Military Mashup Machine: Difference between revisions

Enter the [[Military Mashup Machine]]. In reality, some of these would be [[Awesome but Impractical|far more expensive than practical]], with other existing military technologies being much easier to get the same results from, but [[Rule of Cool|if it looks cool]], why not present it as worthwhile?

 

 

{{examples}}

*** Big, but not exactly a land battleship.

** The Soviet [http://www.chamtec.com/t35gal.htm T-35] probably qualifies - a veritable Games Workshop Tank with five turrets, but about as much use as you might expect. This one got into series, though soon canceled as obsolete.

 

== [[Tabletop Games]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* The Nazi wheel tank from the ''[[Justice League (Animation)|Justice League]]'' episode "The Savage Time". These were taken from the old ''[[Blackhawk]]'' comics during that time.

* [[Losing Your Head|Skullus]], one of the [[Evil Sorcerer|Evil Sorcerers]] from ''[[Thundarr the Barbarian (Animation)|Thundarr the Barbarian]]'', possesses [http://images.wikia.com/thundarr/images/b/bb/Skulluslandmachine.png a huge war machine] which runs the gamut from land battleship to [[Base On Wheels]]...er, treads.

 

== [[Truth in Television]] ==

 

== Amphibious Tanks ==

 

== [[Truth in Television]] ==

*** More extreme still was the gargantuan proposal ''Midgardsschlange'' for a 60,000 ton armoured, articulated ''train'' that could run on land, the bottom of the sea or even drill underground. It was designed by Nazi Germany in the 1930s and got to the vital asking for funding stage before the engineers involved were forced to go work on something sensible.

*** Arguably, its biggest success is in being cheap, lightweight, and armored enough to serve as an universal chassis for the whole lot of other Soviet vehicles, from self-propelled artillery to SAM launchers, adding more to its [[Military Mashup Machine]] status.

*** so, what you're saying is that In Soviet Russia, water full of Tank?

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* [[Edgar Rice Burroughs]]' ''Beyond Thirty'' (alternate title ''The Lost Continent''): the protagonist is the captain of a Pan-American Navy "aero-sub" -- a submarine capable of [[Anti Gravity]] flight. Sadly, he doesn't have his vessel throughout most of the story, having been thrown overboard by a mutineer in the first chapter.

 

* Dr. Claw's [[Cool Car]] in ''[[Inspector Gadget]]'' can turn into a jet or a submarine.

== [[Real Life]] ==

* The USA had [http://davidszondy.com/future/Flight/flying_sub.htm a similar idea].

 

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

** More ''Galactica:'' Tyrol actually had his crew build a whole Viper out of spare parts onboard the ''Galactica,'' and a damn good one at that. In fact, due to the availability of pretty much any material ''but'' metal, it was also their only stealth ship.

** The civilian ships also had sewage treatment ships and mining ships.

** These were mostly built because the Soviet Union couldn't afford to field full-fledged aircraft carrier battlegroups required to match the American ones. The missile cruisers were designed to approximate the versatility of an entire battlegroup.

** Also, if it is an aircraft carrier, it is denied passage through the Dardanelles by international treaty. If it is a cruiser that ''just happens'' to carry aircraft, it can pass.

* A number of American aircraft carriers in [[World War II]] had batteries of 8 inch guns to defend themselves from enemy warships. They were removed after it became apparent that enemy ships just weren't going to get close enough often enough for it to matter. Ironically, the ended up putting somewhat smaller 5 inch gun batteries on the carriers later to be used as anti-aircraft batteries.

* Indeed, many of the earliest aircraft carriers were less dedicated carriers and more conventional warships with flight decks put on them to see if they could get some effective use out of these newfangled flying contraptions. Several years of development of the idea ensued before they began to resemble the flat-topped ships we are familiar with today.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

* Navy pinnaces in the ''[[Honor Harrington (Literature)|Honor Harrington]]'' series are the bastard children of the space shuttle and the B-1R mentioned above, scaled up to the size of a 747. They are interplanetary space craft, [[Space Marine]] assault ships and fighter-bombers rolled into one.

