Is Metal Gear Pointless?

[Box]

Ok in there specific role as mobile nuclear launchers I'm sure they'd be functional, but they cost billions of Dollars and you really could just strap a nuke on most other things.

Any kind of military armor is a really big target to everything on the field. Most metal gears are extremely tall, you might as well paint a large bright neon target on it for all of the enemies own armor and Air Force.

Not to mention they are moving on 2 very mechanically complex legs. Have a squad of tanks/helicopters/jets/long range missiles/squad of anti tank infantry focus on a knee joint, even if you can't kill the whole unit quickly you can drop it to the ground nullifying most of its attack capabilities.

realistically the tech needed to make this stuff possible doesn't exist.

It's as Solidus said, it's more of a liability than an advantage in almost any circumstance.

AI and Nano Machines made for a much better plot device (its why I consider MGS2 the best)

 

[Johnic]

The advantage, and why these are built, is that they're mobile.

Nuclear weapons are traditionally stores in huge silos. Let's say country A launches a nuclear attack on country B. What if the attack destroys all or most of nuclear silos of country B, by either a direct strike or sabotage? They can't retaliate.

With a mobile platform, that's not possible. Even with satellite surveillance pinpointing the location of a Metal Gear, by the time a missile strikes, it's out of the way, ready to launch.

Then there are different advantages each of these have.

TX-55 and MG D are typical Metal Gears.

REX has a stealth nuke you can't catch on radar after launch.

Ray is the only MG not able to to launch nukes. Its purpose is to eliminate other MGs, which is why it's so agile. Later it was repurposed to protect Arsenal.

RAXA (Portable Ops) is the first prototype.

Shagohod came after RAXA and in the 60s, allowed a country to launch a nuke from nothing else but a runway. In a time where nuclear war was almost inevitable, it was a huge advantage.

And Arsenal, a huge fortress to house the GW AI system.

But yes, for a typical MG, mobility is its advantage.

 

[Nhomnhom]

They are cool, that is the point.

 

[ethomaz]

They are a lot of fictions from Kojima mind but…

A mobile nuclear launcher is the dream of any country army and I’m sure all of them are having heavy researches in that area.

So a Metal Gear is pretty useful for a war.
I just don’t think they will be like dinosaurs but just like tanks or airplanes (the dream is to have a mobile invisible airplane that can launch nuclear nukes).