Tuesday, March 12, 2019

Tuesday Training: Laser rifles?

Not going to make a thing of this enough to get a tag, probably, but I'm looking for a laser training rifle. I've found all manner of bore sights, at least one drop in laser-bolt for AR-15s, and of course the Laserlyte and SIRT pistols. But I haven't found a good, simple blue-gun rifle with the built-in laser, just a Laserlyte rifle. Maybe upgraded to a green laser for the additional range that grants.

Why? I want to practice. I run dot torture drills anywhere from weekly to nightly using my pistol, with both hands, sometimes in armor. Of late, I've been considering getting some nice targets I can hang around the basement with obstructions of some sort, form it into a poor-man's shoothouse. But, I'd like to run it with a rifle as well, and I DON'T want to use it with my real rifle even with a training laserbolt in it. Airsoft would work, but make a mess, same with my AR-15 style paintball gun.

This doesn't seem like it'd be that hard of a concept. A resetting trigger, and a hard plastic shell of the sort that litter the market from airsoft to toys. Like the laserlyte, close enough is close enough, as long as the simple laser mechanism lets you adjust the aim to properly zero it. The SIRT bolt accomplishes this using your existing gun (available in red and green lasers), but as mentioned having a spare fakegun set up to use as a dedicated trainer appeals.

I'm not averse to doing things myself, and could probably even bring it to market, but this seems like something that should already exist which is a far lazier option to acquire.

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Interstellar Warfare Wednesday: Combat Droid Applications

As promised in my latest Sci-Fi Friday, I'm going to touch on the potential applications of combat androids as force multipliers, in local and interstellar conflicts. After all, losing a robot in action is far more palatable to the public than losing a living being, at least until such time as people have casual mind-backups for respawn.

As a preface, in the interests of minimizing human involvement even forces that don't make extensive use are likely to have AI/robotic assistance in vehicular applications, such as loader/gunner aboard tanks, subordinate to the commander and able to let any crewman aboard take direct control over the actual aiming. But that's not what we're talking about. We're interested in robot soldiers.


Let's look at the Atlas. It's more graceful and probably faster than many people these days, and in a few robotic generations will likely be more fluid and capable, perhaps with proper hands instead of grippers and problem-solving abilities. It probably won't be able to compete with a competent human for a while, at least until the line between humans and robots blurs, but even then the processing power to make a sapient is substantially greater in size, weight, and expense; Even once robots are people, we'll still have a lot of nonsapient bots that serve the all important role of a body to fill space, the boots on the ground needed to actually take and hold territory.

But how to use them?

The principle behind it is simple; Robots are minimalist to upkeep. When not needed, you can turn them off, and they take no power. Supertech batteries usually have little to no charge loss when not in use, so unless there's a major increase in technology you can just shelve them until needed. On a ship, they're cargo, with nothing but their own mass, their gear, and maybe some spare parts to worry about. They don't draw a paycheck.

The long and short of it is what level they are integrated into the military command structure, and whether they are integrated with human/sapient troops. The star wars prequels are famous for their Battle Droids, opposing the valiant (if ethically questionable) Clone Troopers. In the prequels, battle droids are frequently deployed anywhere from battalion to brigade, with whole companies seeming to be the smallest units seen. Because why not, droids are cheap, where a platoon of men would suffice you can just throw a whole company.


Possible deployments:

Fireteam Level: Human NCO of (Lance) Corporal rank or equivalent.
Robot troops hold duties equivalent to a Private or Private, First Class. This layout has the greatest integration of humans, with every small combat element having a human at the helm to guide it and make intuitive decisions. In games with a small team, this is the Player Character and their 3ish AI controlled companions. A particularly good example of this is Star Wars: Republic Commando

Squad Level: Human NCO of Sergeant rank or equivalent
Robot troops form fireteams in their entirety, with upgraded capabilities on the leadership bots managing each team. The Sergeant is close enough to handle individual management required to account for the lack of flexibility likely to hamper even the robot Lance Corporals. This layout is typical of real time tactics. The player character is still able and expected to wade into combat themselves and as such receives an avatar of some sort, but has control of 2-3 fireteams they can direct via real-time tactics interface, as well as their own more capable team to assist them. A particularly good example of this is Dawn of War 2

Platoon Level: Human CO (2nd) Lieutenant rank or equivalent
Robot troops fill the space of every level of NCO and the forces below them. Theirs is not to reason why, theirs is but to do or die. Such a force will begin to be heavily inflexible, and/or highly dependent upon the problem solving abilities of the AI's operating the combat robots. You will tend to either see micromanagement by the CO to make up for the lack of capability or simple robot-wave style tactics used like a sledgehammer. This is about the highest level of real time tactics, and the player typically either has no avatar or they are a specialist super-unit too valuable to commit to any but the most pivotal battles as their loss is a game-over. Company of Heroes 2 is a good example, with a number of squads and fireteams at your command, able to manage some level of orders and objectives without major input from the player beyond a goal, although for gameplay purposes micromanagement of the fireteams gives best results.

