Technology at forefront during war

WARS and technology are comfortable bedfellows, when urgent necessity is a catalyst driven by an operational need. No peacetime restraints of lengthy materiel cycle procrastination while career technocrats waste valuable time bolstering their comfortable sinecures as generations of uniformed personnel pass by waiting for a much-needed piece of equipment to enter service.

Such delays often mean what is finally produced from a simple concept ends up resembling something even caricaturist William

Heath-robinson could not have imagined in his wildest imaginations.

A couple of Australian combat examples bear mention.

The field expedient periscopes built at Gallipoli allowed Australian snipers not just to observe their Turkish counterparts but engage them from the relatively security of unobserved cover.

The self-firing one-shot time delay rifles left behind during the Anzac withdrawal were a local invention and construction, giving the impression troops were still in place long after they had all withdrawn.

Such devices would never have survived the lengthy scrutiny of Canberra’s modern materiel branch but were remarkable successes satisfying an immediate need.

Every country has its materiel branch equivalent, without even considering Russia’s current technological disasters.

During the US Civil War, the Confederate States were at the forefront of naval technology with an early example of submarine evolution, the CSS Hunley.

Without boring readers with masses of technological detail, because there’s not much anyway, Hunley was a hand-powered submersible with an explosive charge attached to a long pole protruding from its bow.

It was sealed then submerged, requiring the crew to navigate blind to their target which was identified when the pole made contact, exploding the device before pedalling away to rise again from the waters. That was the theory.

Hunley sank twice during sea trials, killing 13 crew, but was refloated and refurbished before finally sinking USS Heusatonicin

Charleston Harbor.

Sadly it was collateral damage to its own “torpedo”, losing another eight crew and remaining undiscovered until 2012.

This early example of green powered weaponry will soon be followed by Australia’s electric Bushmasters which we are told,

“have a reduced range from 1000km diesel-powered to about 200km in battery electric.

“However, a parallel project is under way in Mat Branch’s ‘think tank’ to attach mini-generators outside the vehicle so that it can selfcharge during downtime to match its diesel range”.

This technological rubbish emanates from the same organisation charged with acquiring Australia’s replacement submarines.

Such vision leaves you breathless in anticipation.