Can somebody summarise the Tech of the book Mobile Infantry?

[JJP]

OK, so apart from the shoulder fired Tac-nukes the movie MI were pretty pathetic. However I hear that the book MI were far more impressive. Anybody care to summarise what tech they had for me?

[Pablo Sanchez]

OK, so apart from the shoulder fired Tac-nukes the movie MI were pretty pathetic. However I hear that the book MI were far more impressive. Anybody care to summarise what tech they had for me?

If you're into ground combat, you'll wet yourself.

The main component (besides the trooper) is the suit. It looks like a 2 meter tall gorilla with a huge head sprouting antennae, but it's really some badass power armor.

Mobility: IIRC 40 mph over most terrain, plus jump-jets that allow them to get at least a hundred feet of air in Earth gravity and come down soft as a feather. They are very mobile.

Protection: More than enough to resist most personal armament we have these days, but vulnerable to more advanced stuff and bigger guns. The suit is sealed, and can be used a space suit if necessary.

Weapons: It's not entirely clear on this, but at the minimum it mounts a good Flame Thrower for incendiary work and close combat, a rocket launcher for the tac-nukes (~2kt yield, I think), shoulder mounted racks that drop large HE bombs on automatic, and some time bombs with a lot of explosive behind them (it was able to knock the narrator's suit sprawling from more than a hundred yards away). They can also carry a variety of grenades. They probably mount other weapons, perhaps a rifle of some sort, but that's all it talks about in the book.

Their armament is intended for maximum destruction in minimum time, which can get them into trouble if they're in tight formation (they can't shoot for fear of harming eachother). Additionally, the suit has enough flexibility for the trooper to engage in hand to hand combat, and with vastly improved strength.

Misc.: They have infrared goggles to see at night ("snoopers"), communications gear, and a map screen that gives terrain data and the positions of other MI suits, and other stuff.

Space-Ground Drop Procedure: The MI suit is sealed into an 'egg,' which is then fired from a big gun on the transport. On the way down through the atmosphere, the egg sheds it's outer layers bit by bit, thus keeping the heat down and laying it's own chaff to escape radar detection. Decoys also pop out to further confuse the enemy, and some eggs are launched empty. This all combines to severely confuse ground defenses (it often causes defense computers to malfunction) and makes it very hard for the enemy to hit the MI before they're on the ground.

When they get deeper into the atmosphere, parachutes deploy. They usually release the final chute a hundred or so feet up, and let the Jump Jets break the fall. The whole procedure is carried out at high G forces and is very quick.

Extraction: The MI troopers rendezvous at a given point and interdict an area so that a shuttle can land. When everybody is ready, they board and the ship takes off to catch the transport on the way up. This is all calculated before hand, so a few seconds one way or another and they could miss the boat home. But they never leave a man behind.

Limitations: They don't carry much ammo, and the suit battery lasts for a couple hours at most. In hostile environments they run out of oxygen in a similar time frame.

Summary: The MI suits and drop/extraction procedure is designed for maximum speed and destruction in the shortest possible timeframe. They aren't as effective at holding ground, and they can't really operate in cramped conditions. They drop, smash, and leave in a matter of minutes, relying on the element of surprise and their overwhelming firepower to suppress enemy defenses and allow them to complete their objectives. They are rather like suped-up paratroops in this respect.

[Their lack of effectiveness in house-to-house fighting, the fact that their weapons are intended for large-scale destruction, and the short duration of their combat effectiveness leads me to believe that there must be some supplemental military force for defensive purposes, but this is never referred to in the book.]

In short, buy the book and read it, it's a classic of Military Sci-Fi.

[CmdrWilkens]

Addendum to Pablo's Post:

Naval Technology

FTL Drive: The naval vessels (ranging in sizes capable of transporting a platoon to those capable of moving a division) move under power of Cherenkov drives while utilized normal reaction drives for STL speeds. The Cherenkov drive is relatively slow by most other Sci-Fi standards, something on the order of 47 LY in a matter of about 3 weeks.

STL Drives: They must be capable of at least 8-9G acceleration as the troopers readying themselves for combat experience at least this much deceleraiton to get into their launch position. However none of the ships has any form of inertial dampening though they go have artificial gravity which can be shut off to conserve power.

Weaponry: Not much is mentioned though they do have enough nuclear or conventional weaponry to turn continental sized land formations into glwoing chunks of debris incapable of supporting any kind of life.

Planet Killer: Late in the novel we learn that the Terran Confederation has developed the so-called "Nova" Bomb which is claimed as being able to crack open a planet.

Shielding/Armor: Not mentioned and whatever it is it will nto be capable of holding up agianst one ship imapcting another at speeds approximating 4.7 km/s though that speed is absolute and not relative so actual energy of the one collision described is unknown.

[Gil Hamilton]

In addition on the topic of Sublight Drives:
They have fairly good sublight drives. One passage describes that ships can't talk to each other under Cherenov Drive, so the ships in question were cruising just under the speed of light to talk to each other. We don't know if they have interial dampeners, but they certainly don't in the capsules since Rico describes at the beginning of the book that he's gotten bruises when strapped into his capsule from being slammed at 10 gravities and how nothing is gentle about it when a woman is piloting. Also, he mentions that pilots routinely shave their heads for convenience to prevent if from flapping around when under maneuvers.

In addition on the topic of Weapons:
The A-rocket he mentioned was (since I have the book handy) "just a peewee, of course, less than two kilotons nominal yield, with a tamper and implosion squeeze to produce results less-than-critical mass".
Also in terms of firepower, in the first chapter, ~50 Mobile Infantrymen set aflame most of a Skinny city in less than an hour. Rico described that some of his targets in the the city were several miles distant, so it was a decent sized city.
One HE Bomb Rico launched from his Y-Rack was enough to destroy a warehouse with a significant blast.
Also, Mobile Infantrymen have a cutting beam that can quickly cut through walls with ease. I presume it can cut though people too.

Bombardments:
Their ships use nukes extensively. Rico mentions in passing several times about the Navy turning a planet surface to radioactive glass. Also, they said they are capable of completely destroying Klendathus surface, yet that tactic wouldn't work against the Bugs. Also, in the first chapter, Leiutenant Rasczak mentions that the raid was to scary the Skinnies to show them that why weren't safe, even though they refrained from an total orbital bombardment. Also, Rico mentions during Operation Royalty on Planet P, that they glassed any bit of land every island on the planet except for the main continent which they were operating on to prevent the Bugs from coming up on one of the islands and flanking them.
This all indicates to me that one tactic the Terran Federation uses is Base Delta Zero like operations.
Also, Rico mentions burrowing nukes for hitting subterranean targets.

The Mobile Infantry are very badass. They are one of the more powerful ground forces on the block. They don't need tanks... they replaced them.
Also, the Arachnids are badass too. They have ray guns that cut straight through MI Armor like a hot knife through an egg and use nuclear mines on the surface, though Rico comments that their ground troops don't use missile. Also, the Bugs can burrow straight through solid rock very rapidly. Unlike in the crappy movie, they have spaceships that shoot missiles.