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Post by Erick on Dec 18, 2016 8:23:33 GMT -5
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Post by panzer0170 on Dec 18, 2016 10:05:55 GMT -5
Basically, yup. We've gone back directly to training to fight GenFor again now, because there are a generation of junior leaders who have seen nothing but Afghanistan, where we don't fight a conventional war, are bogged down with countermeasures, restrictive RoE, Policing actions and a lot more med/casevac capability than anyone could readily expect in a -war-.
The blokes are still good, the kit is pretty awesome for what it's designed for... But the focus has changed, and so the ability to deal with the threat has changed.
2GW a british tank gunner scored the longest recorded tank kill ever at somewhere around 5 miles THAT was done with maths and gunnery skills, because the computer wouldn't do the ballistics to that range. Anything inside a 5km range is a valid target for the comp... even at full tilt because of gyroscopic comp etc.
Tanks remain dominant in open terrain because air power.
And, realistically, without air power, nothing CAN face the US. Take that away, and then it's a whole new ball game.
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Post by whitebear620 on Dec 18, 2016 16:48:29 GMT -5
Can't help but agree as well.
I think I've stated it on here before, but I remember one of our annual training exercises for my med company in the guard, the battalion heads came out and told us to tear our tents down because we had placed them in the middle of the field which provided good access from the roads. We were instructed to put them up as close as possible to the woodline, even inside the woodline if possible, this was to make our med/sleeping tents harder to see from the air; they were pretty much ridiculed by everyone for this decision (even myself at the time I admit) because "no one we fight has air power any ways".
This was followed by another annual training where we set up in a new area with the entire support battalion and a few infantry companies spread out throughout the area, we couldn't see their areas from ours as nobody was closer than 1/2 mile to each other. We were instructed to set up "defensive positions" on the perimeter of our area to practice defending our compound, not much effort was given to this as the logic was "no one's getting through those infantry guys any ways, so we wouldn't need to defend ourselves". No sandbags were issued out, the officers in charge of mapping out the positions put them behind the ridge causing you to not be able to engage from the position should someone come, nothing more than "ranger graves" were dug and we were there for two weeks.
I bring this up, because to me, it shows a complete lack of imagination among many of the senior officers and NCOs (at least in my brigade at the time, I can't speak for other units). Many of them are still training to fight an ill equipped and ill trained enemy, never really gaming out what would happen if we lost resource A, B, C or even all of them. We were a field hospital and evac company, but no one bothered to ask "what do we do with patient X if that bird doesn't show up to get him to higher care?".
I understand training time and resources were limited, but with us doing the same exact simulations year after year it could be beneficial to war game other scenarios, even if it's only on a very small scale (platoon level being an option).
Some people have asked me (I'm not an expert on any of this, so they just asked me because I was in the Guard), "wouldn't be able to crush country B?". I sometimes have to tell them: yeah, we probably could, but it would painful because we would have to learn lessons in war, and the cost of those lessons would be lives.
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Post by Erick on Dec 19, 2016 7:18:30 GMT -5
Many of them are still training to fight an ill equipped and ill trained enemy, never really gaming out what would happen if we lost resource A, B, C or even all of them. We were a field hospital and evac company, but no one bothered to ask "what do we do with patient X if that bird doesn't show up to get him to higher care?". Bingo!!! |
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