"What are the ten greatest feats of Military Engineering in the 20th Century?."
 

Hi all, I know I don't show up too often, but I was having a personal debate
thinking about a book, and asked myself,
"What are the ten greatest feats of Military Engineering of all time ?."
upon considering the question in depth, I asked myself along the line of
a narrower field.

"What are the ten greatest feats of Military Engineering in the 20th Century?."

This is an open debate and is not meant to be a flame forum.
everybody be nice.

Before we begin, I feel that a certain few must be automatically
included.

#1
The Mulberry harbors.

#2
P.L.U.T.O

#3
The Essex class carrier project.

The other seven slots are open and the order is too!

Enjoy the open debate Gents, I know I will:know:

Regards to all

Mush:arrgh!:

Batteries
Satellites


One thing that ain't on the list would be Powerpoint. :down:

1) Military medicine easily the best hidden benefit of warfare it vastly improves medicine for all

2) Military aviation another example of a hidden benefit for example the helicopter a weapon of war that has saved countless lives

3) Submarine development in particular from the end of WWII to modern times

4) Guided weapons technology makes war a lot more efficient get more done with less manpower (usually)

5) Military communications you cant do much without a way to give orders side benefit you can also snoop on your foe to gather intel and even
hack him. An ironic effect of this is that a very small nation can have a lot of power without ever firing a shot.What happens if a hacker shuts down your nations finical institutions? You could be broken or severally weakened it is the ultimate homage to Snu Tzu The supreme art of war is to subdue your enemy without fighting.

6) Artillery development the biggest leaps here where during WWI but at the end of the day artillery is still the king of battle even more so now. Just think how many more would die if we fought trench style with our modern artillery and air burst (that works every time) and flechette.

7) Food a more recent development MREs(now used in some form by many nations) are a huge improvement on the type of field rations available in the past.

Not sure you can have a top 10 really all the things I listed I feel have equal importance/effect.

Definitely one would be the submarine, and agreeing with SH above, towards the end of WWII. Advances in technology certainly influenced future designs.

Wait is the question greatest of all time or greatest of the 20th century? You use both terms in the OP.

That kinda changes the perspective a bit.

All Time

1) the atlatl first true long range weapon also pretty darn useful for hunting but if a human enemy has no missile weapon and you do
well you win.

2) Cavalry using animals more mobility and as a battering ram pure genius. Mobility is key you can run down retreating enemies that thins out the numbers. Even take land before your enemy can really muster a defense.

Ok to close up parameters it is intended to be the 20th century,


the criterion is Military engineering this would include submarines
but would exclude aircraft for example.
(edit: though individual engineering efforts by the military eg. B-29 or SR-71 would count).

I don't understand. Aircraft are products of engineering.

@ steelhead, I agree in a lot of ways, the mass production of penicillin makes
my top ten list of secret weapons of WWII

Sorry Budda I made a late edit there.:doh:

@ budda aircraft had to be sold to the military at first the submarine was
developed by private enterprise for war.

its subtle but a difference.

MM

The theoretical elements of modern artillery were worked out by Napolean.
Modern Hardware refined capitalizing on it.

Satellite per se were invented by Arthur C. Clarke not the military.
they were developed by two military's agreed, and this one is up for debate.

4) Guided weapons technology makes war a lot more efficient get more done with less manpower (usually)

" Where does the V-2 end and the tomohawk begin ?:06:

Not so. The military had there own aircraft factories for a time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Aircraft_Factory

So the wright brothers offered their stuff to the military and sold it to the
french prior to there own country. The US military was late to jump in
and no one can claim the military invented the airplane I dont think.