65G and Future Urban Warfare

[LRRPF52]

Not sure why you seem to think that's an issue. As long as births exceed deaths each year, won't the population -- and the number of young people -- continue to increase?

No. The aging population continues to increase because they aren't dying at normal life expectancies, so population growth is driven by this in most of the world and has been since the 1950s, while fertility has declined rapidly. This is what leads to demographic winter, where there aren't enough youth and young adults to support the elderly.

The megacities will be populated by historically older inhabitants than any time in recorded history that I am aware of. This plays a huge factor in any anticipated conflict in a number of ways, and will increase demand for automation even in the developing world.

Why should it? The US has historically shown very little interest in getting involved in Africa.

...to the shores of Tripoli. We've been involved in Africa to some degree dating back centuries, but more so lately. North Africa goes without saying, including the North Africa campaign in WWII, US focus on peace accords between Egypt and Israel, US commitment to the UN Sinai mission, as well as our involvement in Somalia, our hub in Djibouti even before, but especially since 9/11, and the growing threat of terrorist expansion into Africa, compounded with Chinese thirst for resources in the Dark Continent.

Nigeria is a big consideration for us since we import oil from them, and Middle Eastern factions have moved into Nigeria as one of their main strategic targets for conquest. It's the largest population in Africa by a huge margin (7th largest in the world), with Egypt coming in a distant 15th and DR Congo 16th.

True, but the Army Chief of Staff also addressed equipment, which could include small arms:

[COLOR="blue"]"So what this means then -- and I have discussed this with the Army leadership -- we are going to have to ... optimize the Army for urban warfare," he said.

This has implications for equipment, from the "width, size and weight of tanks" to the "rotor-span of helicopters," the general said.[/COLOR]

Why would a "swarm" of drones be needed? Or do you literally mean robotic locusts that eat the enemy alive? :eek:

No need to eat. Just inject them or mark them with a chemical irritant or paralysis compound, maybe both, with microscopic resonant material for all the ISR systems to hone in on.

Then the clean-up crews come in and recover them or the carcass. Offer rewards to the population for turn-in as well.

I'd be more concerned about how we're going to arm the new wave of hover vehicles with ducted fans so they can maneuver in between sky scrapers on their way to and from the slum district for another rat bastard kill/capture run. Brazil is a good model for what I'm talking about, and we already see coordinated efforts with air assets, while cycle cops chase thugs through alleys and streets at high speed and burn them down.

We're looking at more of a global LE mission than a traditional military one, if you read between the lines of their mission profile mindset. It's based on the probable assumption of the US's historical rivals not playing a military role on the world scene anymore, unless it's according to US interests and cooperation.

In other words, they've written off any Fulda Gap scenarios for Europe, since Russia is in decline.