* From the [[EE Doc Smith]] [[Space Opera]] ''[[Lensman|First Lensman]]'':

*** Many battleships were built before radar was around, so the seaplanes served the scouting function. Now that we have radar, the seaplanes have been replaced by helicopters to serve in the ASW role.

*** And then there [http://www.damninteresting.com/submersible-aircraft-carriers were] [http://www.regulus-missile.com/SubmarineWings.htm many] [http://www.navalofficer.com.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=288:carriersub&catid=44:submarines1&Itemid=80 attempts] to carry planes on a submarine, including Japanese "Sen Toku" with 3 torpedo-bombers.

* The Israeli [[Tank Goodness|Merkava]] is arguably a mild example, armed as well as any other main battle tank in the field AND capable of doubling as an APC. Some are even equipped as [[Deadly Doctor|ambulances]]. In practice, though, the Merkava's rear compartment is normally used to carry extra ammo for the main gun. On the other hand, it made adapting the Merkava chassis into a pure APC (something that would be virtually impossible with most modern main battle tanks) not only plausible but easy, resulting in the Namer (contraction of "Nagmash" (Hebrew for APC) and "Merkava"), the most heavily armored APC in current use.

* Successful real life example with the Russian MI-24 Hind helicopter, which was designed to combine the roles of a transport and attack helicopter. However, serving as a transport made it bigger and less maneuverable than a pure attack helicopter. Though in terms of pure straight-line speed it's still the fastest attack helicopter to ever go beyond the prototype stage.

* [http://www.diseno-art.com/encyclopedia/strange_vehicles/x-wing.html RSRA X-Wing]. (No, not [[Star Wars|that X-Wing]].) It's a plane! It's a helicopter! It's a plane ''and'' a helicopter!

* See [http://www.amazon.com/My-Tank-Fight-Zack-Parsons/dp/0806527587/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1205083504&sr=8-1 My Tank is Fight!] for a look at flying tank ideas, among other [[Military Mashup Machine]] concepts from [[Real Life]].

** If any practical real-world aircraft could get away with calling itself a flying tank, the [[Real Life/Cool Plane|A-10]] is it. Also, one even successfully shot down an Iraqi fighter with its [[Gatling Good|Avenger rotary cannon]] during the [[Gulf War]], even though not designed for air-to-air combat.

* The AC-130 is cool, but similar attempt was done on at least two [http://www.stormbirds.net/variants262a1aU4.htm ME262], the Me262 A-1a/U4 variant, with 50mm Anti-tank cannon fitted on its nose. Consider WWII have light tanks with smaller cannons.

* The Boulton Paul Defiant: a WWII RAF fighter/interceptor with a machine gun turret behind the cockpit and no forward armament<ref> the turret guns ''could'' be triggered by the pilot, with the intention of allowing forward fire as in a standard fighter, but the cockpit was in the way, which forced the guns to elevate by 19 degrees when pointed forward. It would have been difficult to design a gunsight that would handle this, so the pilot ended up without one</ref>. The weight of the turret and gunner seriously impacted on the aircraft’s performance compared to other fighters, and it was still vulnerable to attack from beneath or dead ahead. Initially, the Defiant brought down quite a few rather surprised Luftwaffe pilots, <ref>many of whom confused it with the similarly-shaped Hawker Hurricane</ref> but once they knew what they were dealing with, they made mincemeat of it. <ref> The turret fighter concept had worked rather well back in the WWI era, with a number of successful models, particularly the RAF’s Bristol F.2 Fighter, which the Defiant was intended to emulate. However, that was the era of biplanes, open cockpits, top speeds a quarter of those in the WWII era, and rather more forgiving aerodynamics. Which, for instance, allowed the Bristol F.2 to be equipped with both a turret ''and'' a forward machine gun. By the time the practical limitations of the turret fighter in the WWII closed-cockpit arena had become apparent, a number of turreted versions of successful fighters (such as the Mosquito) were in the process of being designed or commissioned. None made it into service.</ref>

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Military Mashup Machine]]