/AKM/ - Guns, weapons and the art of war.

>Would metal gears actually be good weapons?
If they worked yes, kind of 4 or 6 legs is better
The height compared to a tank however is a major issue
Also they'd be very expensive to make
>If so, why haven’t they been made yet?
See above
>CAN they be made?
Maybe China in 5 years but see above

There's little practical benefit to legged vehicles over wheels/tracks. It would be no better at traversing rough terrain; if anything it would be worse, tripping and falling down hills and getting caught in trees and shit.

the mech is for anime bullshit coolness. irl we have nuclear-armed submarines that serve the same purpose

Any Metal Gear is going to be a jack of all trades master of none, especially in the mobility department. The two things it does best are things we have cheaper, more reliable alternatives for: Taking out hard targets like bunkers and emplacements can be done by attack aircraft, armored vehicles, and artillery without all the baggage that comes with nuclear capability. For warhead delivery we already have picrel. It's also so big that it could be pretty easily destroyed by laser-guided bombs, ATGMs, and big guns.

Shagohod is the only one I think could be made currently, but it would probably be too heavy to move over difficult terrain, it would also break down fairly often, as most complex weapon systems do, and again, it could be pretty easily identified and killed from the air and ground. Bipedal technology just isn't there yet even for a hypothetical.

Rapidly deployable nuclear weapons are something we've had figured out since the 50's. The Metal Gears were designed from the start as an allegory for those existing systems.

If you count the metal gears like Arsenal Gear and the Shagohod I can see those having some kind of real world applications. The walker gears also since they're infantry platforms that have the benefit of treads and legs for movement.