Quote:
Originally posted by Hubris Boy
But the operational idea for this thing was originally developed to help stop Warsaw Pact tanks from pouring through the Fulda Gap.
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Of course, the operational idea behind the B-52 was kinda far afield from how it was ever actually used, too. Useful, nonetheless.
The world changes so fast these days that it's difficult to imagine weapons systems that are developed with an accurate picture of the circumstances under which they'll ultimately be used. Even the latest touches on "bunker buster" ordinance used in Afghanistan were actually developed for Desert Storm, but hadn't been deployed...they just weren't ready in time. (And some of them were refinements of ideas originally deployed in Vietnam.)
If you wait to start designing and building stuff until you know where the battle's going to be fought and against whom, you'll never have anything ready in time. You look for holes in the force structure and fill them as best you can as existing systems obsolete out. Then when the real battle shpes up, you improvise from what you have, and hope you've got a wide enough array of resources available to put together something effective.
05-03-2002, 11:36 PM
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