[HN Gopher] DARPA Completes Underminer Program: New tactical tun... ___________________________________________________________________ DARPA Completes Underminer Program: New tactical tunneling technologies Author : DocFeind Score : 13 points Date : 2022-04-01 22:27 UTC (32 minutes ago) (HTM) web link (www.darpa.mil) (TXT) w3m dump (www.darpa.mil) | wolverine876 wrote: | Asymmetric combatants, including in Vietnam and Gaza, have long | used tunnels. I think they were popular in medieval siege warfare | (is that right?). | | I wonder why advanced militaries don't appear to use them: They | have access to technology far superior to asymmetric groups and I | would guess that allows much faster tunneling. Maybe it's almost | always better ROI to do the same thing via the air - e.g., | distribute supplies via airdrop. | leereeves wrote: | > I think they were popular in medieval siege warfare (is that | right?). | | Yeah, in fact the term "undermine" comes from their use in | siege warfare. Miners (now called "sappers" in French and | English) would try to dig under enemy walls to collapse the | walls, and the defenders would dig their own tunnels to try to | stop the sappers. | | And sappers still exist in advanced militaries. | | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapper | zkms wrote: | This is really interesting; is there somewhere with more detail | on the work completed under this program? | swader999 wrote: | There's some rabbit holes to go down with this one. | sassy_quat wrote: | First there's AirLand Battle, then there's AirLandSea Battle, | now there is AirLandSeaSpaceUnderground Battle? | | I'm not certain about how military strategy is improving with | technology. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2022-04-01 23:00 UTC)