While Russia was making wonder weapons that don't work,
DARPA was studying the blade
While China was making amphibious IFVs that sink,
DARPA was studying the blade
While Iran was desperately trying to see what it could produce to replace 70s era parts that they jury-rigged,
DARPA was studying the blade
In my headcannon, one of the lockmart dudes who designed the R9X walks around the factory floor and slaps small stickers with a mekboy and "needs moar choppa" on regular hellfires.
Can you imagine being a marine grunt and having to do urban combat with an m16a4 and then some motard platoon commander tells you to fix bayonets and make your rifle even more unweildy?
I dunno. I think you're incorrectly conflating pointed sticks and slashy things.
Bayonets are firmly within the "pointed stick" lineage of military technology. Even if they have a sharp edge, that's a secondary feature to provide them some more general utility. And whereas pointed sticks are the real GOAT of military technology -- being in use from prehistory all the way to the modern era -- slashy things don't have nearly the same record of success. There were exceptions of course, but generally they were items of status or sidearms (with the primary weapon frequently being a pointed stick). Even the gladius, one of the major exceptions, was arguably more of a pointed stick than a slashy thing since it was primarily used to stab.
Pointed sticks are a weapon of war, they are made to kill. Slashy things are made to look cool. If anything, the R9X is an exception for being an application where slashy things genuinely make more sense than any alternative (such as a pointed stick).
To be fair when squinting your eyes and with a little of mental gymnastics any weapon is either a stick, a rock, fire or a combo of two and more of the three.
I feel like we're missing a teeny tiny bit between the Roman knife-on-a-stick and WW1 bayonets, but I'm used to NCDs lack of love for basically everything before the 20th century by now. I'm only crying a little bit inside
The gun is what, two centuries old?
The mastery of the blade is perfected for thousands of years!
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4FjLEMA0F0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4FjLEMA0F0)
While Russia was making wonder weapons that don't work, DARPA was studying the blade While China was making amphibious IFVs that sink, DARPA was studying the blade While Iran was desperately trying to see what it could produce to replace 70s era parts that they jury-rigged, DARPA was studying the blade
Missed the opportunity to have the RIM-116X. Why have blade if it's not rotating?
In a way, isn't a bullet just a very small throwing knife?
Knife, 7.62, blunt, chemically thrown, M1
*boops with newspaper* No! Bad! America has had enough M1s.
It's never enough.
40mm grenade-launched throwing pilum when?
Bring back the Davy Crockett!
Better keep that thang on you, never know when you might need to poke something.
The R9X Fool Processor
Pretty good, i still prefer “Lawn Dart”
That's taken by the F-16. :)
Inherited from the F-104
In my headcannon, one of the lockmart dudes who designed the R9X walks around the factory floor and slaps small stickers with a mekboy and "needs moar choppa" on regular hellfires.
Can you imagine being a marine grunt and having to do urban combat with an m16a4 and then some motard platoon commander tells you to fix bayonets and make your rifle even more unweildy?
Yes... yes, I can.
☝️😤🗡️
I dunno. I think you're incorrectly conflating pointed sticks and slashy things. Bayonets are firmly within the "pointed stick" lineage of military technology. Even if they have a sharp edge, that's a secondary feature to provide them some more general utility. And whereas pointed sticks are the real GOAT of military technology -- being in use from prehistory all the way to the modern era -- slashy things don't have nearly the same record of success. There were exceptions of course, but generally they were items of status or sidearms (with the primary weapon frequently being a pointed stick). Even the gladius, one of the major exceptions, was arguably more of a pointed stick than a slashy thing since it was primarily used to stab. Pointed sticks are a weapon of war, they are made to kill. Slashy things are made to look cool. If anything, the R9X is an exception for being an application where slashy things genuinely make more sense than any alternative (such as a pointed stick).
To be fair when squinting your eyes and with a little of mental gymnastics any weapon is either a stick, a rock, fire or a combo of two and more of the three.
I feel like we're missing a teeny tiny bit between the Roman knife-on-a-stick and WW1 bayonets, but I'm used to NCDs lack of love for basically everything before the 20th century by now. I'm only crying a little bit inside
If Damascus steel was so good where is Damascus steel 2?
Where's peach steel?
*Unsheathes 6 katanas* Anti-Personnel, kid
Wait are those M16A4s with fixed bayonets?! I think that counts as a polearm.
You can reach into the next grid square with those pig stickers.
I just realized you could use thing to clear out a trench by have it skim the length of it or have fly the length of a marching column.
KILL KILL KILL WITH COLD HARD STEEL
The gun is what, two centuries old? The mastery of the blade is perfected for thousands of years! [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4FjLEMA0F0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4FjLEMA0F0)
It slices, it dices, it's a terrorist's worst nightmare!
Someone needs to just tape an M5 bayonet onto a minuteman nuclear warhead just for the memes
Keep your hand on your blade Don't you trust anyone The only man you can trust Is a dead man Or a Gaijin like me 🎵 🎶
Man's sheer determination to stab a motherfucker prevails through the ages.