US Marines / army announce a new personal urban transport
- Thread starter Mr Evil
- Start date
ok here is the storey for it
""" LCPL Chad Codwell, from Baltimore, Maryland, with Charlie Company 1st Battalion 5th Marines, carries an experimental urban combat skateboard which is being used for maneuvering inside buildings in order to detect tripwires and sniper fire. This mission is in direct support of Urban Warrior '99.
An. Urban. Combat. Skateboard.
Laugh, if you want, but it's the only vehicle from Future Combat Systems to be fielded so far.
I also see it was "experimental". This must have been in Darpa's lean years. Was this was before the military starting buying commercial parts? Back when the Pentagon shopped at rummage sales?
And I'm fuzzy on this whole "detecting trip wires and snipers" tactic, here. I mean, you'd detect them, all right. I'm no military strategist, but you don't need a skateboard to set off booby-traps and get shot at.
I can see it now: "Lance Corporal, go see if that hallway is rigged to blow. Yeah. Just roll down it. Fast. Ever see 'Behind Enemy Lines'? Outrun the explosions like Owen Wilson did in the movie. And draw any sniper fire, while you're at it..."
The skateboard doesn't appear to be armored, though, and I can already hear Rummy going on about how you go to war with the skateboard you have, not the skateboard you want. Which is too bad, because there are some real bitchin' decks out there this year. (The board this Marine has is not one of them.)
Ahem. Seriously now. To be honest, if that photo and caption hadn't come from the DoD I'd think it was a joke. I almost should go check Snopes on this one. Does anyone have any info on the urban combat skateboard? I looked around a bit but got bupkes.
--cross-posted by Murdoc""""""
""" LCPL Chad Codwell, from Baltimore, Maryland, with Charlie Company 1st Battalion 5th Marines, carries an experimental urban combat skateboard which is being used for maneuvering inside buildings in order to detect tripwires and sniper fire. This mission is in direct support of Urban Warrior '99.
An. Urban. Combat. Skateboard.
Laugh, if you want, but it's the only vehicle from Future Combat Systems to be fielded so far.
I also see it was "experimental". This must have been in Darpa's lean years. Was this was before the military starting buying commercial parts? Back when the Pentagon shopped at rummage sales?
And I'm fuzzy on this whole "detecting trip wires and snipers" tactic, here. I mean, you'd detect them, all right. I'm no military strategist, but you don't need a skateboard to set off booby-traps and get shot at.
I can see it now: "Lance Corporal, go see if that hallway is rigged to blow. Yeah. Just roll down it. Fast. Ever see 'Behind Enemy Lines'? Outrun the explosions like Owen Wilson did in the movie. And draw any sniper fire, while you're at it..."
The skateboard doesn't appear to be armored, though, and I can already hear Rummy going on about how you go to war with the skateboard you have, not the skateboard you want. Which is too bad, because there are some real bitchin' decks out there this year. (The board this Marine has is not one of them.)
Ahem. Seriously now. To be honest, if that photo and caption hadn't come from the DoD I'd think it was a joke. I almost should go check Snopes on this one. Does anyone have any info on the urban combat skateboard? I looked around a bit but got bupkes.
--cross-posted by Murdoc""""""
Wouldn't a small dime-store RC car be a better use for that?
I completely fail to see any use for a bog standard skateboard in MOUT warfare. And, knowing the way First World armies purchase "materiel", those boards probably cost $5200 a piece and require six requisition forms to be filled out and submitted to battalion HQ, giving the platoon commander a roughly 50% chance of - eventually - receiving some piece of kit that is within 10 designation numbers of the skateboard (meaning he might just as well get stuck with a milspec ballpoint pen, or a hubcap).
I completely fail to see any use for a bog standard skateboard in MOUT warfare. And, knowing the way First World armies purchase "materiel", those boards probably cost $5200 a piece and require six requisition forms to be filled out and submitted to battalion HQ, giving the platoon commander a roughly 50% chance of - eventually - receiving some piece of kit that is within 10 designation numbers of the skateboard (meaning he might just as well get stuck with a milspec ballpoint pen, or a hubcap).
Helstrom said:
Already being used. . .
