nero1234

Like you say, guess we have to wait and see what comes out of all this, huh?

Good comments, but I know of at least two other forms of propellant yet to be used in either gun or missile rounds and both hold considerable potential. As to rail guns, who knows if we'll ever see these operable and deployable in mobile assets in our lifetimes.

Ultimately, the MBT will most likely take the form of a semi autonomous advanced combat robotic. It could be done even now and the returns from the commercial applications of the component systems and their core technologies would vastly exceed the cost of production of a few thousand advanced MBTs of this type. Likewise the elimination of the human component in a MBT considerably reduces it's complexity and thus its cost. Tankers would still get to drive and shoot 'em but you could just as easily do it from home base. In the case of American forces, the operators could be sitting back home at their base of origin, whilst the tanks and their maintenance and logistics crews were deployed overseas. Vastly improves combat crew survivability don't you think?

Its not a joke, the technology concept paths for both a discreet communications system and high speed/capacity data processing systems has been thought out decades ago and was lightly touched on with both MCTL and DARPA years ago.

There is little in science fiction that cannot be made into science fact.

Regards to all,
nero1234