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Military technology
An interesting article on the technology that sent Zarqawi to the hereafter.
I recall reading an article by a former Soviet general a few months ago, in which he said that the revolution in information affects war-waging more than entry into the nuclear age. Company-level officers now act on more information than brigade commanders formerly had, and it goes directly to them in realtime, when in past you had to fly a photo recon mission, develop the film, analyse it, report on that, etc. As this article points out, it affects air-ground war, too. Instead of missions being planned days in advance, fighters can be kept aloft and sent to strike, or recon, whatever pops up. Essentially, a war in 2006 is in many ways enormously different from one fought in 1990 or so.
Col. North remarked to me that it affects even supply matters. If you need a part, you punch it into a laptop. A database tells you the nearest location stocking that part. It's then delivered the next day, usually by FedEx (hey, the civilian sector built up the best and fastest delivery mechanism). I assume they don't do tank turbines, but then they might just.
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Your link to the "interesting article" appears to be bad.
Worked for me.
http://www.defensetech.org/archives/002485.html
I couldn't read the comments to "Byron" without laughing out loud!
It is better than that. Numerically controlled machines at repair depots make parts on demand.
All you keep in stock is raw materials, NC machine tools. NC codes.
Thats a link to your inbox I think. The article is nowhere to be found.