Hi Richard,
>The only down side to this is what happens if the opposition has
>anti-armor weapons or tanks. I would prefer to be in a M1 rather then a
>thin skinned armored car.
I'm sure you or I would. But that isn't the question. The question is
would you rather be in a lightly armored vehicle with a big gun vs. kids
with heavy MGs now or in a M1A1 in 5 months after they have got the upper
hand or the situation is unwinnable? Or would you rather be a grunt
supported by light armor or a grunt supported by a truck with a MG
slapped on it?
These are the kinds of questions that have been asked over the last 10 or
more years. It would appear that they have finally figured out that
smaller, shorter, and more frequent conflicts are the norm for the
foreseeable future. It is more likely that if we want to get involved in
a conflict we need to do it before the decision was made, and big heavy
stuff is just not going to make up for lost time. And I won't even touch
the cost of deployment issues :-)
The truth also is that the new light armor being fielded is more than
capable of handling the existing armor and weapons out there, especially
when you keep in mind that the US and Western European forces do *NOT*
fight with armor alone. We fight with everything in combined arms. If
the enemy has heavy armor our new light vehicles can't handle, there are
plenty of ways to deal with them without needing heavy armor.
>Maybe its just me but the mid-size brigade concept reminds me of the old
>battlecruiser concept the British had before WW1. Fast, light armor, big
>gun. It had disastrous results at Jutland.
But has had disastrous results since WWII, and arguably even bad results
in WWII. The world of the early part of the century is not the same as
it is now. Things happen fast and furious.
There is a saying... it doesn't matter how big and bad the weapon is if
it doesn't make it to the battlefield before the war is already decided.
The Army has learned over the last 10 years or so that we can only dodge
the negatives of this axiom for only so long.
Steve
P.S. I am treadhead at heart, but I am not so in love with them that I
can't see why things must change. I also love big battleships and
propeller planes :-)
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed Feb 06 2002 - 11:49:29 PST