When talking about military vehicles and material, it is of course essential to know what kind of vehicles and material one is talking about. I intend to make this a light informative article on military vehicles and material. In this article I will try to keep the amount of names to a minimum and focus on describing what the military are on about. While following the devisions of army, navy and air force I hope to keep this all digestible. But before I make this devision, I will explain the basic components.

In general the military try to kill using projectiles (shells and bullets), propelled projectiles (missiles) and smart propelled projectiles (homing missiles). These projectiles can be used surface to air (boat shooting a plane), air to surface (helicopter firing a rocket at a tank) , surface to surface (field gun shooting a bunker) and air to air (plane shooting a helicopter). To keep firing at the enemy, the military have different types of vehicles to fire at the enemy and to deliver, repair and supply these vehicles.

Even though there is a constant development to keep the soldiers themselves out of the line of fire, they remain the most important asset for the military. Of course this is most clear in the role of the foot soldier. But all vehicles need personal, even if this is at a distance with for instance spy planes without a pilot actually flying in the plane itself. The foot soldier is in the direct line of fire, so this person is equipped with body armor (made out of special fibers) and weapons that can be carried by hand. For the military this person is like a human vehicle that is fit to shoot the projectiles at the enemy and still the smartest of all vehicles the military possesses. For the military this is a problematic situation, because the human being is fragile in the battlefield and only for armies with a large amount of personnel and few concerns towards their wellbeing the loss of soldiers can occur without the military caring too much and then only if these soldiers are not heavily trained and thereby easy to replace. A well trained soldier is a person who knows how to work with the equipment he or she has been given and follows orders without distracting thoughts.

The army is the one part of the military which has most personnel in the form of foot soldiers. To support them in fighting on foot, there is a whole range of vehicles, that work in front, besides and behind these foot soldiers. Tanks are basically self propelled and heavily armored canons, which go in front of the foot soldiers to clear a path. Armored vehicles work besides the soldiers, to deliver them, support them and take them away once they can not fight any more because of their hopeless position or injuries. These armored vehicles are not as heavily armored as the tanks, but are faster and can easily take on different tasks. Behind the foot soldier there are the trucks that can deliver more soldiers or equipment and different types of artillery. The basic idea of artillery is to shoot over the own soldiers and on the targets in front of them. This can happen at short range, when a mortar is shooting a bunker close by, or at long range, when a heavy field gun is shooting from the base miles away at the target that is designated by the soldiers in action, without them actually seeing the field gun. The missile can be used by the army at a very long range and is normally directed by intelligence, rather then normal forces.

These functions are all surface to surface and the specialization of the army. But the army is also focussed on air to surface and surface to air. Primarily the air to surface role in the army is dominated by the helicopter, which can deliver troops, light vehicles and act as an overall projectile platform against buildings, vehicles and troops. In the army the surface to air projectiles are mostly defensive means against an attacking air force.

The navy is based on boats as platforms to fire its projectiles and since the Second World War the boats have been mostly fitted with smart propelled projectiles. Normally every boat is fitted with a canon which can fire shells, but this is a secondary weapon for exceptional use only, though often used during the policing of the seas. The main goal of the boats is to fire surface to air or surface to surface projectiles and to be a launching platform for helicopter. Boats are also often fitted with surface to air missiles, which are basically there to shoot down surface to surface missiles which are fired at them. Helicopters are extensively used against submarines and mines. Submarines work with torpedoes as short range surface to surface launchers and sometimes missiles as long ranged surface to surface launchers. Mine laying and clearing is an important role within the navy and normally there are different boats to do one or the other. To coordinate this all there are the command ships, which are mostly fitted to be able to command the other ships, but also have an overall attack and defensive system.

The navy is in contact with the army and air force through aircraft carriers and amphibious ships. Aircraft carriers must be gigantic, to serve their purpose as sailing airports, though by focusing on helicopters and planes that can take of vertically the size of the boat can be reduced. These aircraft carriers are normally fitted with surface to air defensive means and must be protected by other boats. Amphibious boats are normally troop launching boats, that go to the shore themselves, or bigger boats that launch smaller boats and helicopters that go to the shore and can come back to pick up more troops. The bigger the amphibious boat, the more troops and often also material it can take with, but also the less mobile and more easily hit.

The air force is a predominantly attacking force in the army, focussed on air to air and air to surface attacks. It uses planes which are more and more multitasking between these two roles. To be able to do both air to air and air to surface attacks a plane must be heavy enough to carry bombs, while fast and agile enough to attack other planes. Each plane is fitted with a gun, though this is secondary to the projectiles that the plane is launching. These are either dumb bombs, smart bombs, dumb missiles or homing missiles. Dumb bombs are dropped in such a way that gravity leads the bomb to the target, while smart bombs maneuver their way to the target while gliding. Dumb missiles are just plain rockets, while homing missiles can detect the enemy with heat, radar, or other sensors or can be directed by the pilot onto the target. An exception in the usage of projectiles within the air force is the multi barreled heavy canon, the US air force uses this one extensively and they fire with this weapon uranium rounds.

An important separate role for the air force is the transport and delivery of troops and material. Big planes can transport a whole army quickly to the area of assault, but they can also deploy forces by parachuting them into the area where they are attacking. These transport planes can be divided into two groups, the ones that can be used in improvised airports and the ones that can only land on real landing strips. These bigger planes can often though parachute material into the area, but parachuting has a whole range of risks, because of the uncertainty where the parachutes will end up.

A new role for airplanes has become the refueling of other planes during flight. This gives these planes an opportunity to go far further, without becoming heavier. The pilots are also being pushed further, with prescribed drugs to keep them awake. This has led to some trigger happy situations though and shows how the air force has to cope with a limited amount of personnel, thanks to the heavy training that is required to fly a plane.

Special forces are the elitist group within the military, that is used for missions behind enemy lines. This can be to destroy targets, but also to gather intelligence about the enemy. They poses the most sophisticated material, which is often lighter and easier to transport then the overall material of the army, but they are also trained to use the material of the enemy. The original idea of the special forces fighting as small units behind enemy lines has always been in contest with the usage of large groups of special forces for bigger operations behind enemy lines. Even though a wider arrange of targets can be tackled by larger groups of special forces, they loose the secrecy and shock effect that is necessary for special operations to work and often they end up to be just another normal attack force of the army.

Radar plays an important role within the army and the vehicles are developed to detect the enemy with sophisticated radar, while the enemy can not detect the own vehicle because of anti-radar measures. Anti-radar measures can be special electronic equipment fitted on the vehicle, or the form the vehicle is designed in.

As you maybe have noticed, the military is focussed on attacking targets which they anticipated. Fighting an enemy that is not anticipated leaves them clueless. This can be observed in the war on terror and a lot of material is being updated to suite this war, even though the basics remain the same.