With some luck and some inspired leadership, the Army and the Marine Corps will have our own unmanned platforms delivering precision and scaled effects when and where we need it.
Now if and when you do find yourself "down in the weeds", cannon is a good call, since it is excellent against troops, particularly against troops in light cover and best of all it is linear and can be employed very close to us with little danger. Dumb bombs also work fine, as long as you are clear where the target is and you have had enough range time to actually hit things. You left out rockets - another nice, linear weapon with excellent effects. Just remember to eject over us if you can and we'll provide lunch when we come get you.
P.S., when you are computing my service time, add the 3 1/2 years between my first four years and the next 23 years: I had to heal up a while before I could resume service. Also add 14 years as a Technologist for a certain battle lab. Other than that, you are spot on.
Semper Fi, Snowflake 6 Actual
This may or may not ruin your day, but I am in complete agreement with you on the UAV thing. For a lot of reasons, they are the correct approach to a lot of ground attack missions. My money is on the Marine Corps developing a truly effective CAS network using UAVs as a FAC controlled airborne asset. I’ll even go so far as to say that some of the work you’ve been involved in might have laid the initial foundations for that ultimate goal. If it increases the speed and efficiency of supporting our troops in contact, I suspect we are both in violent agreement toward making it happen.