Poll of the Day > Aside from just being cool; when would a walking tank ever be useful?

(+) Yeah! (+)

A main design of a tank is its low surface pressure / ground weight ratio... or whatever the technical term is. All its mass is rather evenly distributed so that it doesn't sink into mud or shatter bridges and such.

Secondly, if operating on a very strong surface like hardened concrete/cement or space-age metal roads, tanks have a lot of horse-power so they can get to some pretty high speeds... 30~45 KPH in WW2 with newer ones being able to do up to 60 on even ground (the Leclerc can get up to 80). While I'd imagine a walking tank would also have heelies (like in Front Mission) for roads, I can't imagine one actually sprinting very fast.

A possible advantage is high lateral movement - but typically the role of a tank is to, y'know, NOT do that - but that doens't mean a walking tank has to BE a tank, there are other types of Armoured Fighting Vehicles.

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possible usage? Well, they might be valuable on the Moon or low gravity planets where their shitty weight disribution means they can intentionally dig into the ground for stability - kinda like tent pegs.

other possibility, the legs are merely a secondary feature for scaling nearly impossible terrain that are only deployed to scale the cliff/ridge and then are folded up again (Front Mission also does this)

idk

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yes, everyone knows the stupid walking tanks in star wars are useless for absolutely everything

but they're neat looking so everyone likes them

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When taking Hoth

enhanced movement.

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Add a jetpack then you have a gundam

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The only plausible reason I can come up with would be some sort of thought piloted mecha where having a humanoid shape would allow a person to much more easily control it. For everything else though, it's generally better to be flat, or spiderlike than humanoid.

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Very large stairs

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Difficult terrain, generally. Treads aren't good for climbing rocks or flexible maneuvers.
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Ewoks

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It puts the weapons systems higher off the ground, allowing them greater range and a better field of fire, at the expense of being a better target. Of course, with enough armor and/or shielding, that becomes moot (AT-ATs on Hoth, for instance)

Probably even more important is the effect to enemy morale. You'll hear an AT-AT coming before you can see it, and you'll see it much further than you could a ground tank. And such a large, imposing vehicle plodding unstoppably towards you would be enough to scare the crap out of many soldiers, especially if it's heavily armored and your weapons are having no effect.

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Reaching the jar of peanut butter in the top floor all the way in the back.

Yeah but by having them be bipedal that forces them to be less armored. The poor weight distribution on two thin legs is just very inefficient for armor. Even if the thing wasn't crushed under it's own weight, you'd sink into most ground and be unable to actually walk in a lot of terrain. You'd be much better off just making an armored gunship if you want a high vantage point for a weapon system.

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YoukaiSlayer posted...

You'd be much better off just making an armored gunship if you want a high vantage point for a weapon system.

For that matter, just use arc-fire artillery with a $10 camera drone for spotting. All the armour, all the firepower, none of the hassle of trying to lift it.

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To step over dog poo

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Basically just to help navigate certain terrain. For real-world application, until forcefields/shields become a thing, tanks in general are going to be largely outmoded by aircraft. Tanks were a big deal back when ground forces won wars. However, the deciding factor in modern warfare is aerial superiority.

You ask about walking tanks being useful, but even normal tanks don't have the same value they once did.


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Zeus posted...

Basically just to help navigate certain terrain. For real-world application, until forcefields/shields become a thing, tanks in general are going to be largely outmoded by aircraft. Tanks were a big deal back when ground forces won wars. However, the deciding factor in modern warfare is aerial superiority.

You ask about walking tanks being useful, but even normal tanks don't have the same value they once did.

That's another very good point. What was once done by Tanks can now be done with just armoured cars since you just want protection from small arms and IEDs... such areas it would be ridiculous to send a $150 million fire mission to send in a bomber or gunship to destroy an adobe hut so a command tank can pull up for support for a helicopter... a much more sensible option.

But war is pragmatism in action; the only way I can see walking tanks come about is if there were already industrial walkers and they had to be retrofit in a hurry...... kinda the same way pre-WW2 Germany was allowed to order "Tractors" which were basically tanks with a different name.

The only place I can possibly see such an industrial walker is perhaps as an armoured forklift, perhaps for loading cargo on/off ships.... like if there were entrenched terrorists on a large island/peninsula nation and they would often raid ships when they are loading

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Mead posted...

Very large stairs

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