-3
$\begingroup$

If we had the ability to recreate dinosaurs; what technology would be required to overcome the hurdles of using them in modern combat?

  • The things that came to my mind was cryogenic storage to reduce the upkeep costs.
  • Using them like mine fields to avoid needing to direct them.
  • Using them to harass enemy preventing them resting rather than intending them to cause casualties.

But they still seem useless, are there any other tactics or technology that would make them viable weapons?

$\endgroup$
6
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ What would be the expected advantage you're anticipating that a stampede of elephants managed by an appropriate team of handlers can't do? $\endgroup$
    – user93359
    Jan 2, 2022 at 17:00
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ Viable weapons against what? There is no such thing as a weapon effective against any opponent. For example, I really don't see how dinosaurs would be effective against enemy submarines or against enemy unmanned aerial vehicles. On the other hand, enemy unmanned aerial vehicles would be very effective against your dinosaurs. Remember that modern armies do not practice mass infantry assaults. $\endgroup$
    – AlexP
    Jan 2, 2022 at 17:11
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ "are there any other tactics or technology that would make them viable weapons"? I mean...if you equipped dinosaurs with the shields from Dune then they would probably be pretty effective. But so would rampaging elephants or anything else big. $\endgroup$
    – DKNguyen
    Jan 2, 2022 at 17:14
  • $\begingroup$ Just make them listen. Dinosaurs are quite weaponized already.. According to JP5, if you could control a bunch of velociraptors, they could be turned into a dangerous guerilla, using ambush tactics. $\endgroup$
    – Goodies
    Jan 2, 2022 at 17:14
  • $\begingroup$ I think it would help if you were to narrow the question down somewhat (there being between 700 and 1000 different species of dino). Are you assuming that cryogenics can work in your world? (As it's not something that we've figured-out yet and is only present in small amphibians and insects at present). Are the dino's in your world intelligent enough to be trained? Is there mind-control electronics in your world? Could you both narrow the scope of the question and provide us with more info to go on. Fishing-for-ideas questions are considered off-topic here. $\endgroup$ Jan 2, 2022 at 20:47

2 Answers 2

2
$\begingroup$

Let the dinosaur recreators sort that out!

I love this premise! The scientist comes up and declares "We have got you Army guys a whole bunch of dinosaurs!"

Army guy: "What the f are we going to do with a whole bunch of dinosaurs?"

Scientist: "Well, you could put them in cryogenic storage for later."

Army guy: "What the f are we going to do with them later?"

Scientist: "I'll be back."

I want the same people with the skills to bring back dinosaurs and the bizarre world view to think they could be good for the army to be the ones that figure out how exactly they could be good for the army. Maybe dinosaurs could be organ donors? Chaplains? Fortifications could be built from live dinosaurs injected with paralytic toxins? Perhaps dinosaurs, being creatures from ancient time, could preside over time travel and allow army battles to be won before they are lost? These ideas are not mutually exclusive.

Once you open that door really there are infinite possiblities.

$\endgroup$
4
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ So basically "if you build it, they will come" attitude for the scientists? This almost sounds like a comedy take of military sci-fi. General: "Janice from accounting is not going to like this!" $\endgroup$
    – user93359
    Jan 2, 2022 at 18:46
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ @BeyondDisbelief: YES! PLEASE!! $\endgroup$
    – Willk
    Jan 2, 2022 at 19:15
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Dinosaurs would have been handy for conquering Jericho... in hindsight.. $\endgroup$
    – Goodies
    Jan 2, 2022 at 22:37
  • $\begingroup$ Useful or not, we've heard a rumor that New Zealand (or maybe it was Uruguay) is getting ahead of us on developing dinosaur based weaponry. No matter how much it costs, we absolutely cannot risk a dino-weapon gap! $\endgroup$ Jan 3, 2022 at 13:33
0
$\begingroup$

The main thing you need is to have an extensive understanding of their genome and how to modify them. In Jurassic Park they were always clear the dinosaurs had mosaic genomes with lots of different things spliced in.

Presumably the scientists recognized the potential of dinosaurs and so worked extremely hard to understand how to modify them for human use and pleasure. They don't have a similar understanding of the genomes of, say, elephants, and so it's easier to use dinosaurs.

Make them an invasive pest

Smaller ones, like velociraptors, might be useful to insert into a place where you want to hurt others. You might find they are especially effective at taking over a region, and program them to only attack areas without a particular scent.

Then, your soldiers can shoot enemies who have had their supplies and land ravaged by velociraptors.

Make them pack animals

Animals are much better at navigating rough terrain than vehicles. In wars with enemies in very rough terrain specially bread giant dinosaurs could help supply troops.

Whoever has the bigger guns and ammo wins the war, and the person with the biggest dinosaur can carry the most ammo.

Make them stealthy flying assassins

Big guns sadly can kill big dinosaurs, so they are not reliable weapons of war.

But, flying dinosaurs are very hard to hit. Have Pterosaurs there to scratch with a poisonous hand enemies. They can at night harass troops and pick up and eat isolated ones.

Animals can move a lot more stealthily and cheaply than helicopters.

$\endgroup$
6
  • $\begingroup$ Better leave these flying assassins out... Why would a flying dinosaur be hard to hit ? The Clay Pigeon Shooting Association would love to try.. there's air defense.. infrared will spot them at night.. and I think a flying dinosaur would be quite vulnerable in the vicinity of military aircraft with onboard guns.. an old fashioned Spitfire would easily kill a bunch of them. $\endgroup$
    – Goodies
    Jan 3, 2022 at 0:28
  • $\begingroup$ "Animals can move a lot more stealthily and cheaply than helicopters." If you don't factor the maintenance and logistics/deployment costs, that is. But if we ignore those costs, anything else is cheap. $\endgroup$ Jan 3, 2022 at 3:44
  • $\begingroup$ Competitive shooters and gun nuts can shoot flying things fairly well, but most soldiers aren't trained for it, and don't have the experience to reliably hit fast moving flying things. They can shoot big objects charging at them. Infrared goggles often give you shitty depth perception, and don't help in reliable shooting. Air to air missiles cost 200k ish, and the ideal for these dinosaurs is they are fairly cheap to make and can reproduce off enemy personal and food. Use of missiles by enemies also makes it easier for the dino military to target aircraft with conventional weapons. $\endgroup$
    – Nepene Nep
    Jan 3, 2022 at 9:39
  • $\begingroup$ Ideally these dinosaurs will be able to make more copies of themselves with food by breeding, and can source food from the bodies of the enemy soldiers. $\endgroup$
    – Nepene Nep
    Jan 3, 2022 at 9:42
  • $\begingroup$ "can source food from the bodies of the enemy soldiers" I think that would require handwaving the ethics of that which likely falls under UN war crimes and atrocities definitions. $\endgroup$
    – user93359
    Jan 3, 2022 at 20:43

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .