Posted on 02/06/2015 8:43:22 AM PST by Oldpuppymax
Early in 1996, the Marine Corps started a new organization called the Commandant’s Warfighting Laboratory, later changed to the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, which had the charter to lead the Corps in experimentation with new technologies, techniques, tactics and procedures. It was led by Colonel Tony Wood who was already established as one of the Corps’ most brilliant forward-thinkers and fuelled by a healthy science and technology budget and the full support of the Commandant, General Charles Krulak. The “Lab” quickly set out to test a broad range of emerging technologies along with advanced warfighting experiments.
One of those experiments was the automation of artillery. Artillery had not kept up with the newest technologies and the Corps had adopted a large, heavy, and labor-intense 155mm behemoth as its only fire support system. It takes a 10-man gun crew and it needs to be supported by well-manned Fire Direction Centers and many more additional mouths to feed for logistics and security and so one.
Col. Wood proposed that a completely new approach to expeditionary fire support was needed and I was tasked to assemble a team and build a technology demonstrator weapon based on the 120mm mortar. I had just retired from the Corps and was a Mechanical Engineer as well as a career artillery officer, so I was ready for the challenge. Teaming with the Army Research, Development, and Engineering Command (ARDEC) at Picatinny Arsenal we designed a completely self-contained weapon based on the French 120mm rifled mortar tube and ammunition because of its superior range and accuracy and after 17 months of intense work, it was ready for testing. General Krulak named it the “Dragon Fire” and it immediately demonstrated its capabilities. Instead of a Fire Direction Center, the gun had its own built-in fire control computer...
(Excerpt) Read more at coachisright.com ...
Ping for fire support.
Saving infidel soldiers’ lives is not a priority of this CinC.
This actually says quite the reverse in a humorous way to what I think you meant to say.
Ack! Spell checked to the wrong word!
Breakfast, maybe.
I suspect these words were made up to help people make presentations, but they are not disguised euphemisms made popular by politically-sensistive-techno-militarists (e.g. "collateral damage"). Words like "battle" and "combat" are apparently no longer sufficient to describe all the different kinds of trouble that can happen to our guys, btw who are not only guys, and in fact some may not even classify as Marines/Soldiers/Sailors/Airmen ( which ones did I leave out?).
The same goes for those working to kill off all the A10s.
These people don’t have Americas and our military’s best interest at heart.
Right along with Peacemaking and Peacekeeping/er’s...
Enjoyable blast-from-the-past...
You are correct - and that paragraph sums up treason...or at the very least, unfit for duty. Those louses were thinking of themselves more than they were thinking of their country or the men serving under them.
Any leader who is not willing to sacrifice his own comfort for the safety and well-being of his men, is unfit to lead. Any commander who is more concerned about advancing his career than protecting the lives of his troops, is unfit for command. And any citizen who, for personal gain, actively and knowingly obstructs the use of systems that will demonstrably provide greater support and protection for the country’s armed troops is guilty of treason.
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