Ultradave

After saying all that there is one caveat I should have added. It’s going to depend a lot on the maneuver commander’s plans, and how he wants to operate. But if I was advising that’s what I’d recommend.

The extended part is indeed for towing. Not sure about the rear facing rods and little boresight looking thingy. Search for M777 being towed and you'll find some pics in towing mode. Dave

I think of your choices, I like this one. A battalion of artillery is serious firepower, and I think they are being sent 3-4 battalions worth? So if those were separate from each other or clustered in twos, that makes the logistics a little better, especially as they are on interior lines. Ammo resupply shouldn't be *too* bad. IMO spreading them out a battery here and another there is probably asking for trouble - maintenance, resupply, spare parts, consolidation if there are losses. A battalion still needs to be locally dispersed to avoid counter battery fire taking out a large number. A battalion is 3 firing batteries, plus a HQ and HQ Battery (HHB), that includes ammo train, admin, S-3 (Ops), Bn FDC, and a target acquisition element (for counter battery intel). That's quite a bit of stuff but it's more or less self sufficient. Dave

Not quite but certainly in the ballpark. I just think that if they get sent a whole bunch, they can be useful, as long as they are careful what they do with them. Dave

Yes, indeed. They just have to see them for their strengths and flexibility and not expose them needlessly. As stated, there are many tasks that they can help with, that don't involve going toe-to-toe with 20mm auto cannons or worse. I agree with the sentiment - if thee choice is a civilian 4x4 or a M113, guess which I'm going with? Dave

This is awesome. With refills, one would hope. Dave

It does indeed cost money. I can't describe much in specifics but we had a material we used, sole source vendor because no one else makes it. Also for obscure reasons they own the manufacturing process so other vendors had trouble (a LOT of trouble, like stuff catching fire) duplicating it. Sole source company had no incentive to let loose the process because this was 10% of their total sales. It took YEARS of analysis and testing to find a new material that could be made (already was actually) by multiple vendors. The cost to qualify vendors though, was pretty eye-watering. For this it's actually a common material although not normally supplied to such stringent quality and consistency, for which there are very valid technical reasons, so not just the DOD being DOD-ish. In the end the sole source vendor wasn't put out because they also supply other material and this special material was a PIA for them, scheduling wise and tricky process. It's simple for someone to say, "Well, just get another supplier" In practice that can be a huge long term effort, and there are good valid reasons for that. Dave

It's actually Steve that said this but quoting the quote gets wonky There were several times we got on planes and were not told, for security leak reasons, where we were going until we were on the planes and the engines were running. Actually more than several. Some training. A few real. Then the maps came out and planning started while we were in the air. (it was always far enough away for plenty of time) The only time we ended up in a different place than briefed was on a jump right on Ft Bragg for training. We were supposed to be dropped (my 6 man team) on one of the sandy flights trips in the woods surrounded by tall pine trees. It was totally socked in. I was the first one in the door (only officer so that's what you do). Jumpmaster leans out, looks, leans back in, looks at me, leans out, leans back in "I can't see $h1t, sir" All I could see was white out the door over his shoulder. (the Jumpmaster is supposed to verify the drop zone). Green light comes on. I tapped him on the shoulder, pointed to the green light and he yells "STANDINTHEDOORGO!!!" So I went. About 100 ft above the ground we finally came out of the clouds and I realized we were landing on the biggest drop zone on Fort Bragg - it's like 2.5 miles long and 3/4 mile wide, clear sand with just shrubs. Whew!! Thank God. And then "I hope someone told our driver" They did. Pilots didn't bother to let us know we were dropping 10 miles from where we were supposed to. But those flight strips are 500m long and about 50m wide surrounded by telephone pole pine trees. It would have been ugly. OK. War stories over. Dave

My Dad (an E-5 at the time) had the wheel of a destroyer escort entering Boston harbor, sometime after they came home from Korean War. Having grown up sailing in Boston harbor, when the OD ordered right 30deg rudder he questioned it. When the OD insisted he said something like "Dumb****, there are rocks over there - the pier is left 30deg" Later he was "dressed down" by the CO, who said something like, "You know I have to berate you for disrespect, but I do thank you for not blindly putting my ship on the rocks. Next time, maybe a little more tact, or call for another officer" Dave

The gun laying you describe is very similar to what the US used prior to the advent of GPS and lots of computerized fire control. 2 stakes set out, sight on the gun, theodolite used by the XO to the gun to initially survey in each gun (a surveyor's transit, essentially), and all deflections in mils. My experience predates all the golly-gee whiz bang stuff which no doubt makes it easier. And from what I've seen, our artillery still needs to be proficient in doing things that way in case all the electronics die. US 155 uses powder bags, (separately loading ammo), the smaller 105mm has cased ammo but I haven't heard of sending any of those. Dave

