Posted on 11/29/2003 7:43:42 AM PST by Cannoneer No. 4
Part one of a three-part series on the United States evolving armed forces.
NORRISTOWN - Transformation is the guiding principle for today's U.S. military, and top Defense officials have mandated sweeping changes aimed to quicken the pace of warfare and streamline the Pentagon's cumbersome bureaucracy.
On Nov. 24, President Bush signed the $401 billion Defense Authorization Bill of 2004, the largest defense budget in history.
And though the military's fighting capability is second to none, officials warn that the time it takes to develop some weapons renders them obsolete by the time they are finally produced -often 15 to 20 years later.
Borrowing the best attributes of U.S. Special Operations Forces, the Defense Department envisions a faster, more agile, more lethal fighting force guided in battle by increasingly sophisticated digital technology.
What's Imperative for an Information Age fighting force, according to Adm. Arthur Cebrowski, Ret., director of the Pentagon's Office of Force Transformation, is being connected to the military's Tactical Internet and wowing the enemy.
"We want our enemies, current and future, to look at us and say, 'Wow, how do they do that?'" He told an audience at the Heritage Foundation think tank in Washington recently.
With a continuously improving fighting capability, defeated enemy forces will be left to scratch their heads wondering what hit them. They will see an attack unfold before their eyes, Cebrowski said, but they won't understand how it happened and will be powerless to stop it.
"That's the power of transformation," he said.
Network-centric warfare
Digital warfare came of age in Operation Iraqi Freedom in March. Functioning as the military's communications network, the Tactical Internet relayed command-and-control decisions from commanders to soldiers and Marines crammed inside armored vehicles rolling through the Iraqi desert.
The Force XXI Battle Command Brigade and Below (FBCB2) is the U.S. Army's main digital command-and-control system for highly mobile, real-time battle information.
Bradley Fighting Vehicles and M1A1 Abrams tanks equipped with FBCB2 gave the infantry a picture of the battlefield that included color-coded displays of friendly forces (blue icons) and enemy troop (red icons) locations. During the war, the system effectively replaced paper maps and radio voice communication.
The military's high-tech advantage needs to constantly change and improve, Cebrowski said, to keep enemies second guessing U.S. strategy. The Iraqi military, he said, likely studied the 1991 Gulf War strategy to gauge what coalition forces would do during the recent war.
"That's exactly what we want to happen," he said. "I like to see a lot of generals who want to fight the last war, (but) I just want them all to be on the other side." Not knowing precisely where geographically future threats will come from, defense officials say it's imperative to train troops jointly for rapid deployment to almost anywhere on earth.
The Transformation director and other Pentagon reformers are especially critical of the time it takes to produce weapons systems. Defense programs development cycles must be brought in line with those of commercial industry, Cebrowski said, which are typically measured in months and years - not decades.
Trimming weight
The U.S. Army's Crusader artillery program was an early casualty of the transformation initiative. The $11 billion program was cancelled last year. According to Cebrowski, any weapons program is expendable if it doesn't meet the new transformation criteria.
"(Crusader) is a legacy of industrial age warfare born to satisfy the Army's indirect fire requirements in a strategic context that no longer exists," he said. In other words, Crusader is a relic of the Cold War: too heavy, too expensive and too long in development.
The main Crusader tracked vehicle, equipped with a 150 mm howitzer [I think they mean 155mm - Cannoneer], requires a companion vehicle to supply it with ammunition. The two vehicles weigh in at a whopping 81 tons - a lot of hardware to haul to a battle front.
The lightweight Stryker infantry vehicle is one of transformation's new kids on the block exemplifying a light, more mobile capability. The Stryker family of vehicles, 10 in all, includes a version equipped with 105 mm gun, and models that carry infantry, ammunition and wounded troops.
The "trim" 19-ton vehicle comes loaded with digital technology and has a top speed of 62 miles per hour - 21 miles per hour faster than the much heavier 35-ton Abrams tank. Because of its lighter weight, the Stryker would be easier to transport to faraway fronts, another top transformation goal.
In February, the army began testing the mobile gun Stryker at Aberdeen Proving Ground, near Baltimore, Md. The vehicle is expected to debut in Iraq early next year.[emphasis Cannoneer's]
While Cebrowski doesn't want to eliminate tanks altogether, he clearly believes Stryker is the centerpiece of the military's future, giving the forces necessary nimbleness and speed in urban areas such as Baghdad.
Though the tanks proved effective in protecting their crews from artillery or missile fire, for the transformation director, the new high-tech vehicles give troops better awareness of where the enemy is located so that troops can avoid danger - or speed out of harm's way.
"Anyone that doesn't like speed, or says that speed isn't required, has never been shot at," he said.
However, the Stryker has its share of critics. A report prepared for New Jersey Republican Rep. James Saxton, a member of the House Armed Service Committee, concluded the vehicle is ill suited for warfare.
The July report, written by consultant Victory O'Reilly, said that the vehicle was poorly armored and vulnerable to rocket-propelled grenade attacks.
Responding to the report's finding, the army said that Strykers headed for combat have recently been reinforced with additional armor.
