Improvement of Military Technology, Equipment & Hardware (thrust vectoring, rifles..)

The stagnation of the Federal government has fallen out to the military.  There are a few major technologies which our military should include in order to remain worthy of a 1st world fighting force.  Besides being effective, cutting edge technology serves a major role in keeping confidence high, for enlisted men and women and for the public.  Warriors are typically a high breed of genetics and keeping them equipped with the best weapons ensures their survival and high spirits.  Having the best technologies also helps keep other nations from getting the wild idea of taking advantage of our weakness and perhaps going a step further.  A 1st world nation allowing 2nd rate tech on their military is like leaving the doors unlocked on your mansion.  Eventually something bad will happen.

One of the main technologies which needs to be incorporated into our military is 2-dimensional thrust vectoring on our fighter planes.  Currently, the F-22 is the only fighter with thrust vectoring, which only vectors in 1 dimension, or 1 axis.  The new SU-57 and SU-75 incorporate 2-dimensional thrust vectoring, which allows those planes to maintain altitude during the tight turns of a dogfight, which is very critical...the more altitude you have coming out of a turn, the more potential energy you have due to a higher angle of attack.  9 times out of 10, the pilot with the higher angle of attack will win.  2D thrust vectoring nozzles are on the end of the plane on the outside where they are easier to work on and a retrofit would not be overly expensive, especially once the Fed is out of the way, Texas should have plenty of money.  I would also like to see the F-16 and F-15 retrofitted with thrust vectoring, which should be even less expensive than the F-22.  Other jets could be retrofitted as well.  If we ever did come into conflict with the Federal government, having a fleet of thrust-vector equipped fighters would go a long way for defense.One other important thing which could be done would be to incorporate solid lubricants into our turbines.  This would reduce weight, increase thrust, reliability and operational life of those engines.

Another area which needs to be addressed is the main battle rifle.  The M4 is an outdated platform which was based upon the M16, which itself was known to be a horrible rifle.  Texit.pro suggests equipping our soldiers with a bullpup style rifle.  One of the better rifles out there is the Desert Tech MDR, and they also make other rifles which are much better than what the US military currently has.  Bullpup rifles are better in many ways but not always preferable and so a gradual phase-in would be best.  There are also many bullpup conversion kits out there which would give new life to the aging platform.  Once again, solid lubricants could play a key role in our rifles and likely would make the M4 a much better rifle.  The military is already incorporating the technology, albeit at the pace of a snail, using the term DSL for "Dynamic Solid Lubricant."  Secession and a better government with less bureaucracy would speed things up.

There are other areas that need to be addressed such as uniforms and body armor.  There are lots of new armor techs out there that are superior to what we have now.  With all of the bureaucracy, much of the time contracts are awarded to companies out of politics and not based upon the best technology.

One other area which needs to be focused on is drone technology, drones are a great force multiplier.  An army equipped with lots of drones would be a force to be reckoned with.  Drone technology should be very heavily pursued.  Automated tanks, aircraft and other areas such as cargo support would play a key role in making our military elite.