I was an officer, but if I got paid for every time I said "What do you think, Sergeant Sam?" I'd be rich. (SSG and then later SFC Samarripa). He was my first team sgt as a new 2LT and then again years later as a CPT. He taught me a lot and I taught him that he could always be straight with me - give me the best advice he had, even when I don't ask for it. IMO as an officer it's just extremely foolish to not be this way. We worked well together and I'll always owe him. Dave

Doesn't make any difference in the game as far as I can tell. In real life the fire support team has more radio nets it can simultaneously monitor, as opposed to the FO team that just has the one radio. But that isn't reflected as far as any use in game. It's in TO&E so it shows up Dave

Very clear example of the aiming technique. Thanks @Haiduk

At the risk of veering a bit off topic, it's also not widely known that for about 20 years, HALF of all the uranium we used in US nuclear power plants came from decommissioned Soviet nuclear warheads. That's roughly 10% of all the US electric power generated for 20 years. At an American Nuclear Society technical meeting years ago, a Russian nuclear engineer was describing the process. Someone asked a question about a step in the conversion/downblending process. Everyone had the same question because it made no technical sense. "This? It's for political reasons only" Took everyone a second but then it was "Ohhhhhhhh" (disguising the actual original composition). What better way to dispose of 10s of thousands of excess nuclear warheads? Dave PS - Search for "Megatons to Megawatts" - the name of the program PPS - I should clarify - this is NOT the same 50% that we buy, although we did buy this. This program ended in 2013

Which is why the whole Uranium One misinformation campaign was just that. Most people have no idea we buy half the U we use from Russia. In fact, I've had people tell me it's not true and that we sold all our uranium to Russia and now have none Dave

Sure. I'd be up for that. I don't currently have a copy on my computer I don't' think. I may have accidentally lost it in installing a beta at some point. If you have a copy can you pm it to me? I have dropbox. Dave [edit] PS - NVM. Found it.

Someone mentioned hair loss and chemo. Not all chemo causes hair loss. Some does, some doesn't. Not all chemo makes you feel like $h1t. Some does (mine sure did), some doesn't. I felt like Putin looks in that picture. In fact, sitting up was usually a chore for the 12-14 days starting 36 hours after chemo. Then a few good days and do it again, times 6. Other people with the exact same treatment were able to go to work after 1 or 2 days off. Not me. Down for the count. Only thing I'm trying to say is that I don't think you can tell anything from his appearance about cancer and chemo, unless of course some massive tumor bulges from his forehead. Dave

Monster Mash is actually a great scenario all on it's own. Wide open tank fight.

Good choice. 155mm but MUCH easier to move around than a M198. Dave

US has provided $2.6 Billion so far, and there is $13.6 Billion in the budget.

Sure looks like it. That elevated helo deck, and you can just see the inclined missile tubes through the smoke. Definitely looks like the Moskva. Dave

Another Mac guy here, and have been since CMBO. Steam versions are PC only, not Mac. HOWEVER, Steam is just a convenience. You can buy anything from BF for Mac, and install in the Applications folder, and away you go. There is no difference between PC and Mac versions, EXCEPT, the recent PBEM++ from Slitherine, which will only be on PC versions, not Mac. Again however, you can play PBEM Mac to Mac, and Mac to PC without the Slitherene PBEM++ system, which we've been doing all along. There are a couple of utilities that make that PBEM process pretty smooth, but you can still just exchange emails like we used to in CMBO. As @kohlenklau and a couple others mentioned, the demos are a bit behind the current issued games in game engines. If you try and like the demos, you'll love the current game status as the updates have added improvements to the system. Any Mac specific questions, let me know. Happy to help. Dave

Which is the entire reason that there has been a concerted effort over the years to drastically reduce/eliminate IRBMs and tactical/battlefield weapons. The consensus has been that once any kind of nuclear weapon is used, whether it be a "tactical" weapon or limited use (like one or two) strategic weapons, that things would immediately escalate out of control. Keep in mind that many (not all) tactical nuclear weapons are in the multiple KT range. Hiroshima and Nagasaki were 10-20KT weapons. So consider the devastation they left and even divided by 3, 5, or even 10, and you are STILL in the "lay waste to an entire city" area. I HOPE that even Putin in his current state would pause and reconsider such a path. Also, I believe the prevailing weather blows towards Russia, but on the other hand, he/they may just not care about such consequences. Dave

NVM. Overcome by events.

This is a good point. Normally you would expect a number of missiles to be able to overwhelm the defenses of a ship like Moskva. FWIW, CMO lists for each ship the number of Harpoon equivalents it would take. Moskva lists 40. Basically that's supposed to be enough to overwhelm the air defenses and cause enough damage to sink or render it ineffective. Now, of course, if the reports about the radar only being able to be used in 180deg and the drone being used to decoy the radar, that number would not have much bearing. If you can't target the incoming missiles only a few are going to be enough. As far as the 54 survivors, could it be a case of the Turkish freighter announcing that's what they picked up, but the Russians who may or may not have picked up more, just haven't said anything? Dave