Its the air-mobility, stupid!

[air_mech_strike]

Dear Warfare students,

The current U.S. Army transformation poorly represents the lighter AFV school of thought, the point of which is to have AFVs that can FLY by both Army and USAF aircraft for battlefield 3-D maneuver capabilities, hence my humorous title for this post. Before Gen Shinseki took over, the under 20-ton Future Combat System [www.geocities.com/pentagon/5265/futuretank.htm] was supposed to be FLOWN by the Future Transport Rotorcraft (FTR), and it appears this is to be true, but I have to honestly qustion if Gen Shinseki believes in Army Aviation at all. He seems 3-D only one time from CONUS by USAF aircraft and this is not going to cut it. The article below outlines where we need to go to get the BEST 2-D/3-D synergism.

Airborne!

Mike Sparks

U.S. ARMY TRANSFORMATION's NEXT STEP: 3-DIMENSIONAL MANEUVER CAPABILITIES

The U.S. Army has selected heavy, 18.8 ton (combat loaded) wheeled LAV-IIIs for a handful of its Interim Brigade Combat Teams at a staggering cost of $4 BILLION DOLLARS. While lighter than 70-ton M1 Abrams tanks, these vehicles at 37, 618 pounds are still too heavy for Army CH-47D/F Chinook helicopters to fly them nor USAF C-130 fixed-wing aircraft since they exceed the Hercules' 32,000 pound limit for landing at unimproved forward landing strips. A high-silhouette wheeled armored car like the LAV-III has ground clearance and wheel travel that makes it too high to meet the tip-off curb requirement to be parachute airdropped over the rear ramp of C-130 aircraft. By pressing this 18.5 tons onto just 4 axles and a narrow tire footprint, they have too much floor pressure to be carried inside cargo 747s even if they could fit through access doors. Battlefield Commanders need to be able to air-deploy mobile forces rapidly, by any and all means available to them to anywhere on the non-linear battlefield; not just where there are concrete runways or using scarce over-sized USAF C-5/17 cargo jets. Joint Regional Commanders need superior forces to win a Major Theater War not just a handful of medium Brigades, and they need them by "Fedex" overnight air-delivery. They need transformed Army forces today, not in 2010 or later after an "objective force" centered on a Future Combat System whose technology is not even developed/tested.

So with only a handful of Brigades transformed, what's next for the Army's transformation to a faster air-deployable, dominant on the ground force?

Its urgent that the rest of the U.S. Army gain 3-Dimensional air-maneuver capabilities immediately by changing 1 Battalion in each of its Brigades to lighter, C-130 transportable in-all-conditions, already-in-Army service M113A3-type tracked vehicles like the U.S. Army Europe Immediate Reaction Force (IRF) has done.

www.geocities.com/equipmentshop/m113a3setaf.htm

The U.S. Army has thousands of M113s that can be inexpensively upgraded to A3 standards and fitted with the digital capabilities used by the IBCTs for inter-operability. By low-cost enhancements like rubber, flexible one-piece "band tracks" these vehicles become maintenance, vibration and noise free while being even more gentle on third world country roads for peacekeeping operations than armored cars. Even better, the vehicle is lightened by 1,000 pounds, making M113A3s easily transportable by CH-47D/F Chinook helicopters for tactical, battlefield Air Assault mobility. Available now P900 and advanced applique armor kits can be added making M113A3s protected from Heavy Machine Guns, autocannon and Rocket Propelled Grenade fires without exceeding the delivery aircraft's lift capacities into forward landing strips. RPG resistant armor if fitted to LAV-IIIs would make the vehicle 43,000 pounds and too heavy to be carried at all by C-130s under ANY conditions. Tracked vehicles are inherently more protected and remain mobile to complete the mission if hit by enemy shrapnel and small-arms fire that would puncture, shred and flatten a LAV-III's 8 rubber tires, that even with "run flats" must limp home at 5 mph within 5 miles.

The digital battlefield is a two-edged sword: America's enemies are already using communications and computer technology to create "situational awareness" that make for defenses that can rapidly mass at the point of U.S. entry, that can result in costly close-range fights. Termed "Surveillance Strike Complexes" these fortified but clearly ambiguous-as-to-where they-are-strong-or-weak, defenses employ the principle of rapid offensive counter-attack to keep a usually complex urban/vegetated under their constant control by fires/surveillance. Attacking SSCs from a predictable 2-dimensional direction along roads that wheeled vehicles are limited to could result in heavy U.S. casualties that could lose a conflict by default via a withdraw of U.S. public support due to enemy information warfare attacks through mass media. In fact, battle simulations show that had the wheeled IBCT fought the Serbs into Kosovo the cost would be a casualty exchange ratio of 1 for 1, which is unacceptable. America's Army must dominate fights not struggle at even or inferior positions.

