffer 100,000s of casualties in the first weeks of WW2.

During the cold war we thought that the Russians would barrel through the Fulda Gap with an unstoppable wave of tanks and we would be forced to use Nukes to stop them. For generations western thinking was paralysed by those vast armoured divisions we saw on the May day parades and our ability to even operate effectively after a few weeks would be nil as we wouldn't have enough stockpiles to last in a target rich environment. No individual country could withstand the wave. During the Gulf War batteries of Patriot missile would stop a single missile from hitting Israel from Iraq. Iraq thought their dug in tanks would repel the inevitable amphibious assault or at least result in significant casualties for the assaulters.

And yet after every major conflict military planners were found to be wrong, because the opposition military planners wouldn't do the thing we had banked on them doing, or we had overestimated the impact of a "new way of fighting". The surprise introduction of new technology by an adversary will be disruptive to conservative military thinking, but often a counter measure is identified in a surprisingly short time and often there simply isn't the industrial capacity to keep the war machine fed with innovative technology for extended periods. By the time the technology is sustainable a countermeasure has been developed.

So trench warfare was a thing in WW1 and hasn't really been seen since. Tanks quickly got outclassed by man portable anti-tank weapons and it has been a race ever since. The "Bomber will always get through" philosophy was a greater threat than the bomber itself. Missiles hit Israel. The inevitable amphibious assault was ...evitable, it ended up as a feint allowing the real assault to be by land forces in the flank and rear. The massed tanks of Russia... well we all now know that the problem with thousands of tanks is that you need to update and maintain thousands of tanks and have thousands of trained crews, if you let that slip them your "zerg rush" can be defeated by a non-superpower that is sufficiently determined.

I was at a conference long before the invasion of Ukraine and the pervading atmosphere was that "the answer was drones, now what is the question". Certainly drones require a rethinking, but the main reason they are so effective in the Ukraine is poor training of the Russian crews. Tanks were always anticipated to have a low life expectancy on a modern battlefield. Legacy tanks are particularly vulnerable, but no tank is going to survive an HE round dropped into an open hatch. We didn't think that the Russians would be so ill-trained so we didn't explore that counter-measure (or just discounted it as a threat vector that could be exploited by the traditional hand delivered grenade). It didn't massively change the technology it just changed how we were using existing technology.

The major advantage of drones in on the surveillance side. We have had similar capability since balloons were used during the American Civil War for aerial observation, but drones have made it more flexible (as they can get into tighter spaces and are harder to hit with conventional kinetic weaponry) and being unmanned offer added expendability. Conventional armies didn't use cheap camera drones from Amazon because once you get into military procurement we tend to overcomplicate and our industry partners upsell the equipment so the cost is tens or hundreds of times more than the off-the-shelf version. Your mobile phone has significantly more capability than most personal portable military comms gear, but the military one will be more secure and soldier-proof. This is one of the issues in Ukraine as soldiers are using their mobiles instead of the clunky (and soldier proof) military systems they have been supplied and are leaving their geo-location on. Decent Op-Sec could prevent this, it is not a technology issue.

 

[Condottiere]

Still comes down to demographics, money, and industrial base.

 

[Sigtrygg]

I'm sticking this here to make it easier for me to find it

This is a taste of what I think is missing:

