So for our mechs, how about we make them some SAM missiles they can mount if need be. Also, we might be able to make them a sort of hoverboard based on a ground effect hovercraft. It'd need a launch catapult in all likelihood, but once it got up to speed you could probably use the internal fuel source/power of the mech in order to continue cruising. It'd be nice for launching amphibious assaults with them, launch them from a carrier and have them cruise over the water at high speed and up onto land and a good ways inland before needing to ditch it.
Edit: Side note, we should totally make a boarding version of an Iron Tiger, so we can repeat the tiger-catapult thing, but with an Iron Tiger and a cannon, rocket, or catapult launch system on a flying iron tiger.
Mmmm, couple of things. The mech hoverboard wouldn't need a launch catapult because hovercraft don't derive their lift that way.
However it's not a tech I really care to develop because it's only really useful for amphibious landings in contested territory - and if we're doing contested landings then something has gone terribly wrong because that's the sort of imperialist thing that we shouldn't be doing.
Likewise for carriers - they're fundamentally for force projection in hostile territory. That's the sort of gunboat diplomacy that I'm happy to leave to the US. Nevermind the resources it takes to build and operate one.
Finally, Iron Tigers aren't any good for boarding action - they're too big to actually enter a ship so all they could do is hang out on deck.
I don't mean to come across as the fun police, but mechs have a niche and they are outperformed if they leave it, but it's easy to forget that. Like, to ground effect mechs? Totally on point for America, because they rolled 100 for procurement sanity in a system where lower is better.
Heck, even Jungmin's dad rolled pretty high based on what we've seen, and it definitely infected the thread a bit too based on what got built for the initial IT.
That niche btw seems to be combat engineering (where their flexibility really shines) and mountainous terrain (where the kinematics of wheels vs. legs come out in favor of legs).
Ussually, the best thing to do is take IT tech and use it on a more traditional platform. Like, IT tech could be used to make
suspension that let wheeled vehicles handle
almost all terrain that a legged much can, without any of the downsides of mechs.
