Posted on 07/25/2015 11:17:06 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Here’s what warfare may be like in 2025 DAVID NYE JULY 23, 2015 With the technology of war rapidly changing, military leaders will have to rewrite the books on tactics and strategy.
Here’s WATM’s take on what an infantry assault will look like in 2025, considering that by then we’ll have cyborg insects, powered body armor, and steerable sniper rounds.
The mission TALOS Iron man suit
A rifle platoon is tasked with assaulting a compound consisting of four buildings using only their own manpower plus a sniper team.
They will be wearing TALOS armor, an “Iron Man”-like suit which covers nearly their entire body, cools them off when necessary, and actively assists their movements to improve performance and reduce fatigue.
-15:00 — The platoon stages for the assault The platoon moves into its assault and support positions. It has all of the troops it did in 2015, plus a drone operator.
Its weapons squads will be providing the base of fire, and are separate from where 1st, 2nd, and 3rd squads are preparing to assault. The sniper team is on overwatch, protecting the platoon from a nearby hilltop.
-5:00 — Drones are prepared for the operation Drones, UAVs, quadcopters, mapping, infantry support, urban environment
Photo: Youtube.com The drone operator activates his quadcopters. These small bots are capable of flying through buildings, creating 3D maps, providing surveillance, and lifting up to nine pounds. Four drones come from a special pack that the operator carries in place of a standard rucksack. Another eight come from two LS3 Mules moving with the platoon. The operator has 12 drones total, split into six pairs.
Weapons squad brings up video feeds from two of the drones on a tablet.
0:00-1:00 — The assault begins At the platoon leader’s command, the platoon sergeant moves forward with 1st squad and initiates the breach into the enemy area. 1st squad fights the enemy personnel on the perimeter, forming an opening for follow on forces.
Simultaneously, the drone operator orders eight of his drones to fly to the target buildings ahead of the platoon.
Weapons squad begins laying down a base of fire. Weapons squad’s close combat missile teams begin searching for the enemy’s anti-drone, counter-rocket/artillery/mortar laser trucks.
They see the first laser truck between themselves and the compound. It knocks one of the advancing drones out of the sky, but the missile team fires two Javelin missiles at it. The laser swivels to counter the new threat and shoots down one missile in flight, but the second strikes the truck and destroys it.
FGM-148 Javelin rocket fired by US Marine
Photo: Cpl. Ismael E. Ortega/US Marine Corps Another drone goes down to laser fire when a still-hidden truck engages it.
1:00-4:00 — Breaching and mapping Second and 3rd squad begin moving onto the objective as 1st squad forms and holds the breach in the enemy’s perimeter defenses.
Two drones are down, but the six remaining on target redistribute themselves to form three pairs. The first two pairs move into the the southernmost buildings on the compound and begin mapping from the inside. The robots move quickly to avoid enemy fire, dodging in and out of windows and flying close to ceilings.
One drone is taken down when an enemy soldier strikes it with his rifle butt and then immediately stands on the drone, holding it in place. The drone operator sees an alert and sends the self-destruct signal. A pound of C4 explodes inside a fragmentary case, killing the first soldier and wounding two others.
The other three drones send their maps to the advancing 2nd and 3rd squad leaders who relay key information to their men as they reach the entrances to the building. The drones then fly to the roofs and park themselves on the edges, looking for the other enemy laser.
Panthers Airborne Paratrooper jargon lingo Soldiers beat feet
Photo: US Army Sgt. Joseph Guenther 4:00-5:00 — Striking the second laser and establishing an automated perimeter One of the drones is spotted by the enemy laser team as it lands on the roof. The laser team waits for the drone’s rotors to stop spinning and then burns through its body, destroying it. The sniper team detects the beam on a sensor and uses it to spot the truck.
They radio the platoon sergeant and fire on the laser turret, cracking the glass and disabling the system.
With the counter-drone lasers down, the operator is free to signal the four drones that remained with the LS3 mules. The drones begin taking flares, mines, and sensors from the mules and deploying them at pre-programmed points around the objective.
The two remaining rooftop drones take off again and head to the third target building to begin mapping.
An Argus — a drone that can tell what color shirt the enemy is wearing from 17,500 feet overhead — heads to the battlefield.
5:00-6:00 — Securing the first buildings Second and 3rd squad hit the first pair of buildings. Second squad knows to expect enemy casualties in the first room since the drone went off there. With the drone-generated maps, the squads know ahead of time where windows, doors, and most furniture are in the rooms. They take the buildings quickly and capture two enemy soldiers.
With the first buildings secure and no enemy personnel spotted around the perimeter, 1st squad attacks the laser truck and kills the crew. It then breaks into its fire teams and holds the captured buildings while 2nd and 3rd squads prepare to move on the second pair of buildings. The medic sets up a casualty collection point and begins treating the POWs. A Medevac is called.
6:00-8:00 — Hitting the second pair of buildings The sniper team sees a man flee from the fourth target building and radioes the platoon leader. One spotter keeps an eye on the runner until the Argus comes on station and takes over, covering 15 square miles and tracking all people on the battlefield from 17,500 feet. The spotter returns to watching the remaining target buildings.
