The US military recently trialled a small, four-legged robotic ‘mule’ (though they gave it a cooler name - BigDog). Which is why making machines mobile on legs is not entirely ‘out there’. apart from he saw it in terms being flexible across all terrains (hence the name),” says Dr Malcolm Davis. “I could never figure out why Lucas went for legs on the AT.

With a lot of stress focused on the leg joints. It’s a stable walking style: there’s always a ‘triangle’ of supporting legs. Not if the experts of the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) have any say on the matter.Īn AT-AT Walker lumbers along like an elephant, lifting one foot at a time. So could an Imperial Walker ever appear in the Australian Defence Force’s line of battle? It’s a balance of often contradictory requirements that the ADF is putting itself through again at the moment: It’s in the process of choosing a replacement combat reconnaissance vehicle under the LAND400 program. And if they are hit by enemy weapons, they must offer their human cargoes the best chance of survival. They must have a low profile to remain unobserved (and not shot-at) for as long as possible.

Instead, the brutal experience of two World Wars, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq have hammered home a multitude of lessons to Australia’s defence force and industry.Īrmoured personnel carriers must be fast, manoeuvrable and responsive. Well’s seminal novel, War of the Worlds.īut on a real battlefield, intimidating looks amount to little. The reality, of course, is that they look cool.ĭirector George Lucas once stated that the idea of Imperial Walkers was inspired by the terrifying Martian Tripods from H.G. “The AT is not the most effective design,” says ASPI Senior Analyst Dr Malcolm Davis. The latest incarnation of the Walker, the First Order’s AT-M6, includes many modifications over the Imperial original.

Star wars imperial main battle tank