Bolo (tank)

A Bolo is a fictional type of artificially intelligent super-heavy tank. They were first imagined by Keith Laumer, and have since been featured in science fiction novels and short stories by him and others.

Description and fictional history

Early models were simply super-heavy tanks controlled by programming intended to reduce the need for a human crew through automation. However, as the programming increased in complexity, Bolos became more effective at mimicking intelligence, and finally self-aware. Later models were controlled by artificial intelligences. The first Bolo was developed in the late 20th/early 21st century by the (fictional) Bolo Division of General Motors.cite book |last= Laumer |first= Keith |authorlink= Keith Laumer |others= cover by Powers |title= Bolo: Annals of the Dinochrome Brigade |origyear= 1976|origmonth= July |publisher= Berkley Books |language= English |id= ISBN 042503450X ] As humanity spread beyond Earth, Bolos followed to protect the Empire, and later the Concordiat. For millennia they provided the bulwark of humanity's defenses, participating in numerous wars against various aliens, most notably the Deng and the Melconians in the 30th century. After the end of the Final War with the Melconians, surviving Bolos became crucial in sheltering and protecting the few scattered remnants of humanity while the long slow process of survival and rebuilding began.

Bolos are assigned to the Dinochrome Brigade, which traces its lineage back to various units on Earth, although individual Bolos are occasionally detached to serve with Planetary Siege Regiments.

At a certain phase of their evolution, Bolo psychotronic design Fact|date=May 2007 was greatly influenced by the ideal of "the perfect knight" or "knight errant". However later models incorporated circuitry capable of directly interfacing with a feral human mind, and so failed to live up to the ideal. Bolos were designed to be invincible, i.e., to be able to withstand the dominant weapons platforms of their day, but also completely loyal to humanity. Their psychotronic brains were rigorously tested before being installed into a suitable body. Bolos are programmed to avoid killing humans unless by explicit order of their human commanders. One of the greatest fears of humans is that a Bolo's programming will become corrupted and will go rogue. Indeed this happened in "Rogue Bolo", and Bolos were turned against their human masters in "Bolo Rising" and "Bolo Strike".Fact|date=May 2007 As Bolo technology has advanced, they have become increasingly autonomous. The first Bolo was essentially a very powerful conventional tank equipped with various servos and mechanical devices to make it possible for limited crew to conduct combat operations. Other early Bolos could be put on automated patrol patterns. Starting with the Mark XX, Bolos became capable of fully independent operation (without a human commander), and with the advent of the Mark XXVI, true independent, strategic planning was possible.

The Mark XXXIII Bolo was the last Bolo built by the Concordiat prior to the Melconian destruction of Earth. There were several Mark XXXIV Bolo designs built by isolated fragments of the Concordiat or their "Seed Corn" colonies. These Bolo designs were made in isolation from each other and were dissimilar in size, design and capabilities. Therefore, there is no "standard" design for any Bolo designated as a Mark XXXIV or greater.

Bolo offensive systems

A Bolo was designed to be a consolidated weapons system capable of taking on any force it might encounter. Bolos from Mark XV on were designed to engage any land based target independently as well as starships in low to medium orbits. Depending on the enemy, a single Bolo was considered the equivalent of a manned armoured assault brigade or better. Bolos came in several forms, heavy "siege" units, smaller scout units but the most commonly produced was the "standard" unit which balanced speed, protection and firepower.

The main weapon of early Bolo Marks was either an enhanced tank gun (Early marks featured DSFSLRP, or discarding sabot, fin-stabilized, long-rod penetrator munitions) or a railgun. As Mankind moved off-planet and the Bolo designs became bigger and more powerful; these were replaced by a Laser Cannon for a short period of time, until the Hellbore was developed.

The Hellbore is a complex plasma weapon mounted on a turret, akin to other main guns which first saw service with the Mark XIV. On some models, there is more than one main gun, and most recent models have smaller "support" Hellbores. Hellbore power output is measured in megatons/second, although the diameter of the tube is also often used as a quantifying measure. Hellbores of 50cm and larger range can destroy orbiting spaceships from the ground, often with one shot — indeed, Bolo primary weapons are equivalent to the main battery weapons of Concordiat Naval capital ships during the time period they are in service. Main armament Hellbores for Bolos range in size from 25cm (Mark XIV) to 200cm + (Mark XXXI and later).

Hellbore ammunition consists of slivers of highly-pressurized frozen deuterium which, when fired, are ignited (by a laser) in a fusion reaction. The resulting bolt is contained and directed using strong magnetic fields in the breech and barrel. The resulting plasma travels at a considerable fraction of light speed. Since the Hellbore was designed as naval armament for Concordiat vessels, modifications had to be made to use them in an atmosphere to avoid losing a significant portion of the shot's energy to dispersal. To this end, a fraction of a second before using the Hellbore a powerful laser will be firing to create a momentary vacuum along the path of the bolt. Later Bolo marks are capable of internally manufacturing Hellbore rounds, using water as a raw material, whereby the deuterium isotope of hydrogen is separated and cooled cryogenically into splinters of frozen hydrogen. The Mark XXXIV carries a variant of the Hellbore known as the Hellrail, an anti-starship railgun weapon, possessing an output of 90 megatons per shot. Hellrails are designed for planetary defense and cannot normally be depressed to strike ground targets.

