Skybird
03-29-07, 03:29 PM
Ssnake answered with these replies in a related thread in the SB forums:
"We're currently working on the Spanish Pizarro IFV which should become a pretty interesting alternative to CV90 and the like. More Spanish equipment is likely to be added over the course of this year.
Then there's a lot of "low profile improvements" planned that are going to help make SB Pro as a whole more versatile and useful and could help especially for combat in urban terrain and with more infantry-centric combat (although we have no plans of turning SB into a shooter).
I expect that this year will bring less glamour but lots of utility value, and next year could be similar. As usual, I don't like discussing plans that much since some plans can turn out to be impractical or their priorities and sequence of implementation may change.
We have prototypes now with the Australian Bushmaster truck (a "protected mobility vehicle" - think of bullet proof and mine protected trucks for motorized infantry), infantry teams with Mk 19 Automatic Grenade Launcher, cal .50 on tripod, and Javelin missile teams, as well as a Tiger helicopter which might work as some sort of an Apache substitute for those of you looking for a counterpart to the HIND. The Tiger comes with Hellfire missiles (with just 4000m range effectively though, due to the LOS calculation cut-off and render distance limits) and a 30mm autocannon, plus unguided rockets (it's a quick & dirty implementation at this point, though - just like the HIND's unguided rockets).
(...)
A natural release point would be after completing the work with the Pizarro - provided that it is mature. In a way, the same thing that we tried with the CV90/40, except that this time I will not commit to a specific date in order to give us the time to let the stuff settle. We underestimated this because we underestimated the complexity of the fire control system because our customer underestimated it. That can happen - it could happen with the Pizarro as well. Right now it looks pretty straightforward, but who knows what we'll be unearthing in a later stage of the development?
You think you got everything covered that's listed in the design specs, and all of a sudden people realize that the specs they wrote are incomplete or that there's been a misunderstanding. That's not incompetence, it's just something that happens because complex technical systems aren't easy to explain in the framework of a legal document and design specs with just words (especially when language barriers are involved).
We may have a smaller update at some point in the middle, but that's undecided yet. I guess it depends on whether we can bundle a couple of improvements into a nice and convincing package. I'd like to throw in a couple of new scenarios. I have at least two (rather simple ones) in the making, maybe there'll be a few more."
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Note that this is more "intention & imagination" than "fixed plan & solid timetable".
"We're currently working on the Spanish Pizarro IFV which should become a pretty interesting alternative to CV90 and the like. More Spanish equipment is likely to be added over the course of this year.
Then there's a lot of "low profile improvements" planned that are going to help make SB Pro as a whole more versatile and useful and could help especially for combat in urban terrain and with more infantry-centric combat (although we have no plans of turning SB into a shooter).
I expect that this year will bring less glamour but lots of utility value, and next year could be similar. As usual, I don't like discussing plans that much since some plans can turn out to be impractical or their priorities and sequence of implementation may change.
We have prototypes now with the Australian Bushmaster truck (a "protected mobility vehicle" - think of bullet proof and mine protected trucks for motorized infantry), infantry teams with Mk 19 Automatic Grenade Launcher, cal .50 on tripod, and Javelin missile teams, as well as a Tiger helicopter which might work as some sort of an Apache substitute for those of you looking for a counterpart to the HIND. The Tiger comes with Hellfire missiles (with just 4000m range effectively though, due to the LOS calculation cut-off and render distance limits) and a 30mm autocannon, plus unguided rockets (it's a quick & dirty implementation at this point, though - just like the HIND's unguided rockets).
(...)
A natural release point would be after completing the work with the Pizarro - provided that it is mature. In a way, the same thing that we tried with the CV90/40, except that this time I will not commit to a specific date in order to give us the time to let the stuff settle. We underestimated this because we underestimated the complexity of the fire control system because our customer underestimated it. That can happen - it could happen with the Pizarro as well. Right now it looks pretty straightforward, but who knows what we'll be unearthing in a later stage of the development?
You think you got everything covered that's listed in the design specs, and all of a sudden people realize that the specs they wrote are incomplete or that there's been a misunderstanding. That's not incompetence, it's just something that happens because complex technical systems aren't easy to explain in the framework of a legal document and design specs with just words (especially when language barriers are involved).
We may have a smaller update at some point in the middle, but that's undecided yet. I guess it depends on whether we can bundle a couple of improvements into a nice and convincing package. I'd like to throw in a couple of new scenarios. I have at least two (rather simple ones) in the making, maybe there'll be a few more."
-----
Note that this is more "intention & imagination" than "fixed plan & solid timetable".