Posted on 03/24/2020 10:46:40 PM PDT by RomanSoldier19
Small units are effective with the proper support. The problems have been:
Artillery -- range
Air support -- weather
Rocket artillery and anti-ship missiles could be real game changers.
Neither was I. It’s entirely possible - so much so that people that seem to think that that “well, the Chinese can’t get here” need to go have their head examined.
If we reduce trade and dependence on China, this becomes less of a problem. As it is we have literal millions of containers in transit between the US and China, sitting on Chinese ships in port, or sitting on docks in US ports. And we don’t inspect but a tiny fraction of them! This scenario is entirely possible.
That’s what the new Marine amazon battalions are for.
The enemy will be screwed for sure. /s
They have used tanks in Afghanistan and Iraq. Can’t answer percentages of missions though, but it is likely a low percentage in Afghanistan.
Correct. The reason China won’t invade Taiwan is because for decades Taiwan’s not so secret response plan has been to load up B61-equivalent nuclear bombs on their F-16s or their current stealthiest platforms and send them to every single mainland city they can reach. There is no shortage of brave Taiwanese male (and now no few female) pilots willing to volunteer for this, even if it’s almost assuredly a one way trip. The reality is that the mainland Chinese forces cannot ensure that one of them doesn’t get close enough even to Beijing to toss-bomb before dying, let alone their far closer coastal industrial belts. Taiwan has ensured that if they go down, China as an industrial or financial power goes with it even if they don’t hit Beijing.
Otherwise, the Chinese would have steamrollered them like they did Tibet.
I think you’d have to define ‘missions’ - as in down to the small unit/fire team level individual missions/patrols? Or do you mean overall, such as embassy protection being one mission, naval security being another, operations in Afghanistan being a third, etc.?
It’ called ARTY, towed 105’s and 155’s.
1st BATT, 12th MAR, 3rd MAR DIV.
Vehicles and troops in the open-—FIRE FOR EFFECT!
Yes, but you’re assuming they’re in the open, not in, say, an Ardennes type engagement where overhead degrades artillery. And the old Corps didn’t have smart munitions, plus you’d have to get a direct hit on a T-64 or T-72 to stop it.
And arty can’t help you in a city with lots of tall buildings unless you want to spend a lot of time and munitions busting them up. The Old Corps didn’t exactly have a lot of anti-tank munitions in their infantry units...
That would make being a Marine a tankless job
This guy is an idiot!
Suggest he parachutes into the Mideast naked and uses harsh language, let us know how that rapid deployment works.
I suspect part of the problem is that the US doesn’t currently have a light tank/tank destroyer solution (which the US Army is actually presently looking for) and the Abrams isn’t actually all that air- or sea-mobile as modern versions of it are **74 tons**. Getting the M1A2C/D to the beach is going to consume a lot of sea or airlift that could be used for more vehicles and troops.
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Sherman tanks were used in the Pacific Theater...Obviously, Sherman tanks were not very heavy...
I thought about M551 tank...But, that light tank is no longer in service...
Majority of them.
Thrust of Marine warfighting doctrine led to the use of Combined Arms. The idea being any one weapon system has another counter weapon system to oppose it. The trick is to task organize for the terrain and situation.
I don’t know of a Grunt out there who wouldn’t prefer to have his own Armor in his Task Organization. While other arms might be attached directly or indirectly, or scheduled, it is much more assured when they are organic in direct support to your unit.
Drones aren’t Armor. As an arm, they may be valuable, but if somebody is shooting machine guns and sniper rifle fire and they know the terrain better than yourself, a tank is a nice weapon to have on hand.
I know they have a large maintenance tail, but they do help secure terrain and sure assist infantry to secure asymmetric warfare conflicts.
The 551 was an utter death trap, especially when it hit a mine. It had (essentially) caseless ammunition sitting out in the open in the fighting compartment and when hit the thing would just go up.
Saving myself typing by linking a prior post on a similar subject: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3604214/posts?page=25#25
“...the rest of it was in a place with nothing but red mud.”
Alabama no doubt? That whole state was nothing but red mud that dried on your shoes turning them into red bricks.
If this article is true (from the Wall Street Journal), then the Commander is an idiot.
How did the 3rd ID in Iraq help end the war? My son’s company, the 299th Engineering Company MRB and the 54th Combat Engineers had an amphibious assault on Iraqi forces on the eastern banks of the Euphrates River at Hindaya (Objective Peach), seizing and clearing enemy positions there so that the rest of the Bridging company could put up the first ribbon pontoon bridge in US military history.
This enabled the 3rd ID lighter vehicles to cross, under sporadic enemy fire (my son was a boat driver at this site, which meant holding the pontoons in one position because of the downstream currents of the river). They brought the men and supplies over to support the tanks who had seized the concrete bridge upriver.
Army elements had seized the remaining concrete bridge over the river from the Republican Guard so that the heavier Abrams tanks could use it to cross and start the “Baghdad Run” from the West (while my son-in-law’s 4th Marine Division started their run from the East).
Islands in the Pacific have rivers and creeks etc. running all thru them (as our Marines and Army found out at great cost during WW2). The same happened in Vietnam (Dong Ha bridge and NVA riverine forces in Quangtri Province.
You need bridges to help get troops and equipment over them. Period.
This guy may literally be a Manchurian Commandant.
I play cornhole with a 102 year old Army vet of the Pacific on Guadalcanal and Iwo Jima. He told me the Marines did all the real fighting and the Army mopped up. He was a BAR man. He’s going strong, and will be 103 in September.
If they soften it up like that, maybe any reason they had for invading in the first place, would be moot. 😁
But they will have Canada, and maybe Mexico.
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