ARMOR Article from latest Fall Issue: Difficulty in returning to a 'Conventional' stance

[Rinaldi]

http://www.benning.army.mil/armor/eARMOR/content/issues/2017/Fall/4Duplessis17.pdf

ARMOR is always an interesting read, and this article in particular was a great one; shows how long it can take a military to shake off the cobwebs of COIN related environments.

[Schrullenhaft]

The author's last name seems familiar... I'm thinking he was a CM player that posted on these boards in the past.

[Vergeltungswaffe]

Mike Duplessis is MikeyD.  Don't know about this author.

[Rinaldi]

32 minutes ago, Schrullenhaft said:

The author's last name seems familiar... I'm thinking he was a CM player that posted on these boards in the past.

I thought the same too, I actually thought it was PnzrLdr for a while, but iirc he's retired. 

[DerKommissar]

Rad article, very well written. I have never seen anyone say "more dakka" in such a persuasive and elegant way.

[John Kettler]

Rinaldi,

That was quite the sobering read and call to action. Many thanks for this disturbing information. Had no idea we were in such bad shape. Here's hoping the foe's in far worse condition!

Regards,

John Kettler

Edited March 17, 2018 by John Kettler

[MikeyD]

Ha ha! No, that ain't me. The name 'Duplessis' is the most common uncommon name. I've been mistaken for everything from Cajun to South African to Haitian. I even spotted a portrait of Benjamin Franklin in the Smithsonian with the painter's name 'Duplessis' signed at the bottom.

[IMHO]

Just a funny off-topic: US Army closed access to all *.mil resources from RUS IPs. Not that people who have to go around the Not-So-Great Russian Firewall every day can't get access but it's funny 

[LUCASWILLEN05]

Lower those US experience ratings!

[Rinaldi]

5 hours ago, LUCASWILLEN05 said:

Lower those US experience ratings!

I'm not entirely sure how "give more indirect fire support" translates to "hamstring their experience."  Yes, the article laments the rotation - but those men remain in the army. People made the same argument with cadres in WWII.

[sid_burn]

6 hours ago, LUCASWILLEN05 said:

Lower those US experience ratings!

I agree. All American units in Black Sea should be set to a minimum of green, if not conscript. Although I think Ukranian and Russian units need experience boosts as well. Your average Russian unit should be set to “elite” and your average Ukranian unit should be set to “Azov” (a new ranking that is above elite and only available to Ukranian forces). 

[Kinophile]

to "green?" Really?

I assume a joke, otherwise youre insanely blind to effects of an institutional-wide and decades-consistent emphasis on constant multi-unit/domain/situational training. 

I often read articles that near-dismiss the usefulness of the last 15 years of COIN - something that seems very blind and uninformed to me. I don't mean uninformed from a military POV, but from a teamwork/familiarity  approach. 

For example - I work in film & tv, as an Assistant Director. We run the set, organize the day and are responsible for the safety of everyone involved. It is a civilian life, with none of the dangers of a FOB - but we do have some surface similarities. I sometimes work as a "Daily" - an Assistant Director who joins a production for a day, or three, for when they are doing large scenes (eg, 300 extras, rolling Pedestrian & Vehicle lock-up through down-town Toronto for a 50mph car chase (a "travelling shot") with 7 picture cars, 6 cop cruisers, etc). Its (relatively) high intensity for several reasons - 1) we have usually just that day to get the scene, 2) ANY moving vehicle can kill someone, and a 50mph 360 degree arc Russian Arm can easily cause a gigantic amount of damage and death, 3) people are idiots and will ignore EVERY ****ING WARNING SIGN & SAFETY GUARD and walk right into the path of a VERY LOUD convoy moving at speed.

Due to these basic (and a myriad other reasons), your team is vital to success. They need to know walkie comms - why, when, how to communicate. They need to read a situation, apply their experience and project forward to the worst possible outcome and prevent it in advance. They must anticipate, communicate, act. Their level of experience is critical to what roles and responsibilities they are given.Their reliability, based on knowledge of them from previous sets, also determines their role. There are plenty of experienced ADs i know who I would not put into the above tevelling shot - I know from past, bitter experience that they "flake out" under pressure: eg they can read a situation too excitedly, causing the whole convoy to jam to a stop for something tiny. Or worse, they get bored, zone out - and miss the headphoned jogger stepping into the path of the convoy.

So, while we are not getting shelled by 152s, the possibility of death and dismemberment is very real and taken very seriously by the ADs. Knowing your team, working with them under high pressure, real situations is not replaceable with training. 

So, for me, as say a Major, to know my officers, to have seen them dealing with real situations, see their development arc, their real strengths/weaknesses is something intangible but priceless.

The real advantage, the silver lining of the COIN wars for the US military is that they have been going on for so long - US now has a huge institutional and reserve pool of combat experienced personnel, up and down the command chain. The head of the Pentagon fought in Fallujah, for heaven's sake. Imagine the sheer depth of experience of the officer/nco corp behind him. Constant, shifting, changing and modernising experience. Nothing beats that.

Naturally, any real mil personnell feel free to contradict

 

Edited April 6, 2018 by kinophile

[sid_burn]

@kinophile I never joke, especially when it comes to combat mission. 

[LUCASWILLEN05]

5 hours ago, sid_burn said:

@kinophile I never joke, especially when it comes to combat mission. 

Lowering US army units to Experienced would probably be about right. Except for the Marines, 82nd Airborne, 101st Airmobile   who remain as Veteran

[sid_burn]

5 hours ago, LUCASWILLEN05 said:

Lowering US army units to Experienced would probably be about right. Except for the Marines, 82nd Airborne, 101st Airmobile   who remain as Veteran

Last I checked the game goes green, regular, veteran. No clue what “experienced” is

[LUCASWILLEN05]

20 hours ago, sid_burn said:

Last I checked the game goes green, regular, veteran. No clue what “experienced” is

Mistake on my part. I meant "Regular" I must have been thinking of a set of miniatures rules or possibly interrupted by Kitty. You cannot say no to this! :-)

 

[c3k]

I suggest reading the manual's definition of unit experience levels.

[Muzzleflash1990]

All but one of the experience/training levels are "absolute" values. However, Green is relative:

Green: draftees with little training and some combat experience or reservists with some training and no combat experience. Green can also represent professional soldiers whose training is substandard in comparison to another force.

So I assume that's why a significant proportion of "typical" Russian forces are Green when going up against US, because the now professional Russian army is surely a bit above "draftees with little training and some combat experience or reservists with some training and no combat experience." - I mean they are neither draftees nor reservists - so the only reason they are Green is their training must be considered substandard to US? How to adjust then when you go up against a mix force of US and UKR?

Edited April 7, 2018 by Muzzleflash1990

[LukeFF]

On 4/5/2018 at 7:17 PM, sid_burn said:

@kinophile I never joke, especially when it comes to combat mission. 

Except that your suggestions are 100% a joke.

[Rinaldi]

15 minutes ago, LukeFF said:

Except that your suggestions are 100% a joke.

We need satire after some of the "suggestions" people play straight here. 

[Erwin]

2 hours ago, LukeFF said:

Except that your suggestions are 100% a joke.

Oooo... snap!    Reminds me of typical fracas in West Hollywood bars.