AtDDtA(16): "Now, Set the Special Desert Detail"

[Ya Sam]

A subterranean vehicle could engage these types of targets in an effective 
manner, avoiding both collateral damage and unnecessary risks to our troops. 
It could be deployed a safe distance from the target and autonomously 
navigate itself to the target while detecting, identifying, and then 
avoiding buried obstacles such as pipes, wires, boulders and even other 
buildings. This vehicle would be able to penetrate the surface either 
through deployable techniques or on its own.

...


General Dynamics, for one, already has a digger, derived from nature: the 
Worm, a 30-inch long, two-and-a-half-inch-wide "combination of hydraulic 
packers and cylinders" designed to inch its way through soil. It's made to 
wiggle through 500 feet on earth in about 20 hours.

The Air Force thinks "a system of vehicles" could prove to be a better 
solution, however, with "each [machine] performing a different task."

Phase I of the "Subterranean Warfare" effort "should establish the ability 
to penetrate the surface and continue to navigate at least one meter below 
the surface." After that, it's time to "develop, test and demonstrate an 
operable prototype."

UPDATE 10:38 AM: Now, of course, conspiracy theorists and comic book fans 
will tell you that such diggers are almost laughably redundant. To fight 
underground, all you have to do is find one of the secret passageways to the 
Hollow Earth, they'll say. And bring enough troops to deal with the Mole 
Men, naturally.

UPDATE 2:54 PM: Some of those kooky types might believe in Hollow Earth 
theories, David Hambling sniffs. But as any real, serious Mulder-in- 
training will tell you, the Air Force "already operates its own fleet of 
underground tunnelling machines, digging out all those secret bases to store 
all the UFOs and stuff." Why, just look at the evidence, to the left. I 
mean, there's no chance it could have anything to do with item #4 on this 
list.

http://www.noahshachtman.com/archives/002958.html

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