Quote:
Originally Posted by Fusilier
The difference I see though is that the Soviets in the Afghanistan has plenty of BMPs to go around so they could afford lower passenger numbers. They won't have that luxury in T2K and will probably need all the carrying space they can get.
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The units in Afghanistan didn't get extra BMPs to compensate for the logistical failures of the design -- they made do as best they could with authorized amounts of the tools at hand. A full strength rifle squad in a BMP going into action simply becomes combat ineffective after a few days on campaign or one or (if lucky) two firefights or so -- without one single guy stopping a bullet or one vehicle brewing up, they just go black on food, water, ammo and just about anything else that matters. If you've got the assets for a follow on unit to exploit forward through their success and resupply to eventually catch up with them, a la Soviet strategy for a conventional war that works. If you're relying on truck convoys following AFV units down what passes for roads in Afghanistan, you're going to need to get authorization for a third shift to work at Kharkov Casket and Coffin Collective Factory #198 or whatever.
(So where did the extra guys from the MTOE go? Convoy security riding in soft skin trucks, out posts and road blocks holding bridges and other key points in a unit's sector, FOB security, etc etc etc. None of that sort of stuff was really built into the Soviet unit organizations that were intended for ultra-high intensity, very short duration conventional combat.)
Having lots of guys and few BMPs to go around, T2K scenario-ish, doesn't make the clown car approach make more sense, in my opinion. Logistics are same, or worse, as those guys in the middle of nowhere Absurdistan, and the absolute last thing you want to have happen is any chunk of your serious hitting power be able to get itself out there swinging in the wind and get wiped out because of supply situation falling out the window.
Probably a common approach to, say, a Motor Rifle Battalion circa 2000 is going to be truck mobile rifle companies, with whatever surviving BMPs are available serving as a fire support asset, not infantry carriers (kind of doing the jobs that tanks, were they still plentiful enough for such things, were doctrinally supposed to do in Motor Rifle units). Each probably carries a 3-4 man dismount section in the rear, but more for local security and to protect the vehicles themselves than to serve as true mechanized infantry. If BMPs and (if super lucky) tanks are going to be the core of a real deliberate attack, I suspect they get loaded up with hitch-hikers from some other infantry unit who ride on the exterior up to the point where bullets are flying, and then the attack ultimately stills ends up being an supported infantry affair more than a real combined arms mech/armor event.