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

[Jimbuna]

Chobham and Dorchester armour.

[August]

The US Interstate Highway System Arguably the largest and most effective military engineering feat of the 20th century.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by August

The US Interstate Highway System Arguably the largest and most effective military engineering feat of the 20th century.

Good one!

It was not called the US Interstate and Defense Highway System for nothing.

[Wolferz]

Dam buster bombs. IIRC were developed by the British military.
"If you can skip a stone on water, you can skip a bomb on it too."

[Tango589]

Originally Posted by TarJak

You'd have to say airborne radar is up there. Until then night flying yet alone fighting was a dice roll.

Not just airborne radar, I'd say radar in general. Also, sonar. Used widely from finding enemy submarines, to undersea exploration to helping fishermen locate schools of fish.

[GoldenRivet]

The airplane should definitely be included in this list

World War I basically took the airplane from a novelty item, and developed it into one of the worlds most lethal killing machines in the span of a decade.

Demand for improvements between the world wars move the airplane from simple biplanes constructed of wood and fabric and evolved the airplane into massive steel and aluminum four engine bombers with thousands of miles of range.

Within 20 years, the aircraft had evolved to have wingspans of 1.5 to 2 times the total distance of the first powered controlled flight by the wright brothers.

The same cannot really be said for any other piece of militarized engineering

[Jimbuna]

Bailey Bridge.

[Buddahaid]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

The airplane should definitely be included in this list

World War I basically took the airplane from a novelty item, and developed it into one of the worlds most lethal killing machines in the span of a decade.

Demand for improvements between the world wars move the airplane from simple biplanes constructed of wood and fabric and evolved the airplane into massive steel and aluminum four engine bombers with thousands of miles of range.

Within 20 years, the aircraft had evolved to have wingspans of 1.5 to 2 times the total distance of the first powered controlled flight by the wright brothers.

The same cannot really be said for any other piece of militarized engineering

I agree but it but he's looking for things that were designed by the military from the get go. As he includes the Essex class carriers which were build at a privately owned shipyard at first, I think it's fair to use something that was built privately from specifications.

So why not the Jeep?

[Jimbuna]

Ho Chi Minh trail.

[ReallyDedPoet]

U-Boat Pens ( France ) WWII

[Aktungbby]

All conflict/battle takes place in time and space...if you can reduce the space or speed up the time you gain the edge over opponents; Strictly along the military lines...of a capable Under Secretary of the Navy (Teddy Roosevelt) capable of preparing a fleet for action in the Philipines (Manila Bay) in 1898, forstalling a Kaiser in central America and disconnecting Panama from Columbia to facilitate a 'canal zone', and sending a great white fleet around the world...the first Military engineering project of the greatest strategic implication is the PANAMA CANAL opened in 1914!. It CRITICALLY shortens the time and space of the two ocean defense concept and incidentally was instrumental in dealing with our concept of Yellow fever-a critical military consideration in itself if going into afflicted regions of the planet without losing half your fighting strength. Since all things at sea are strategic, the Canal is numero uno to this day and just upgraded recently. The concept is not new; the Greeks dreamed of it at Corinth (1st century AD) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinth_Canal and of course the French and British at Suez. That was both Napoleon and Rommel's failed strategic objective in cutting off India from Britain. (Aboukir Bay and El Alamein)

[GoldenRivet]

The modern Combat Helmet, World War 1 onwards.

as the story goes, soldiers in the trenches were experiencing a large number of head injuries, so they were outfitted with helmets... this resulted in an Increase in the number of head injuries.

it was supposedly discovered that the number of head injuries increased because the number of fatal head inuries dramatically decreased thus saving countless lives from shrapnel and splintering material as a result of bomb and artillary blasts etc.

simple, effective and could be produced in large numbers

[GoldenRivet]

The military Industrial Complex of World War Two was an engineering marvel - if anything in the logistics of managing manpower materials and other assets on a global scale

When the United States Entered World War Two, after virtually all of it's factories had been refitted to produce ships, tanks, trucks, guns and aircraft...

From 1941 to 1945 the US produced 87,000 naval vessels of various types 100,000 tanks 300,000 airplanes 2 million trucks 20 million rifles and 41 billion rounds of ammunition enough bullets to kill every man woman and child on the earth in 1945.... 17 times over

these figures do not include similar production data from some of the other allied powers.

[Mush Martin]

Now thats the subsim I remember....

I think you guys should debate it out for your favorites.

yes an Airplane can count but not the airplane, ie. kittyhawk is out.
But P-38 or B-29 is in.

The real reason for this is I couldn`t whittle it down.

How do you describe the incredible societal agility that allows seabees
to build advance bases anywhere­. Whats worth more British radar defense
networks, or how about, Adm. Rickover`s pressurized water reactor.

I am thrilled that you guys are taking it up, I have to admit,
that settling on ten is very very hard. The very reason I posted
here.

[Mush Martin]

Originally Posted by Buddahaid

How about Marsden Matting?

The Pentagon counts, of course the Manhatten Project counts.