For ground attack, infantry, armor, and strike aircraft are excellent. Maybe something like a B-1, loaded up with guided JDAM bombs from high altitude, being cued to the target by drones. I suppose a 2,000-lb bomb with a direct hit on a tank would make it history. The problem with tanks is not that they are ever in the right position (the right position would be nowhere near), but that they are too often in the way. I'm thinking of tanks as the threat. To make them your friend, they have to be mixed in with the advancing infantry. Tanks destroy the threats to the infantry, and the infantry destroys the threats to the tanks. (If you want to see an example of how extreme tank design can become, take a peek at Object 279 from the Soviet army. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obiekt_279)
Battlefield ballistic missiles are great, if you can afford them.
How, pray tell, do we see through clouds, except with radar...and that solution is at least 80 years old. This is where you need high-altitude aircraft with side-looking radar to provide a map of the battlefield and track moving targets.
How, pray tell, do we see through clouds, except with radar...
Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) - like you mentioned
Shortwave Infrared (SWIR) - Can get just about as good resolution as optical
Confocal Diffuse Tomography - The newest, though I'd argue it's been a military technology for at least 20 years. (And that's an educated guess not from personal knowledge) And with the advent of AI, processing the data from this technique can be done in real time.
SAR is good, also the usual beam-directed radar. SWIR will be blocked by clouds (water absorption spectrum). Current laser weapons operate near 1 micron, and we never considered them anything other than clear-weather weapons. SWIR is also blocked by smoke. As for confocal diffuse tomography, it may work in the laboratory, but a battlefield is not forgiving. What would be the basis for thinking it has been "a military technology for at least 20 years"?
For ground attack, infantry, armor, and strike aircraft are excellent. Maybe something like a B-1, loaded up with guided JDAM bombs from high altitude, being cued to the target by drones. I suppose a 2,000-lb bomb with a direct hit on a tank would make it history. The problem with tanks is not that they are ever in the right position (the right position would be nowhere near), but that they are too often in the way. I'm thinking of tanks as the threat. To make them your friend, they have to be mixed in with the advancing infantry. Tanks destroy the threats to the infantry, and the infantry destroys the threats to the tanks. (If you want to see an example of how extreme tank design can become, take a peek at Object 279 from the Soviet army. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obiekt_279)
Battlefield ballistic missiles are great, if you can afford them.
How, pray tell, do we see through clouds, except with radar...and that solution is at least 80 years old. This is where you need high-altitude aircraft with side-looking radar to provide a map of the battlefield and track moving targets.
SAR is good, also the usual beam-directed radar. SWIR will be blocked by clouds (water absorption spectrum). Current laser weapons operate near 1 micron, and we never considered them anything other than clear-weather weapons. SWIR is also blocked by smoke. As for confocal diffuse tomography, it may work in the laboratory, but a battlefield is not forgiving. What would be the basis for thinking it has been "a military technology for at least 20 years"?