Company Level: Human CO Captain rank or equivalent
A single human will control several platoons with AI Lieutenants, each controlling several AI sergeants, each controlling AI (lance) corporals in charge of fireteams. Function at this level is highly dependent upon the quality of the command AIs, and the individual robot AIs, requires inflexible and predictable tactics, or requires a significant amount of micromanagement by the human CO to jump between questions and firefights as they arise. This is typical of the RTS genre, which will involve not only managing training of troops, but usually the building and maintenance of bases.

At levels above this, changes are largely academic. Beyond platoon level, it becomes increasingly hopeless for the commanding officer to exert the degree of individualized control often seen in video games to respond to situations beyond the AI's capabilities.

It is of course possible to have mixed commands, with units anywhere from solely human for delicate operations to an entire throwaway battalion of robots to hurl into the caverns of the spacemonsters to try and root them out. A troop transport ship might have a substantial force of humans aboard, with large quantities of robots in waiting, to organically shift the force makeup according to the scale of the conflict required. Another option is to produce additional robotic troops on-site, using renewable bioplastics or materials harvested from asteroids or the combat zone. This requires only a capable robot factory. On vessels of sufficient size for some resource processing and a specialized factory to feed them into, it may be the norm alongside a small compliment of troops; Humans can do vital tasks, but as the scope of force required expands so too do robotic supplements to their numbers.

Odds are good, to avoid highlighting human officers AND keep costs down, such androids will be built to simply wear standard armor and use regular equipment. Spacesuits might be left depressurized, or only pressurized enough to not be plainly obvious, or even fakes to cut down on costs. Any weapons usable in spacesuits should be suitably functional to artificial troopers, even if their hands have less dexterity. If the suits are built-in/on, they'll need to be upgraded/altered any time the human crew suits change, assuming uniform spacesuits in military and paramilitary applications.


In fiction, the purchasable army is always the hallmark of the bad guys, like the Trade Federation. But, as discussed, there's a lot of potential for use bolstering the numbers of small forces or in places where literal force multiplication can make a world of difference due to ability to get that force to where it's needed.

Friday, March 1, 2019

Sci-Fi Friday: Boots on the SpaceGround

War for territory is one of the oldest tropes of the space genre. But getting things through space is a challenge, particularly people; people need not only tonnage and space, but life support. How do you conveniently get a whole army, which needs a lot of mass for equipment and the troops to use it themselves.

Hang on, isn't spacewar supposed to be so advanced, that troops are no longer required? Deathrays from space make invasion unnecessary, point defenses make it impossible, and nobody will even bother with anything but spaceships, right?

Wrong. I mean I can't say with certainty until it happens, but every new weapon and invention is the end of infantry and gunfights and everything else forever, for sure THIS time! Just like every new weapon is so devastating it will end all wars forever, although after two world wars it seems like pundits have learned better than to say that now.

Troops will be necessary, any time goals below "extermination" are desired; a population brought into line, a strategic asset taken, etc.


So that leaves us with a dilemma; Even with reactionless drives and FTL transit to avoid century long trips, shipping enough to fight a war across (inter)stellar distances is a pain. Infantry, whether a Galactic Patrol's marine compliment or a purpose built troop transport, will be needed to get things done.

Option one: Big Ships
You can fit a fair few troops in a ship. The point at which you can wage spacewar, you can manage ships of at least capital sizes, from frigates to cruisers. They probably can't land on the surface themselves, but they'll have landers and lighters and perhaps drop pods. Technology will allow the ship to have vast food stores for the voyage and/or food production aboard, with less crew needed for the ship and a larger troop compliment available.

Option two: Stasis
Hypersleep. Suspended Animation. It goes by many names, but the idea of cramming troops into cold storage for the duration of interstellar voyage is an appealing one. Slow them down or stop them and they need little to no food or water, just power if their storage system requires it to maintain function (which is likely, but some wonder materials allow such shenanigans to be harnessed naturally). If you aren't likely to need everyone in an unplanned-for hurry, you can take a whole army and pack them up, perhaps defrosting them in shifts depending on the nature of storage and its ease of sleep/wakeup such that they don't disconnect from the world for weeks or months at a time, keeping enough awake to manage tasks and hold the fort until the rest can be roused to function.

Option three: Droids
What if you didn't need human troops? This has long been considered the future of warfare, with just as many detractors. A robot army, AI programmed to be as empathetic or unfeeling as desired, with none of those human failings and urges to distract from the mission. When they're broken, you can just repair them, or disassemble them as parts to keep the others fighting, and even produce more as required.


Throughout media, usually one or more of these winds up in play. Droids usually belong to the bad guys, unthinking, unfeeling, and merciless in their enforcement of the cruel edicts of their conquering masters. If droids are in play, the good guys will have good honest armies, awake and plucky. Stasis is usually the realm of one of two major tropes; the sealed badass in a can, or realistic space transit where there's no benefit to having huge masses of troops awake and draining resources, bored in the infinite vastness of space.

I've said all I really have to say on the first two options, but the third... the third bears some elaboration, because it has such potential for how underutilized it is. It was the planned topic of this discussion, until I deemed it worthwhile to provide some lead in and background. Look for that on Interstellar Warfare Wednesday.