UAV's

[Peter Schutze]

Have I missed it or is the Traveller military out of step with current trends ?

Lots of talk about vehicles and guns, some about aerospace, almost never any mention of UAVs and the like

I picture the Imperial Marines as being heavy users of UAVs .... orbital control should be a huge advantage in providing secure UAV comm links which coupled with anti-grav tech should allow each squad to have its own flock of "little buddies" hovering around providing excellent reconnaisance and almost instant, from any direction indirect fire support.

 

[hdan]

There have already been near countless bits spilled on this sort of topic - the most honest answer is that Traveller is the Future of the 1970's, which naturally doesn't match up with the Reality of the 2010's.

If you don't want to use the Traveller setting as "retro-future", you could consider the current Imperial mindset to be generally anti-automation, possibly due to some "Skynet" type problems that tend to arise from overly intelligent machines. In that case, you would probably not have a lot of intelligent robots running around.

On the other hand, I don't see any problem at all with your vision of combat support drones for the higher tech and better equipped military units. Most Traveller editions have some robot rules you could use.

 

[mike wightman]

They call them drones in LBB4...

 

[BillDowns]

There have already been near countless bits spilled on this sort of topic - the most honest answer is that Traveller is the Future of the 1970's, which naturally doesn't match up with the Reality of the 2010's.

Actually, in most areas, it is the Future of the 1950's. A lot was out of date in 1977.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Yeah, I think a UAV in Traveller would be a robot. I'm not sure I ever read about remote piloting anywhere.

 

[BlackBat242]

Yeah, I think a UAV in Traveller would be a robot. I'm not sure I ever read about remote piloting anywhere.

In the same issue of JTAS (#24, 1985) as Marc Miller's (in)famous article on jumpspace, is found the RPRU... the Remotely Piloted Reconnaissance Unit!

This is a 50cm diameter sphere, with a top speed of 200km/hr, and an endurance of 5 hours.

Note that most Traveller drones (& the RPRU) are non-winged, thanks to grav tech.

 

[Spinward Scout]

In the same issue of JTAS (#24, 1985) as Marc Miller's (in)famous article on jumpspace, is found the RPRU... the Remotely Piloted Reconnaissance Unit!

Time for me to get the JTAS CD I guess.

 

[saundby]

It's not just a retro-future thing, it's a dramatic tale thing. In books, movies, and rpgs we want to have a character in places doing and experiencing things, even in places where it makes no sense.

E.g. Star Trek had sensors even in TOS from the late 60s that could tell you if the folks in the other starship were having a shave and shower if the plot demanded it. Yet when they get to a planet they have to beam down and play hide-and-seek around the rocks, phasers in hand, with the bad guys.

Here's some retro-future for you: Thrilling Tales of the Downright Unusual. Enjoy!

 

[Jame]

In the same issue of JTAS (#24, 1985) as Marc Miller's (in)famous article on jumpspace, is found the RPRU... the Remotely Piloted Reconnaissance Unit!

This is a 50cm diameter sphere, with a top speed of 200km/hr, and an endurance of 5 hours.

Note that most Traveller drones (& the RPRU) are non-winged, thanks to grav tech.

I would modify this to have an endurance of 10 hours.

There should also be winged, lower-tech, non-Grav versions.