04-02-2019, 08:03 PM
LRRPF52 Wrote:Not sure if serious, but you have to get across the Atlantic first. The US Navy controls all of the major sea lanes of the world, and if some piss ant dictator or savage 2-legged bipedal humanoid nutbag decides to get stupid in any of those AOs, we smoke-check his entire military on our terms, erasing it from the face of the earth in a matter of days.
If a nation is stupid enough to challenge us in our areas of strength, they get dealt with in that manner, complete military force reduction to smoldering remains, escharred carcasses hanging out of their Russian-built garbage APCs and tanks, smoking holes and thermal splatter scattered over the terrain, and total regime change.
This is why the major world power observers have leaned heavily on asymmetric actions in order to get us off balance, which has only inoculated us to those threat profiles because we then react to them, throw everything we have against them after re-learning a lot of painful lessons the hard way, until we have all the geopolitical military threat profiles covered with pretty extensive playbooks.
Vietnam should have weakened us by Soviet Strategy, but it only made us stronger
We saw that with Vietnam, where we sent a technological force structured for tactical nuclear exchanges into a LIC/COIN environment. The Russians, Chinese, and some other Soviet satellite states gave scores of cheap MiG-17s, MiG-19s, MiG-21s, SA-2s, and AAA to the North Vietnamese, and devised pretty basic (but effective) tactics to defeat the strengths of the F-105D (a 1950s-devised supersonic penetration nuke strike fighter) runs into North Vietnam.
We responded with a complete fighter inventory analysis in the US and settled on sending the F-4C over to fly cover for the F-105s, learned that the missiles that were ideal for shooting down non-maneuvering bombers don't work so well, and that we actually need to still focus on our basic fighter maneuver tactics to enjoy better exchange ratios.
The result was a retention of the nuclear strike capability, with the addition of the re-learning of BFM through permanent school houses in the Navy and USAF, as well as vast improvements to the missile and guidance technology to enable higher pk against maneuvering fighters. The aircraft borne out of that generation went on to enjoy such lop-sided kill ratios against Russian fighters, that it's embarrassing to bring up Russian fighter performance in serious discussion. (F-15: 104-0, F-16 77-1).
While the Army wanted to forget about Vietnam and COIN, SF maintained fighting the COIN fight as one of its primary wartime and peacetime missions, and we picked up unique SMU capabilities along the way in the late 1970s after the 1972 Olympics incident in Munich with the Israeli soccer team massacre/kidnapping by bipedal humanoid-looking savages (trained and agitated by the Soviet KGB).
ODS Validated our Force Modernization, Training, and lessons-learned for Conventional Warfare
As those capabilities evolved over the 1980s and 1990s, after our overwhelming success in Desert Storm and especially with the lessons-learned from Mogadishu disseminated down into the regular combat divisions, the force was balanced out for both COIN and conventional warfare, despite the Army still dragging its heels in conditioning officers how to fight the COIN fight on the conventional side (they did little or nothing to focus on this for some reason).
OEF and OIF Have re-trained the Infantry and lighter units for COIN
Umpteen years of Afghanistan and Iraq, and now an almost pure Low Intensity conflict in Syria have honed the force into finally being able to have at least enough leaders who know when to plan layers of B-52Hs, F-22As, and F-15Es doing a modern JDAM Arc Light, as well as the 2007 surge of getting as many Infantry embedded into the local areas being contested by foreign insurgents in Iraq, while SMUs and Ranger Regiment hunted them down like dogs.
Instead of the myopic nuclear force of the 1950s-1960s that was TBM, ICBM, and bomber-centric (that gave a rip about Joe learning how to shoot or fight), we now have a force that has:
SLBMs
ICBMs
TBMs
Stealth, supersonic, and legacy strategic bombers (with a new stealth bomber in development/soon to hit production)
Long Range PGMs deliverable from tactical assets (JASSM, JSOW, LRSO, SLAM-ER)
Air Dominance Omnirole and Multirole, networked fighter assets
Precision-Guided Surface-to-Surface munitions platforms in both artillery and missiles (MLRS, Excalibur)
Precision-Guided Surface-to-Surface naval platforms that are currently integrating with 5th Gen Omnirole and drone platforms
Hundreds of remote-piloted weaponized and surveillance drones, to include Very Low Observables (Reaper, etc.)
7 Active Duty and National Guard Special Forces Groups (1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th, 10th, 19th, 20th SFGs)
3 Ranger Battalions
JSOC
11 Armored, Cavalry, Airborne, Infantry, and Airmobile Combat Divisions who have been doing COIN for the better part of the past 2 decades
8 National Guard Combat Divisions that have been rotating through extended COIN deployments for the past 18 years
You hit us with COIN, we eliminate cell leaders and networks for sport, embed infantry into the targeted populace, build infrastructure, and choke out the insurgents from all sides, drone-striking or bombing them with Hellfires, JDAMs, and SDB IIs as they try to move from one AO to the next in civilian vehicles.
You try to go toe-to-toe with us using fighters and tanks, and we will sweep your Air Force from the sky while simultaneously striking your airfields, destroying all your perimeter defense radars, SAM sites, and C4 nodes in compressed time windows that make Desert Storm look like a Sunday picnic.
We maintain a massive nuclear deterrent throughout all of this, while extended Cyberwar and now Space (been doing Space warfare since at least the 1970s).
So why do we need a .270 Magnum for the Infantryman?
So in that context, I ask, "What vision is there for a .270 WSM firing a monolithic or EPR within the Infantry Squad?"
It sounds like a collateral disaster waiting to happen in the COIN fight, where Intel, SOF, Infantry, and drones are your main efforts.
Look at SOCOM's selection of 6.5 Creedmoor for their Sniper Support Rifle. That makes all kinds of sense given the above, whereas a monstrous case .270 Magnum in the Infantry Squad makes zero sense.
Both the US and Europe have enough migrants coming into the country that there is no need for a military invasion. The invaders are already here. Just smuggle weapons.
We have been intercepting weapon shipments for some time now. In 2003 there were four CONEXs filled with RPG-7s and rounds that were intercepted at El Paso. In 2006 there was a ship with AK-47s coming out the Balkans for the US. Hand grenades are easy to smuggle. Hide them in shipments of oranges for example. Plastic explosives can be cooked as the Blind Sheikh did. In fact AKs and RPGs are not all that hard to make. Would not have to take much to make weapons for a million men. And just smuggle the men in over time.