Tech Level	Infantry equipment	Infantry support	Artillery	Vehicles
8	The assault rifle remains standard, but is supplemented by the laser carbine. The laser carbine has limited weapons potential, but is used primarily as a target designator and range finder. Ballistic cloth flak jackets are in universal use.	The RAM grenade replaces the early grenade launcher and most specialized anti-tank grenade launchers. Mortars are now capable of firing cluster bomblet rounds. The tac missile's guidance system now requires that the operator track only the target, not that he guide the missile. Advanced forms of the tac missile incorporate laser target designation.	Weapons of 15 cm and larger can now deliver tactical nuclear devices, and guided rounds are available which home on laser painted targets. Towards the end of the period, teleguided munitions are introduced. The first computer fire control system is introduced with remote terminals placed with forward observers to speed response time and flexibility. Air defense artillery now includes man portable air defense missiles, all heat seekers. Larger air defense missiles are more compact and lethal, and are available for forward area defense on selfpropelled chassis. Rapid fire radar directed auto-cannons provide most point defense.	Both horizontal and vertical stabilization are in use allowing firing of main armament of tanks at speeds up to 40 kph. Top speed for tanks is about 90 kph, with armored cars up to about 120 kph. Tank main armament is in the 10-15 cm range wlth more sophisticated battle computers. Many guns are smooth bores for firing high velocity fin stabilized rounds. Toward the middle of the period the first laser tanks are introduced, mounting a bulky cryogenically cooled pulse gatling-laser in a non-rotating mount. Ablative anti-laser vehicle armor is available, as are anti-laser aerosols, although the latter are expensive. Most laser tanks mount coaxial auto-cannons to scrub ablative armor off target vehicles, thus limiting the effective range of the laser to that of the auto cannon. Composite armor with a high resistance to penetration is available, although its expense initially limits its use to main battle tanks (MBT). A special piggy-back HEAP round is capable of achieving multiple hits on the same location, giving a limited composite armor defeating capability, but the primary means of knocking out MBT's becomes dlrect hits from high caliber HE rounds resulting in crew deaths from concusson. The air/raft comes into limited military use as a utility transport craft.
9	The more powerful and robust laser rifle replaces the laser carbine and has a much greater lethality. Most lasers are multi-color to defeat smoke and aerosol obscuration. Laser ablative clothing is available for infantry, although expense precludes universal use. Inhelmet communications, light amplification, and passive IR detection equipment are available, although again not universally in use.	Tac missiles now range up to 4 kilometers and incorporate follow-up IR sensors to achieve successive hits on composite armor. RAM grenades are also equipped with follow-up sensors. Mortars incorporate early ballistic adjustment to confuse counter-battery radar equipment.	Heavy conventional artillery is gradually replaced by mass driver (MD) guns, large magnetic linear accelerators which, although requiring large amounts of power, are capable of long range, high muzzle velocities, and rapid rates of fire. All artillery munitions are capable of preprogrammed deviations in ballistic paths to confuse counter-battery radar. Course deviation programs are provided by more sophisticated computer fire control systems. Counter-battery radar itself is upgraded to allow multiple simultaneous tracks and graceful loadshedding capabilities, making it virtually impossible to overload by massed fires. Improved sound and flash ranging arrays are available, and are supplemented by satellite surveillance, all integrated by the fire control system. Man-portable air defense missiles now have an effective range of 4 kilometers and a head-on engagement capability. Larger missile systems incorporate televisual guidance. Ladar (laser based radar) replaces radar.	The main armament of all MBTs is now stabilized in all planes and incorporates automatic range-target adjustments from the ballistic computer. Main armament remains In the 12-15 cm range, mostly hyper-velocity smooth bores, with the capability of launching small nuclear warheads, although expense, round storage, and doctrine make this a non-standard round. All tanks use auto-loaders on the main armament providing a much higher rate of fire. MBT's generally mount improved cavity-B armor, while many light armored vehicles and armored personnel carriers are partially or wholly encased in cavity-A armor. Gun/launchers can deliver a large variety of rounds, but still cannot deliver hyper-velocity munitions of the giant 12-15 cm guns. Wider use is made of the air/raft, generally armed and armored and referred to in the military configuration as the grav sled. It is still primarily used as an airmobile personnel carrier. All vehicles incorporate ground surveillance radar. An improved laser tank mounts its armament in a fully rotating turret, the armament consisting of either a pulse gatling laser or beam laser, in either case multi-colored, enabling it to defeat most smoke and aerosol obscuration. Toward the end of the period the first grav tanks are introduced.
10	The basic infantry weapon becomes the advanced combat rifle capable of firing a 4 cm RAM grenade. Personal uniform consists of the combat environment suit, and all helmets incorporate radio communication gear and IR/light amplification night vision sensors.	Tac missiles range to 5 kilometers and incorporate teleguidance. Warheads for tac missiles are expanded to include HE, flechette, and chemical capability. Mortars are now capable of delivering small nuclear warheads, but expense, storage, and doctrine make this a nonstandard round.	Field artillery is now entirely MD guns or MRL's, in both cases self-propelled on high speed grav vehicles, and with firing controlled completely by computer fire control systems. In vertical envelopment situations, artillery support is provided exclusively by remote controlled, disposable, static MRL units dropped by air. Man-portable air defense missiles incorporate teleguidance and range to 5 kilometers. In point defense the conventional gun is Partially replaced by the plasma A gun on large grav mounts. While self-propelled, the unit must be landed and deployed for firing due both to the high energy usage and recoil associated with firing. Long range missiles are supplemented by maser units (coherent microwave projectors) designed to cause pilot casualties rather than structural damage. The premier point defense weapon becomes the VRF gauss gun, with much medium range work done by beam and pulse gatling lasers.	