Hacker News Reader

That last picture is extremely weird.

(A 1:20 scale model of the border between India and China? It's too small to train on directly, and it's too large to see all at once for higher-level planning.)

View on HN

It seems like it might be a a good low-tech way (and possibly even with modern battlefield GIS available) to thoroughly familiarize mid-level and lower officers with the terrain. It's hard to overestimate the value of a good, physical sense of the land in a places that remarkably rugged. It won't replace local info on the ground, but I'd certainly rather go into a place like that with commanding officers who aren't trying to reconstruct chunks of the Himalayas in their head on the fly. If you've got the spare manpower, the space, and you're planning ahead... why not?

For political/military strategists to take an morning stroll on? See if any bright ideas pop up?

It's eerie.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com