02-01-2019, 01:32 PM
Sinclair Wrote:After the fall of Saigon, it was said that the most technologically advanced army in the World had been defeated by the most technologically backward army in the World and it was only matter of time before the Air Force and the Navy would suffer the same fate. I agree that technology must be respected, but the Finns defeated Russian tanks by jamming chunks of firewood in between the tracks and the drive sprockets. Afghans threw steel cables into the path of Russian helicopters to entangle the rotor blades. Technology only works if your opponent is playing by the same rules. History has taught some of use that if it is a David vs the Giant scenario, the Giant had better beware! The only weapon that exist in the World is the Human brain, everything else is just tools (paraphrase of a Jeff Cooper quote)
Sinclair:
Wrong answers. The NVA invaded South Vietnam with a modern combined arms mechanized army and overran the country in a week. The South Vietnamese were deployed to fight insurgents, not a combined arms army. Also, at the demand of Ted Kennedy, we stopped supporting South Vietnam with arms and funding so they didn't even have the equipment or munitions to fight an insurgency, let alone a huge combined arms force. A modern army beat an army focused on insurgency.
The Finns didn't defeat the Russians either. The Finnish military was slowly being eliminated and the morale was extremely low. The Finns eventually accepted the peace treaty that Stalin dictated to them and remained part of the Soviet system until the 80's (I believe). The Finns were defeated unless you think that allowing an invader to take control of half your country then ensure you follow their every order for the next fifty years means the Finns won.
Throwing cables into the paths of helicopters? I wonder what their success rate was. Kind of hard to judge when to drop a cable when something is going 150 mph and is swerving as a defensive measure. I guess they used the Stingers we gave them only after they missed with the steel cables? Facts are different. Our supplying them with Stingers was the decisive weapon in countering Soviet air operations, not dropping steel cables.
There is a reason why a weapon gets updated or redesigned. It is because it did not or does not meet a requirement. And our countries defense is based on projecting power and fighting in every environment and in any scenario that we think can occur. So, our weapons must function in all conditions and be versatile enough to be effective in any scenario our planners propose. Apparently the issued 5.56 is no longer capable of defeating the type of body armor our enemies are issuing like it could 30 years ago. Se we may be looking at something different. I still have not seen any formal requirement for this SAW.
LR55