04-15-2014, 05:36 AM
There is an advantage to having two calibers, many of the Talibs I interrogated said they attacked us in 2 waves,
The first from short distance (Usually 2-3 inexperienced men/kids and 1 experienced man) this team was largely made up of forces who only had command wires and RPG's, no small arms. Their job was to draw fire then blend in to the populace after disabling vehicles or disrupting columns.
The second was set up on a higher or further overwatch type position, they fired mortars from behind mountains if no helos were present and if there were, the long distance crews would fire heavy weapons (DSHK's and DP-25's) at the column to get them to fire their 5.56's at them, meanwhile a second element would maneuver, further down the kill box to assault through the forces, the same way we lift and shift in a box. they were sound in their tactics, I have watched them bounding in on us before. I have also been on FOB's that have been penetrated (Baghram May 2010) they weren't stupid and they took our weakness and used it to their advantage (Only 5.56's are mobile so they hit convoys from the front (German and English Naval Tactic called crossing the T) This gave them firepower advantage and on the narrow mountain passes, we couldn't do anything about it. If we had more MK48's in country, we would have done a little better in the short ambushes but in protracted firefights the lighter caliber stuff worked. We countered this by using overwatch scout teams on routes that were likely to have ambushes and used air assets whenever available.... In my experience if you send a B1 through a valley at lower than mountain peak altitudes, bad guys run and the the good guys get to see cool stuff btw.... good to know when the B1 has no ordnance on board but uses the aircraft to scare the hell out of them (And me because I didnt know what they were going to do)
The first from short distance (Usually 2-3 inexperienced men/kids and 1 experienced man) this team was largely made up of forces who only had command wires and RPG's, no small arms. Their job was to draw fire then blend in to the populace after disabling vehicles or disrupting columns.
The second was set up on a higher or further overwatch type position, they fired mortars from behind mountains if no helos were present and if there were, the long distance crews would fire heavy weapons (DSHK's and DP-25's) at the column to get them to fire their 5.56's at them, meanwhile a second element would maneuver, further down the kill box to assault through the forces, the same way we lift and shift in a box. they were sound in their tactics, I have watched them bounding in on us before. I have also been on FOB's that have been penetrated (Baghram May 2010) they weren't stupid and they took our weakness and used it to their advantage (Only 5.56's are mobile so they hit convoys from the front (German and English Naval Tactic called crossing the T) This gave them firepower advantage and on the narrow mountain passes, we couldn't do anything about it. If we had more MK48's in country, we would have done a little better in the short ambushes but in protracted firefights the lighter caliber stuff worked. We countered this by using overwatch scout teams on routes that were likely to have ambushes and used air assets whenever available.... In my experience if you send a B1 through a valley at lower than mountain peak altitudes, bad guys run and the the good guys get to see cool stuff btw.... good to know when the B1 has no ordnance on board but uses the aircraft to scare the hell out of them (And me because I didnt know what they were going to do)