Track-laying tanks are now completely supplanted by grav tanks and lighter wheeled armored fighting vehicles. Grav tanks mount gunllauncher systems andlor beam lasers, with some super-heavy varieties mounting the first heavy plasma A guns. Larger grav tanks mount h~ghde nsity armor wi th significantly increased resistance to penetration. Light armored cars mount gunllauncher systems or VRF gauss guns. The grav sled is used very widely in the personnel carrier role, but large numbers of fast wheeled APC's are still used. Most vehicles are equipped with cavity-B armor. All vehicles have an advanced target acquisition and fire control system intqrated with the vehicles ballistic computer which consists of ground surveillance radar and televisual scanning which identifies moving objects, trains the gun, and visually displays the target information for the gunner. The gunner identifies the target as friend or foe. Once identified as friend, the system will ignore the target as long as it remains in range of the system's sensors. If identified as foe, the gunner may fire, or initiate any of a number of tiered priority pass orders (return to target when in range, return after next target engaged, etc.) The system may be keyed to seek targets of specified configurations (such as MBT's, infantry etc.) and may be manually overridden at any time for direct gunner selection. Often the radar and visual sensors are mounted in extensible pods to allow observation and target acquisition from complete vehicle defilade.
11	Combat armor is available which can be pressurized for operation in a vacuum, or hostile environment, but expense precludes general issue.	Tac missile warheads now include small nuclear weapons, range to 6 kilometers and incorporate inertial target memory and homing. LMG's have almost totally disappeared as support weapons. Mortars are almost completely replaced by inexpensive disposable remotely triggered rocket launcher (MRL) units. Representative units are 1 meter square and hold around 100 6 cm rockets. Each launcher can be manually placed or airdropped, and upon activation is brought into register by the battery fire control center. Since the launchers are disposable, no effort is made to confuse counter-battery radar. HE, smoke, cluster bomblets, HEAP, and HEAP follow-up rounds are available.	Field artillery is increasingly supplanted by remotely piloted drone missiles, although conventional MD guns and MRL's are still in wide use. The plasma B gun is now in use in the air defense role, with lighter A gun mounts supplementing the point defense capabilities of VRF gauss gun units. All fire control systems are improved by direct verbal communication by forward observers and fire direction officers with the system. The more mobile A gun is now very often used in a direct support role as 'well as in its previous role of air defense weapon.	All combat vehicles are now grav powered. The grav tank generally utilizes the more compact plasma A gun and/or tac missile racks. Very heavy grav tanks mount the plasma B gun. Light grav sleds are used for scouting, generally mounting tac missiles and autocannons. Close support sleds mount VRF gauss guns and tac missiles. All vehicles have pronounced free-flight capability.
12	The gauss rifle is introduced in limited numbers as a sniper weapon, expense Precluding general issue. The individual grav belt is occasionally used for scouting purposes.	The PGMP-12 is introduced as a high energy squad support weapon, in many units replacing the grenade launcher. Most other support is provided by gunships integrated at the squad and platoon level.	Both the plasma C gun and the heavier fusion X gun are introduced in the air defense and general direct fire role. The now highly mobile A gun completely supplants the VRF gauss gun in the point defense role. Conventional artillery is almost completely supplanted by drone missiles	All vehicles have sufficient free-flight performane that ground combat vehicles effectively no longer exist, having merged with aircraft. The primary weapon of the heavy gunships include plasma B guns, VRF gauss guns, and tac missiles. VRF gauss guns are also widely mounted on personnel carriers, as are plasma A guns.
13	All infantry is generally now in combat armor and equipped with gauss rifles. Battle dress is issued to selected assault troops.	The PGMP-13 is introduced as a support weapon in battle dress equipped units. The throw-away missile is introduced, incorporating televisual guidance and visual as well as inertial target location.	The first damper fields are introduced, enabling limited neutralization of incoming nuclear warheads. The fusion Y gun is introduced in the direct fire role, with the light plasma B gun taking over point defense. Gravitic compensators enable the heaviest fusion guns to fire on the move, and long-range direct fire by fusion guns executing popup maneuvers becomes standard.	The first damper fields allow protracted storage and transportation of elements with short half-lives. The first major use of the damper field militarily is to enable the manufacture, storage, and transportation of 2 cm californium rounds, fired from auto-cannon mounts in remotely piloted drones. Each round is hollow and collapses on impact, the collapsed round having sufficient mass to go critical, thus causing a small nuclear explosion. More conventional gunships mount plasma C guns or fusion X guns along with missiles.
14	A higher proportion of the infantry is equipped with battle dress, and the standard small arm for such troops becomes the PGMP-13.	At the squad level the PGMP-14 replaces the PGMP-12, while battle dress equipped units receive the FGMP-14 in place of the PGMP-13.	Much more sophisticated dampers enable virtually complete protection of operational areas from nuclear warheads. The fusion Z gun is introduced in the direct fire role.	More sophisticated damper fields render the californium drones obsolete. Gunships now carry fusion Y guns or rapid pulse X guns.
15	Most infantry is by now equipped with battle dress and has converted to the FGMP-14. The gauss rifle remains the standard arm of non-powered troops.	The FGMP-15 becomes the standard squad support weapon.	The primary direct fire weapon becomes the battlefield meson accelerator. Although much smaller than meson accelerators used in planetary defense, it is still by battlefield standards large, bulky, and extremely lethal. By now, the standard point defense and direct support weapon becomes the fusion Y gun. Drone missiles enjoy an increase in use as the appearance of meson accelerators linked to an increasingly sophisticated computer target acquisition and fire direction system makes the long-range popup increasingly impractical	Gunships mounting rapid pulse X guns and heavier Z guns are virtually indistinguishable from orbital craft. Lower performance personnel carriers mount rapid pulse X and Y guns and missile systems.

edit - now complete for TL 8 to 15, I note that many revisions may be necessary thanks to real world advances at our real world TL of 7.