But even armor has limits. In some situations armor is necessary; in other cases it isn't, Cebrowski said.
"(Steel) didn't help 17 dead sailors on board (U.S.S.) Cole, for example," he said. "This is a steel ship. And so you don't see the Navy talking about adding more steel to its destroyers (ships)."
The U.S.S. Cole was attacked in Yemen by terrorists in a bomb-laden boat in 2000. The explosion created a huge hole in the ship.
Instead of more steel, the director said, timely reconnaissance is crucial for safeguarding fighting units. Unmanned aerial vehicles were used effectively in Afghanistan and Iraq to spot enemy troops from the air.
Once the enemy was located on the ground, air power was called in to bomb their positions. This close relationship between the infantry and air support was one of the pluses to come out of Iraq's post-war analysis. The air-infantry teamwork also raises questions about the necessity of Crusader or other artillery programs.
"It is as if we will have discovered a new sweet spot in the relationship between land warfare and air warfare and a tighter integration of those," he said.
A newly formed Stryker Brigade Combat Team - a 2nd Infantry Division unit from Fort Lewis in Washington state - is currently in Kuwait. When the unit moves into Iraq next year [Next year?], defense officials will be watching closely to see how Stryker performs.
The 5,000-strong Stryker brigade is part of a planned troop rotation next year.
Overall, the Pentagon plan to replace 130,000 American troops in Iraq with a fresh contingent that will shrink the force by 20 percent, according to The Associated Press.
The National Guard and Reserve troops make up about 20 percent of the current force of 130,000. According to AP, after the rotation ends in April, nearly 40 percent of the 105,000 troops in the new force will be National Guard and Reserve forces.
Tomorrow: The New Military, Part 2: "The Long Hitch"
Keith Phucas can be reached at kphucas@timesherald.com or at 610-272-2500, ext. 211.
Darksheare, you legacy of industrial age warfare, get with the program and embrace transition. The lessons of history have been overtaken by technology.
And for chow tonight we have Bubble Up and Rainbow Stew.
It is a Gopher, known in Russian service as the ZRK-BD Strela-10.
Specifically, it's a multiple-tube launcher on the MTLB tracked chassis. How long until either a dual-purpose AA/AT missile is fielded, or an AT missile capable of being fired from the same mounts?
The SA-13 transporter erector launcher and radar (TELARis a modified MT-LB amphibious armored tracked vehicle with the machine-gun turret removed. The launcher pedestal mounted to the rear of center of the vehicle is 360º traversable. It incorporates the operators position behind a large, rectangular window at its base.
Normally the TELAR carries four ready to fire SA-13 missile container-launchers and eight reloads in the cargo compartment but it can also carry either SA-9 GASKIN container-launcher boxes in their place or a mixture of the two. This enables the the cheaper SA-9 (Strela-1) to be used against the easier targets and the more expensive and sophisticated SA-13 (Strela-10) against the difficult targets. The missile mix also allows a choice of infra-red (IR) seeker types on the missiles for use against extremely low altitude targets and in adverse weather.
Next addition: a long-range AT version, like the LCPK guidance package for the NATO Hydra-70 2.75 helicopter-pod mounted rockets?
-archy-/-
Just so. Only two of the Crusaders could be carried aboard a C-17. And if it was necessary to suddenly move a battery of Crusaders around in-theater, it would take C-17s to do it; as they couldn't be moved aboard C-130s.
Oh, and the number of Strykers that can be carried aboard a C-17. Also two. And once they arrive in-theater and have their anti-RPG slatted armor added, the number of Strykers that can be carried aboard a C-130? Also zero.
You're a commander; you get your choice of a C-17 airlift of vehicles, two available planes worth. You can have two loads of Crusaders, four vehicles with 155MM guns with a 20KM+ range, and mounting a .50 machinegun each. And if you can get a third planeload, a pair of ammo support vehicles.
Or you can get two planeloads of Strykers, each with a .50 MG. If you get the third planeload, you've got a total six armored cars with MGs on their roofs, max range 2,000 meters, realistic range 1,200. You choose.
-archy-/-
The C-17 would be the best choice of all. It's proving itself to be the Rolls Royce of airlifters, and well-liked.
BUT...
We're already using up airframe time on them faster than new ones can be built. If I was "thinking outside the box", I'd use Army funding to second-source the C-17 to another airframer, and then give them to the AF, with the orders that that number of aircraft will always be instantly available to the Army on a moment's notice. Heck, I'd even have the Army pay for the slots for the AF guys that flew them.
I think the Army would get far more benefit, and have far fewer problems, buying $10 billion of C-17 over $10 billion of Stryker. Far fewer miracles are required that way.
Hypervelocity munitions will abound...so to will the counter to Electric technology..that being EMP and multi phasing EMP weapons.
Armies will need sheiding..from armor suites to field generators on battle equipment..or they will be *Microwaved to death where they sit and stand.
With certain nations falling behind in the arms race..the temptation to use EMP burst on the battlefield ,air and sea will be tempting.... their only feasible response.
Pandoras box will be opened when Micro nukes finally appear.