Bolos are also equipped with rapid-firing batteries known as infinite repeaters, though the term later came to be used for automatic secondary weapons with anti-armor ability. On early models, these were Gatling guns or small-bore railguns. Later Marks progressed to energy weapons such as lasers and ion-based weapons, and finally to small Hellbores. Depending on the Bolo, additional secondary armaments include rapid-fire mortars, heavy howitzers, surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles, anti-personnel flechette launchers, and other point-defense weapons to intercept incoming threats. Bolos are equipped with both conventional and thermonuclear missiles, though they will use the latter only as a last resort.

Mark XXXIVs are known to carry "Dragon" hover-tanks and "Wyvern" scout flyers in combat in order to scout for, and to supplement the firepower of, the Bolo itself.

Bolo defensive systems

The complex armor of a Bolo Unit of the Line can withstand direct hits from all weapons systems up to (and in later models, including) nuclear weapons. Hulls are built of (in increasing order of protection) durachrome, flintsteel, duralloy or in the last marks, endurachrome. Many models would also use ablative or ceramic tiles to provide additional protection against plasma weapons.

Beginning with the Mark XIX, Bolo's also began to be protected by external energized battlescreens. These battlescreens could convert much of the damage done by enemy weapons fire into energy that would be redirected into the Bolo's own weapons. In addition beginning with the Mark XXIII, internal disrupter fields were added to limit and redirect from vital systems such damage as did manage to penetrate the Bolo's formidable outer defenses.

Each unit is also equipped with an impressive array of sensing equipment for all light conditions, IR, magnetic spectrum, and FTL comm. Units also came equipped with stealthy flying drones and other remote sensing capabilities, with later models having the capabilities to orbit their own MILSAT spy satellites. Later Bolos also contain their own maintenance robots to repair battle damage.

Power for weapons, battlescreens, and mobility is most often provided by one or more fusion reactors, however earlier marks relied on high capacity ionic batteries often linked to a high efficiency solar energy system (which continued to be used as a secondary power source in later Bolos) or a fission reactor. As a last resort, Bolos may detonate their reactors to destroy an enemy, or at the very least, thwart capture.

Artificial intelligence

Beginning with the Mark XX, Bolos began to be equipped with psychtronic "brains" which allowed them to be fully aware artificial intelligences. Early versions of this technology could become unreliable if damaged in battle causing the damaged Bolo to, on occasion, perceive its friends as enemies. Because of this, Bolos model XX through XXIII's psychotronics were limited by inhibitory programing that basically gave the Bolo the initiative of a rock when not in full battle mode. To accomplish this, designers separated the Bolo's personality center from its main processing center allowing the Bolo to fully integrate its cognitive functions only when in battle. In addition to these safeguards, Bolos were also equipped with the Total Systems Override Program (nicknamed Omega Worm) which, if a Bolo refused an authorized order, or if initiated by its human commander, would crash all of the Bolo's primary execution files rendering it brain dead.

These inhibitory features began to be relaxed beginning with the Mark XXIV version but were not completely removed until a review of the combat performance of unit 23/B-0075-NKE (Nike), a experimental autonomous self aware unit, in the Battle of Santa Cruz (approx 3030 A.D.), proved both the capabilities and reliability of a self aware autonomous psychotronics. Nike herself was killed by the Omega Worm by refusing an order from a traitor of the Dinochrome Brigade and this led to a revision of the parameters that would lead to the execution of the Omega Worm in later model Bolos.

Beginning with the Mark XXV versions, Bolos became completely autonomous, capable of full self direction in all situations. However,it was found that the intuitive capabilities of human commanders working in conjunction with intelligent Bolo's increased the effectiveness of the units and so, with some exceptions, human commanders continued to be assigned to, fight with and if necessary, die with their Bolos. This partnership was further enhanced with the introduction of the Mark XXXII which pioneered a neural interface which allowed the Bolo and its human commander to mentally merge human intuition and Bolo processing speed.

Early versions of the Bolo were not self aware artificial intelligences and up through the Mark IX were only systems which automated the functioning of the vehicle under direct human command. Beginning with the Mark X, Bolos began to use limited AI systems using pre-packaged battle plans which allowed them to function relatively independently provided the situation on the battlefield fell within the parameters of its pre-loaded plan. If not, then the human commander needed to directly intervene either selecting a new battleplan or taking over the functions of the Bolo personally. This system was further advanced beginning with the Mark XV-R which was given a basic AI core capable of choosing between various pre-loaded plans based upon actual battlefield conditions. However, what these earlier Bolos were not capable of doing was developing their own independent battle plans.

Most later mark Bolos have several processing centers, the main core, the personality center, the damage control core (in later models) and the unit's survival center. Some Bolos were given a secondary main core however this was not typical. Of these the survival center was the most heavily protected being at the center of the Bolo's mass directly under the human commander's command deck. In the event of the destruction of the Bolo the survival center was designed to protect the Bolo's core personality and programing for later retrieval and reactivation.

Each Bolo contains several computer "cores" with different functions, each of which contains multiple fully functional duplicates in case of failure. If a Bolo's logic becomes dysfunctional enough, it regresses to the original Resartus protocol, which was embedded in all self-aware models just for such a case.

Many Bolo stories are told from the point of the view of the Bolo itself, with its internal thoughts printed in italics throughout the text.Fact|date=May 2007

Bolo personality

One of the defining characteristic that resounds in all the works is the Knight in Shining Armour. In many stories, Humanity is redeemed via the Bolo service and self-sacrifice and reminds Humanity what honor is.Fact|date=May 2007

Bolo marks, years of introduction, & notable Bolos

Books

Bolos appear in these books by Keith Laumer and others:
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References

ee also

* Yavac
* "Ogre" (game)
* "Bolo" (computer game)

External links

* [http://www.baen.com/series_list.asp#BOLO Bolo series from Baen Books]