"Marine Personnel Carrier HAVOC to Begin Tests" Topic

Lockheed Martin has won a USMC contract funding the evaluation of the Patria AMV 8×8 vehicle, as part of the marine Corps Marine Personal Carrier (MPC) program. The $3.5 USD million contract funds the test and evaluation of the vehicle, dubbed ‘Havoc'.

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Some day, someone has got to name a vehicle "Hiss" or something – I can't imagine anyone not wanting to yell "COOOOOBRAAA" just for the heck of it.

That's almost as good as the British MOD naming their new spy satellite "Skynet".

I must say, I prefer the Antenociti 8x8 myself, but not sure it is amphibious.

Seems to me a fleet of those single-man, flying dustbin vehicles from the 1960's would be faster, and more practical, for beach assaults. Give them semi-autonomous, GPS coordinate waypoint following/flying capabilities, and a decent crash-avoidance system, and they're good to go, freeing the passenger to fire his on-board MG at any targets of opportunity.

Sure, they're loud, but perhaps that works in their favor. Add some of the Stuka-like sirens to up the ante, and really freak out their opponents.

That's almost as good as the British MOD naming their new spy satellite "Skynet".

As a former Officer Commanding the Royal Navy's communications school I can speak to this with confidence.

The SKYNET 5 series of satellites are Communications satellites in high altitude, geosyncronous orbit, they are not, and cannot, be used for intel purposes. Indeed part of their funding package stipulates that they provided bandwidth for commercial use. It is entirely possible that some of the users of this blog are recieving some of their data packets over the Atlantic one….

And the name Skynet is not new, the previous SKYNET 4 series were finally decommissioned and moved to their graveyard orbit about 5 years ago, after well over a decade of sterling service.

But…'SKYNET'…really, haven't the people thinking up those names ever come out of the bunker & engaged with popular culture? I would have hoped that they would have at least one room of geeks checking code names and acronyms against popular culture meems.

uhmm What Sparker is telling you is that the communications satellites predates the movie by fifteen years. No bunkers to come out of. Very likely the movie borrowed the term from an existing system. No need to check, aND PERHAPS THEY DID.

Owen

It's a conspiracy, by making us think it's a play on titles, the defence establishments around the world are trying to make us believe this is a "friendly SKYNET".

It always starts this way, first the robots, then the zombie attacks followed by depraved road gangs….

I will be saying "I told you so" before you know it!

Doc
(hides in his well stocked bunker)

Nice vehicle. How long until someone makes one in 1/285?

Mmmmmmmm. Got any 3 view drawings KB?

It's a conspiracy, by making us think it's a play on titles, the defence establishments around the world are trying to make us believe this is a "friendly SKYNET".

No conspiracy. And actually you have now made me rethink any credenence I have ever given to conspiracy threories ever – trust me, it was hard enough to simply secure the funding, get the bloody things designed, negotiate the whole 'how much fuel do we have to set aside under international law' to get them to their graveyard' and thousands of other details, not least of which the public-private funding…..

In short, its a miracle the simple, straightforward project got of the ground, let alone any grand deceptions…

And it wasn't even rocket science!

Oh! No! Wait! It was….

(But just in case, if anyone out there has an idea as to how you can turn a stationary high altitude satellite into a roaming low altitude satellite so it can do intel, surveillance, recce and targetting, then PM and we'll form a consortium – I know some people who would be very, very interested!….)

I thought the USMC were getting the EFV?
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If it was dependent on aesthetics the EFV looks hell-a-cooler.

EFV got canceled, sadly.

Someone failed to tell the politicians that you just flat cannot make something with the armor protection of an Abrams float.

Marine Personal Carrier (MPC)

Why does it look like a big, boxy target?

Needs to be able to float with the same armor protection as an up-armored Stryker. Means it has to be bigger than a Stryker.

Reminds me of an M113 with wheels …

Man, it reminds me of the Sandcrawler out of SW, but with wheels.

Lion in the Stars, I got to reading about the cancellation of the EFV, and it seems more that the politicians/annalists
think they don't need a heavy armed and armored landing vehicles, because ship based missiles/weapons are so advanced as to negate the purpose of such a vehicle.
If interested here are some of the articles that eventually led to the cancellation of the EFV.

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Boxes work great for having the most useable space inside. Throw some Active defense systems on top to handle missiles and kinetic rounds and make sure the armor will handle up to 30mm rounds and you are good.

still think it's UGLY!

Pretty has yet to win a single firefight.

I don't know, the M-1 or the AAV are "pretty" and they've won a few.