Jihadi to some Arab armies may purchase said devices from 3rd party brokers...Europe and China...Russia too if they can keep their hands clean.
I can forsee Egypt loosing all her M1A1's in the Sinai to Israel in such a scenario....from searing their attenna's and cascade failure progression on electronics..to EMP'ing the area above them via nukes.
Massed mechanized forces may be in for a rude suprise in the near future.
Part two of a three-part series on our evolving armed forces
NORRISTOWN - Talk of military transformation is an abstract notion for many U.S. Army Reserve troops rebuilding war-torn Iraq thousands of miles from home. The burning question on their minds is: When will we get transformed from soldiers to civilians again?
That doesn't seem to be the lesson learned by the Russians after reviewing the casualty lists of their forces in Afghanistan and Chechnya after taking hits in BTR/BMP light armored vehicles. Instead the Russians are upgrading the armor on their heavier MTLB tracks and rebuilding old T55 and T72 tanks into heavy personnel carriers. As are the Israelis....
Where the light armoured vehicles are retained, it appears to be in order to take advantage of their amphibious capability. Of which we have precious few vehicles so capable....
-archy-/-
Rumor had it that a GPS guided round was being developed for artillery.
I'm assuming it would be able to be modified for tanks as well.
Down to 81/82mm for mortars now too, per the British terminally-guided Merlin 81mm mortar round for their L16 81mm- AKA the U.S. M252. Mortars have such a lovely incoming trajectory for use with self-forging antitank penetrator weapons....
And the US Army has the XM395 laser-guided 120mm mortar round almost ready for fielding in FY 2006. 
Also IIRC, your point was mainly talking about the molecular structure of materials and hyper-kinetic weapons up to that point. Shaped charge weapons are a different beast as you pointed out later in the thread.
Somebody in the building got sold a "shazzam" briefing, didn't they? LOL!
Silly person. It was already explained about the pecking order in transporting Army equipment vs. everybody else's. And IIRC, the maneuver force had to stop several times and wait for the M109s to catch up in Gulf War I. The Paladin has a weight somewhere around 31 1/2 tons (IIRC) so the transportation problem you allude to isn't solved by killing the Crusader program.
For RAP, or base-bleed projectiles, but not for Copperhead/ CGLP, closer to 15KM. See previous discussion of 152/155mm projos and range here, including those that make mushroom clouds and leave their targets glowing with something other than pride of accomplishment.
Seems to me that weight is a problem.
Not if the aircraft in which you plan to move it in can cheerfully handle either, and is limited from carrying a third vehicle inside due to bulk and spacial limitations rather than weight.
I'd think a more real limitation would be found in Korea, where many of the bridges are Class 50s that won't take the weight of either a Crusader or an Abrams tank. But noone has suggested getting rid of all our Abrams tanks to take on North Korean tank divisions with good intentions instead, should it come to that.
We sold the South Koreans a bushel basket of our reworked M48A5s for a little over $1000 each, a real bargain, and just light enough to be workable over those bridges, [even M60A1s were over-heavy] while American M1A2 Abrams tanks did the job where they could. A similar mix of Crusaders and M109A6/A7 Paladins would seem to be the redleg equivalent.
A valid strategy, in the short term. They are up against RPG7 type stuff for the most part.
I'm not saying that armor is not useful right now, just that the clock is ticking on the battlefield life for heavy armor and the military knows it and is planning for this in future deployments. I expect future armor systems to have advanced "medium" armor, not enough to protect against a direct hit from a modern anti-armor weapon, but enough to protect against an irregular using weaker weapons. Shaped-charge based anti-armor weapons will always be vulnerable to armor systems because it places restrictions on the environment (e.g. standoff distance) for it to work correctly. Hyperkinetic weapons are different ball of wax, since they are not dependent on the properties of what they hit to work well. Older kinetic energy weapons (like tank sabots) couldn't be driven fast enough to cross the threshold where the dart is no longer selective about its terminal behavior, though still highly effective.
I'm not saying that we should forego armor (or go with the Stryker), but that we should plan armor to deal with the threats it can deal with and ignore the rest. Just like there is no amount of armor you can practically put on a person to stop a 30mm round, there is no amount of armor you can practically put on a tank to stop a hyperkinetic penetrator. On the other hand, there is still plenty one can do (both passive and active) to deal with shaped-charge weapons, and these typically don't require nearly as much real armor as defending against KE type weapons.
Mortars are great for just about any target if you put a smart head (or cluster of smart independently targeted heads) on them. They are also nice and portable.
The US military has been investing a ton of money in advanced mortar systems. Not only are they building new mortar platforms out of composite materials (the new versions of the classic mortars weigh half as much as the ones they replace), but they are making them very smart guided munitions by default, with smart self-homing (i.e. no target designation required -- the warhead searches for a target on the way down) under late-stage development.
This is part of the reason that artillery is getting cut. The US military has decided to put its money in substantially upgrading the lethality and capabilities of the mortar systems for indirect fire missions, in part because it is cheap and very portable, and then leaving the long-range and heavy targets to the Air Force. It is an issue of maximizing bang for the logistical buck. One can make arguments against this, but this is the calculus that was used.
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