War games: America ‘keeps getting its ass handed to it’ by simulated Chinese, Russian attacks

The National Sentinel ^ | 3/10/19 | Jon Dougherty

[Tallguy]

I’d be a little more concerned if the war games showed US forces kicking but as then the games would be useless as a planning tool.

[Tallguy]

I read just last week that the USN even as it commissioned the USS GERALD FORD may be planning to layup the USS CARL VINSON decades early.

[Tallguy]

“ll of these scenarios involve the enemy doing what we expect hm to do - and we lose all of THEM.”

Not always. There was the rather famous exercise where a USMC General commanded the Iranian Red Force and basically ran the 5th fleet out of the Gulf. He used a lot of inventive tactics and low tech comms and weaponry to do it, too.

[The Antiyuppie]

There is a place for massive swarms of cheap bombers with cheap dumb bombs whose primary purpose is to blow large amounts of sh*t up indiscriminately.

Stalin did say that quantity has a quality all of its own. And the harsh reality is that comparing similar weapons, the Germans generally had better weapons systems than we did from guns to artillery to aircraft. It was finely crafted and expensive. The quality of the Russian equipment was far worse. German equipment was complex and finicky. You could fix most Russian equipment with a crowbar and a hammer. Who won?

[AppyPappy]

You have to get close enough to the carrier. That’s not easy.

[SoCal Pubbie]

I think it’s pretty common knowledge that modern warships have little to no armor protection.

[Jim Noble]

“You have to get close enough to the carrier. That’s not easy.”

At 18 000 mph from low earth orbit? I bet it’s a snap.

[Skooz]

What kind of experience do we evince with women in the CON who can't navigate a shipping lane?

Winner.

[AppyPappy]

There’s not a lot of room for error at that speed.

[GOPJ]

During the 8 years in this decade when the GOP controlled the House and power of the purse, where were the appropriations for homeland defense? No money for a wall, no money for missile defense. Yet the GOP fully funded Planned Parenthood and every failed social program conceived during the last 60 years. An epic abdication of their first responsibility - keeping the homeland and the citizens safe.

You're right - AND we're NOT even protected against cyber attacks... (adding insult to injury)

[Covenantor]

“You have to get close enough to the carrier. That’s not easy.”

At 18,000 mph from low earth orbit? I bet it’s a snap

No need to look to the skies when silent econo subs have penetrated CAGs in excercises. Swedish Gotland and French Le Saphir did and that's old news before the diversity doctrine commandeered the bridge of USN vessels. Granted the USN has studied the solo Gotland especially hard, but a wolf pack of cheap subs....

[TADSLOS]

How do you justify increased defense spending on equipment and weapons acquisitions? You build a simulation with an outcome consistently showing your forces getting their ass handed to them using current strategies, tactics equipment and weaponry.

Anyone remember the US Army Pegasus Active Defense war game simulation against the Warsaw Pact on the Fulda Gap maps played out in the 70’s? The Soviet juggernaut routinely brushed aside NATO on its way to the ports of Western Europe.

Enter the Airland Battle era, the M1 Abrams, MLRS and the AH-64 Apache.

[miliantnutcase]

Because on paper we’re 40 years ahead of them in military technology.

[miliantnutcase]

Yeah, and Japan took us by surprise to and that didn’t end well for them. You can get the first shot in but they will not win a war.

[Stingray51]

See how the scenario is stacked: “He notes that in scenario after scenario, American forces suffer heavy losses — especially to expensive, legacy systems — while still being unable to prevent “red” forces (China and Russia) from achieving their strategic objectives.” So China and Russia have objectives that we are trying to prevent them achieving. I am presuming that these scenarios do not involve actually invading the USA. It is more a matter of us intervening somewhere, likely far away, trying to stop them from achieving something much closer to their home. This is all obvious but my point is that the intervening party is facing certain built-in disadvantages from the get go.

[Stingray51]

Maybe people with recent experience can comment but I suspect that our ground forces are not fully prepared for a non-GPS environment. Does the Army even purchase paper maps these days? Are the maps all on chart-plotters (like iPads)? Proficiency at land navigation without GPS takes a lot of practice.

[100American]

Pure Click Bait, waste of time and shopping for dollars on more spending for Military which is already many multiples more then the next 4 in line

Proceed at your own risk...

[VTenigma]

We always get our ass handed to us when we are up against the Russians. Just like on that bridge in Syria last year when the Russian contractors were wiped off the map for getting uppity. I’m pretty sure our side didn’t even break a sweat. And all Maddog did was say oops.

[Sybeck1]

This looks like a job for the Space Force

[nathanbedford]

quantity has a quality all of its own.

That was absolutely true in World War II but it was not at all true in the first Gulf War. In other words to have massive cavalry forces proved to be as much of a liability as an asset against the machine guns introduced in World War I. To have the best machine guns in World War I is another matter.

I think our challenge, and our mistake, is to be all things in all theaters against all potential enemies. We are overextended and that means that we can win the Iraq war but we cannot win the occupation quite so easily, or at least at a cost which was politically supportable. At the same time we must be able to confront Russia in the Arctic and China in the Spratlys while we fight asymmetrical wars in the Mideast. Next year we might find the theater of war to be in space.

During the eight years of Obama we had no strategy, apart from appeasement, to deal with any of these theaters, much of that, thanks to Trump, has been improved today. Strategy implies making choices, recognition of real strategic interests, adopting weapons systems to secure those interests and, finally, praying that we are preparing for the next, not the last, war.

Above all, our economic base and moral foundation must be conserved in order to avoid the next war and, if necessary, win it. We are squandering our economic edge and our culture is disintegrating. There is only so much Trump can do against these tectonic forces.

The imperative to address deficit and debt cannot be long postponed.