From: Ryan Gill (rmgill@mindspring.com)
Date: Sun Oct 05 2003 - 13:03:06 PDT
At 3:42 PM -0400 10/5/03, Steve Grammont wrote:
>
>It makes sense vs. small arms. It is useless against RPGs and large,
>well positioned explosives. That is not speculation but simple fact. It
>is also a VERY expensive solution which requires a supply of dead M113s.
> Therefore it might provide one or two useful vehicles (assuming it is
>useful), but the scope of the problem requires something a lot more
>practical and numberous.
There are quite a few m113 hulls out there that are quite useful.
Heck get one that's had a bit of an engine fire and is otherwise a
write off.
>
>>5. People have a misconception about armor; it buys you time, little else.
>>But often, thats all you need.
>
>That works in a small arms firefight, but when a couple dozen pounds of
>explosives goes off, armor doesn't buy you much more than sheetmetal if
>the guys assembling, placing, and detonating the bomb know what they are
>doing. And unfortunately, at least some of the bad guys do know what
>they are doing.
Its my understanding that the really deadly command detonated mines
are more on the order of hundreds of pounds of explosives. Aside from
crawling along at low speeds, there's not much you can do to detect
such things with out a robotic vehicle carrying a ground probing
radar. Stop just after an object. Trick is, you'll have to train the
operators carefully. Culverts and other under road containers are a
good location to place such an explosive device.
>
>>6. This concept worked quite well in Vietnam, against the exact same type of
>>weapons.
>
>I think it is very dangerous to compare Iraq to Vietnam without exploring
>the differences. The two conflicts are very, very different which
>inherently means all bets are off. That being said, driving around with
>unarmored and unescorted soft convoys only invites trouble. We don't
>need to look at Vietnam to see that obvious point.
Its area warfare now. Its not a conventional battle. The majority of
the "combat" is very much ambush and fade tactics. Even more rarified
than it was in Vietnam. The tactics of fighting such an ambush remain
the same. Weight of fire on the origin of fire and detecting mines
before the go off. The problem is the command detonated mines. There
are plenty of examples of insurgencies like this in history with
similar tactics by the insurgents. South Africa is a very good
example.
--
--
Ryan Gill rmgill@SPAMmindspring.com
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I speak not for CNN, nor they for me.
But I do work there and still like the company.
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