Clearly, today's battlefield commanders must have an organic 3-D fire/maneuver capability, deploying behind and around enemy SSCs by USAF C-130 austere assault zone airlanding and parachute airdrop, and this capability must be Army-wide to create the mass needed to win battles and not just force entries; though the 82d Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, North Carolina would be the place to begin. These forces using air-deployment means would deliver mechanized infantry forces in M113A3s and other tracked vehicles to "fly light, fight heavy" striking the enemy behind his SSCs and collapsing his cohesion, facilitating his defeat by reaching into his comfort zone of previously thought secure areas and smashing them and placing them under U.S. Army control. As the enemy struggles to cope with American Army OPTEMPO, striking deep, he will lash out with thrusts best countered by tactically air-mobile, "Air-Mech-Strike" forces that can fly by Army helicopters into positions of advantage under full armor protection to target/destroy them with precision weaponry and follow-on tracked cross-country mechanized infantry combat. The Divisional-sized force tailored for this type of combat, the 101st Airborne (Air Assault) at Fort Campbell, Kentucky could also CH-47D/F air-transport readily available M113A3s, but with a modest purchase of 4-ton German Wiesel tracked armored fighting vehicles, could transport them by their widely-available UH-60Ls Blackhawk helicopters and reduce USAF strategic lift needs for the 101st by being cargo 747 transportable as well.

Notice that in the proposed Army Air-Mech-Strike Brigades, 2 Battalions are left "as is", whether "heavy" with M1 Abrams tanks, M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicles or "light" on foot in order to retain dominant 2-D fire/maneuver to win armor-heavy conflicts in open areas and terrain-agile lightfighters in closed, vegetated areas. Both of these type Brigades are backed up by their organic 3-D Battalion to create a warfighting 2-D/3-D synergism best capable of exploiting U.S. Army situational dominance quickly before enemy SSCs can react in kind. In total, the deployment weight of the entire U.S. Army is reduced to facilitate their deployment in parts or whole by aircraft means; setting the requirement for the fielding of giant Wing-In-Ground effect logistics-over-the-shore seacraft that can deploy 1000 Soldiers and 100 tanks at a time to finish the Army's transformation to a strategically mobile, ground-dominant force.

www.geocities.com/equipmentshop/wig.htm

The details of how the rest of the U.S. Army can be transformed are outlined in our book, "Air-Mech-Strike: 3-Dimensional Phalanx, full-spectrum maneuver warfare to dominate the 21st century" available online with other important documents at the web site below;

www.geocities.com/air_mech_strike

The Army has done well to order 105mm Mobile Gun Systems to give its Medium IBCTs the meeting engagement firepower to ward off enemy tanks, the key lesson learned from the 9th High Technology Test Bed Division experience in the 1980s. However the LAV-105 (MGS) has yet to roll on/off a C-130 whose 102 inch height limit leaves a 78 inch tall vehicle only 24 inches available for a turret. It would be better to employ a 105mm gun system on a more compact tracked vehicle like a stretched M113A4 MTVL or the type-classified M8, which uses existing M113 and 5-ton truck components to insure C-130 airdrop/airland transportability for 3-D Air-Mech-Strike warfare.

[Jackson]

Excellent post. Very well constructed, and full of information. Thanks.

[Sgt. Steiner]

How typical of the Army to put all of it's effort into expensive and impractical equipment like the LAV-III (kind of reminds you of wartime German developments). Let's just hope and pray the US doesn't have to face a first-rate enemy anytime soon..

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Ob's stürmt oder schneit, ob die Sonne uns lacht, der Tag glühend heiß oder eiskalt die Nacht, bestaubt sind die Gesichter, doch froh ist unser sinn, ja unser sinn, es braust unser Panzer im Sturmwind dahin

-- Panzerlied

[Guest Pillar]

Thanks Mike!!

[Rick614]

And the relevance to Combat Mission is????

[Guest Pillar]

Nothing evident to you obviously.

You know, there are a LOT of other threads discussing graphics and technical issues. If it's okay with you, I'd like a few threads about the root of the hobby in general -- a fascination with warfare.

You might want to read the thread "What is happening to this board?"

PS -- Better not to say things like that to real-world military officials, the rest of us really appreciate their input.

Mike, Rick Six Hundred and Fourteen does not speak for the rest of us.

[pzvg]

Interesting, but I personally find the trend towards Light combat disturbing. We used to call those things "disposables" I mean, ok, force projection is important, but what use is a fast light air transportable force that can only die when it gets where it's going?

Shinseki is playing politics, (not an unusual state of affairs in the higher brass) when they start playing these kinda games, good folks get killed a lot.

(Captain Morton, if you're out there, I'm out now, try to shut me up )

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Pzvg

"Confucious say, it is better to remain silent, and be thought a fool, than to open one's mouth and remove all doubt"

[Maj. Bosco]

In a modern battlefield an army needs light combat forces. Without the ability to react quickly the enemy can be there and gone before you have a chance to use the heavier elements of your force. The ability to react quickly and descively, or at least to buy time to bring more firepower to bear on the enemy, can only save lives by shortening conflicts. Excellent post air_mech. Very good reading.