In addition, all the British Army MAN trucks in the support vehicle fleet are equipped with our RAK15/30 units, and most of the others are too, i.e. Warthog, Mastiff and Jackal, along with the Foxhound armoured patrol vehicle. They have proved especially beneficial in the recent war in Afghanistan, as having the RAK units installed in the cab ensures that vehicles stay on the move and are consequently less vulnerable to attacks from insurgent groups.
- Electrothermal.com - Bibby Scientific Limited, as at 18th Jun 2015
I hate war.
Although I find military hardware fascinating and although I think that signing up and joining the military is a noble profession, at some point it must involve pointing that hardware at someone else with the intent of making them an ex-person.
A bullet which isn't shot, serves no real purpose. A bomb which does not explode, serves no real purpose. A fully laden Rockwell B-1 Lancer with 56,700 kg of internal and external ordnance has as its main job, turning people's houses into bits of rubble and turning people into smudges with the consistency of wallpaper paste; if it does not do this, it serves no real purpose.
Every war which has ever been is at its very essence, a bunch of fathers and brothers, cutting down another bunch of fathers and brothers, so that the state, the nation and the cause can be forwarded.
For this reason, I think that the greatest and best army currently in the world is the British Army because they have the greatest and best piece of kit currently fitted to any military hardware in the world. The British Army has the VMV.
The VMV is the Vehicle Mounted Vessel and Electrothermal currently manufactures three grades of RAK VMV units. The RAK 15 which runs on 15 amp circuits and is found in tanks and trucks, the RAK 30 which runs on 30 amp circuits and is meant for the Marines and Special Forces, and the RAK 110 which runs on helicopters.
What is a VMV? This:
I bet that you're thinking that that looks like a kettle full of minestrone. I'm thinking that that looks like a kettle full of minestrone. So why is this brilliant? Why isn't it brilliant?
If you have a Vehicle Mounted Vessel, that means that you can make tea in the battlefield. Perhaps I didn't make that clear - you can make tea in the battlefield. If you are going to engage in the wholesale destruction of buildings and people, then a cup of tea is the very least that you can do. It's one thing to strip dignity from the world, you don't also need to take away civility.
Actually from a defensive point of view, being able to make tea and heat up food inside your armoured vehicle is invaluable because having to go outside to a field kitchen is to expose one's person incredibly. When the terrain might be riddled with mines or nuclear fallout, then being inside a tank, might be the safest option.
The other side of the coin is that if you are in a piece of military hardware or a military support vehicle and you do happen to come across a village which has had its very being torn asunder, the very least you can do is offer the poor souls whom you might meet a hot drink or perhaps a warm pot noodle.
If you have found people who have had their dignity stripped from the world, the very least that you can do is give back their civility for a time.
If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.
- Thorin Oakenshield, "The Hobbit", JRR Tokien (1937).
No comments:
Post a Comment