17 September 2011

How the US Army designs things

From the Soldier side: This last week I was in a class to train cops to train cops.  During the class, a nice person who had never been in the military asked me how the US Army came up with ideas to make new equipment. 
Well, if you look back throughout the history of the US Army, the ideas usually came from Generals.  Generals are the old guys who have lots of experience on how to fight past wars, but often have no idea what will be needed next week. 

Instead of me trying to explain, look at this video:   Hey, I got an idea!


7 comments:

Unknown said...

Well, THAT was depressing....

SAM said...

So, this is how the M2 Bradley Infantry Combat Vehicle is designed. From their A Class Uniform, it looks like they are from the 60's - 90's they still have their service cap. After that period, all the cap is replaced by shitty black beret.

CI-Roller Dude said...

Suz, sometimes the truth in painful...I'll show this the next time I have to sit on a committee

SAM, I'm glad other people notice details...someday I'll write how they came up with the 9MM M9 pistol

el chupacabra said...

Interesting, but flawed premise. The Brad was purpose designed to fight other armored recon vehicles (BMPs etc). The alternative was the M113 (which was literally the battle taxi the movie derided the Brad as).
It is rugged, reliable and versatile.
For every vehicle kill in our recent wars by armored vehicles some guys will tell you for every one by an M1 Abrams, two were made by a Brad.
It's cheaper to make and operate than an Abrams and again- much more versatile and reliable.
The Air Force general who was in charge of the program was about half a nut case. Add that to the fact he was in over his head in the armored warfare department and you'll understand why he came to the odd conclusions he did in his book which was the basis for the movie.
If they were/are soooo bad why aren't we hearing about their flaws on the battlefield? Why didn't we hear about it when they were fairly new in the Gulf War?
It' because they're one of the best fighting vehicles in the world and one of our better equipment investments.
But, yeah- the movie is cute.

CI-Roller Dude said...

E.C, Yep it really is a good "fighting vehicle". But I think that many times when committees are made up to do something, they often have people who have no idea what is really needed....or they have some other agenda.
The real crimes are when military officers worked with a contractor who got the job, then when that officer retired, he'd get hired by the same contractor.
At some point when designing a vehicle, it's good to have a mechanic invovled, when designing a gun, have a gun smith involved etc... and they can ask: "How are going to fix this shit when the Joe breaks it?"

Coffeypot said...

What about the A/C and the toilets? No iPod connections? Back to the drawing board...

CI-Roller Dude said...

A/C? good idea, toilets- Gatorade bottles. They didn't have Ipods and such when they dreamed this up....but we did find ways to jerry rig music into our vehicles in Iraq.