DARPA Argus drone
Photo Credit: LiveLeak (courtesy of PBS Nova) The drones mapping the third target building are captured and the operator orders both to detonate. 2nd squad hits the third building with a mostly complete map while 3rd squad takes the fourth building more slowly. 3rd squad takes one casualty during the attack, a gunshot wound that catches a soldier through a gap in the stomach armor of the TALOS. The TALOS immediately squeezes the fibers in that part of the suit, putting pressure on the wound. It also alerts the medic, squad leader, and platoon leadership.
8:00-12:00 — Treating the wounded The squad leader orders a fire team to move the soldier to the casualty collection point. The medic is low on medical supplies but knows he has a patient with a gunshot wound through the abdomen coming in. He requests additional supplies to the CCP from the drones and the drone operator confirms it as a top priority.
A U.S. Soldier, center, with Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 2nd Cavalry Regiment, renders medical aid to a notionally wounded Soldier during a mission rehearsal exercise (MRE) at the Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, March 13, 2013. The MRE is designed to ensure deploying units are capable of conducting security forces assistance operations to enable the Afghan National Security Forces to assume primary responsibility for operations to support governance and security and defeat insurgency within the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Jordan Fuller/Released)
Photo: US Army Spc. Jordan Fuller Two quadcopters with the Ls3 mules grab an aid bag from a mule’s back and fly it to the medic’s position, arriving at the same time as the patient. The medic grabs an injector of ClotFoam from the pack and tells the TALOS to relax the pressure on the wound. He places the injector into the hole formed by the bullet and fills the soldier with foam that will stop bleeding, hold the damaged organs in place, and be easily removed in surgery. He alerts the platoon sergeant that the patient is ready to be medically evacuated.
12:00-15:00 — The runner returns with friends The Argus operator radios the platoon leader and tells him the runner is returning the the battlefield with two friends in a vehicle with a mounted machine gun.
Weapons and 1st squad are establishing the platoon perimeter and the platoon leader alerts them and the sniper team to the inbound threat.
Air Force snipers
Photo: US Air Force Airman 1st Class Nicholas Benroth A missile team moves to the expected contact side, but the sniper team already has eyes on the target. Knowing the vehicle will be moving quickly and bumping on the road, he loads EXACTO rounds. He leads the target and fires. The vehicle speeds up while the round is in the air, but the sniper continues to mark the target and the round turns in the air, finally ripping through the driver’s neck. With the vehicle stopped, the snipers quickly dispatch the other two fighters.
23:00 — Medevac and site exploitation The medic gets his patients onto the Medevac bird and the platoon begins site exploitation. Their exploitation is protected by a drone that can watch the surrounding 15 square miles for threats, static defense placed by their drones, a sniper team with steerable rounds on overwatch, and their platoon perimeter.
David is a former Fort Bragg paratrooper who deployed with the 82nd Airborne Division's 4th Brigade Combat Team.
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It will be fought asymmetrically. We will be unprepared for the all-out assault on our financial sector and infrastructure by hackers. The wealth will be stolen and/or wiped out, and the physical infrastructure will be taken care of by those already here. Power plants will be taken down, and never come up again until they are put up by those that attacked us. And to make sure things are fatal, an EMP will ensure the food is not delivered, the hospitals and factories go dark, and the people fight and kill themselves over the last scraps of food and drops of gasoline.
Interesting and plausible, with reservations. The scenario does not explain the larger context, what the objective is, and why it merits an infantry assault. In most instances, infantry would simply use firepower at a distance to neutralize enemy forces. In addition, the enemy laser trucks would probably be identified, targeted, and destroyed before the infantry began their attack.
Good scenario — for a movie with good SFX.
Maybe our military leadership as intentionally degraded by Obama is this pathetic at use of new tech, but I hope that’s not true.
The problem with scenarios like this is that they assume the enemies haven’t made counter-tech leaps themselves.
We are so screwed.
I know Obamas screwing with us. Hopefully many people are praying God will spare us for the sake of 10 righteous. I’m not one of those 10, but I know at least 10 who seek God and righteousness. I’m praying for a Hezekiah who will rebuild the walls and lead the people back to Him. But I too feel we crossed a dangerous line. Obama won’t cross lines except Gods.
I think all of this stuff will be jammable too
IRL we’d drop a JDAM on it
Too many discount nukes, their miniturization and inevitable deployment. Smart money is on radiological decontamination.
“It will be fought asymmetrically.”
I agree. Because of Obama’s Iran deal part of the asymmetry will be smuggled nukes used as blackmail.
Homosexuals and transgenders will give us the edge.
Many years ago I was at a place that did training. Operators of the victim defensive equipment were being briefed by the planners of the test scenario. I was there as an observer doing work on another matter.
The planner went through his exercise and what was going to happen in a general way and established the response parameters under which the operators of the defense equipment were to operate (e.g., only two salvos, look here, do this, etc.).
When the briefing was finished, the leader of the victim defensive group asked “at what point in this test do we get to take off our blindfolds?”
> The problem with scenarios like this is that they assume the enemies haven’t made counter-tech leaps themselves.
Some of the robotech China has might surprise us. They’ve been working on it for a long time.
If that enemy leader engaged our "future force" in this scenario with a well-directed mortar, everything comes apart.
Hope the Japanese Robotech is better and they will let us have some. Couldn’t resist the cartoon reference.
Meanwhile during the scenario, counter strike teams walk across our open Southern border, drive up to domestic bases, and wipe out hundreds of unarmed personnel.
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