The next-generation tank will have stronger preemptive strike capabilities using an artificial intelligence-based fire control system
Well that’s disturbing. I wonder what level of buzz word AI this is? Safe to assume computer vision is involved, target/threat identification… Does “preemptive strike” imply the fire control system is firing by itself? I know it’s not the case but it’s hilarious to imagine it’s ChatGPT doing it.
My heart smiles at the thought of the first crew to actually command this thing in a war zone pulling security on some unknown pile of rubble and being awoken at 0347 by their tank unexpectedly dumping its entire payload on an “enemy” that it hallucinated.
Granted, dumb privates do this too, but it’s funnier to think about the tank doing it all by itself.
This could even be exploited by putting decoys in the landscape the AI recognizes as enemies.
powered by hydrogen fuel cells
I don’t think the logistics for hydrogen fuel cells will help in actual combat situations, though it’s expected to enter operation in 2040 anyway.
autonomous driving and slave drones
Hopefully one that actually works. As for the drones, I guess for reconnaissance?
You can load a truck with fuel cells to extend range beyond what the current infrastructure can handle.
It’s more complicated with batteries that need to be charged. Sure, there’s a grid in many places, but if combat capability depends on the grid, it’ll get targetted. And even before that, capacity is a concern and if the grid can handle a tank battalion wanting to plug in every tank so they can be ready for whatever comes next ASAP.
Fuel cells mean they can set up behind the front lines and use power more predictably and refuel tanks quicker than gas.
I never really understood what fuel cells have to do with hydrogen, and why it’s a more appealing form factor than removing a vehicle’s gas tank and instead just putting in a manifold with room for a number of some standard of gas can with valves fitted. It’s not an inherently “hydrogen” thing.
Besides, it’s fully possible to set up a bunch of gas cans from a truck in the same way you could set up a bunch of hydrogen “fuel cells”.
By my understanding fuel cells are less about form factor, and more about directly converting the fuel into electricity across a membrane, like how batteries operate, so like a battery that takes in Hydrogen on one terminal and Oxygen on the other, being more efficient than burning it in an engine and trying to recapture some of that as electricity after thermal and friction losses have eaten into it.
So it is more a replacement for the engine than it is for the fuel tank. Wikipedia
What RTS is this from?
I am waiting for the non-destructible forever Toyota tank. Just make sure insurgents dont get their hands on one.
Hyundai?
Yes, Hyundai.
The big players in military tech aren’t just the likes of Raytheon and such, it’s also companies like Hyundai, Samsung, Texas Instruments (a little obvious for those who know, but many people are surprised about that calculator company being at the heart of so much military technology). Power plants and transmissions for tanks and such are made by General Electric, Allison, Cummings, etc. General Motors has a military division for small tactical vehicles (think Humvee)
Hell, IBM supplied computers to the Nazi regime that were used to tabulate prisoners at the concentration camps and those machines were used to produce the serial numbers tattooed on them. Most semiconductor research breakthroughs came as a result of military funding.
