The new Army

[kato13]

antimedic 06-27-2005, 03:16 PM With lessons learned the hard way in Iraq, do you think the Army will start leaning more towards the Marines " everyone is a riflemen"? I have read that they are using the Squad Designated Marksmen in many Infantry units, But with all the support and other units seeing action, is anything being done to improve there shooting skills?

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pmulcahy 06-27-2005, 05:15 PM I don't know if it will, but it should always have been that way.

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TiggerCCW UK 06-29-2005, 03:57 AM I was recently talking to a Royal Marine recruiting team, and they mentioned that as the Minimi has now replaced the LSW as the squad supprt weapon they are now using the LSW as a designated marksmans rifle, issued two to a section. This now leaves the section composed like this;


2xSA80

2xSA80 w/40mm GL. Not sure of the designation of this.

2xLSW As DMR.

2xMinimi

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Abbott Shaull 06-30-2005, 01:47 AM Yes, I believe after some of the harder lessons that have been learned that now the US Army is thinking along the similar mind set as the US Marine Corps has for years. That each soldier is a Rifleman first and then speciality second. Some of these lessons were learned very early in war. Some have only gone on to be repeated time and time again.


I kinda agree this is the mind set that the US Army should of been in. Even during the cold war. The Generals on down knew that almost any war would have a very wide zone known as the front and the enemy could attack arround every corner. Yet, they seemed to believe the only ones who needed to really know basic Infantry Tactics were Infantry, Rangers, Special Forces, Combat Engineers, and Combat MPs. Everyone else got just the bare essentials and would almost rarely have to use them during field exercise which were suppose to similuate what could happen in a real war.


Then again it is one of those things when you have to use Field Artillery and other support units to conduct combat patrols. This is one of the lessons that the US Army seems to have to re-learn every so often.


Abbott

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Webstral 06-30-2005, 12:56 PM The US Army is completely out of touch, gentlemen. The longer I spend here, the more I see the whole affair is a bumbling pack of fools. Top to bottom, the Army is mismanaged and run on a philosophy that is outdated at best, misguided at worst. The Army has tremendous potential and realizes almost none of it. I pray the most important lessons will be learned, but I rather doubt they will. We certainly don't look like we're on track to any but the most superficial introspection.


Webstral

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Rochkano 06-30-2005, 04:09 PM The best thing you can do is take care of your soldiers. Trust me, I know what you are talking about - I did 2&1/2 years of company command on active duty. I try to deflect as much stupidity as I can and take care of my soldiers.

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Red2 07-01-2005, 03:22 AM We've talked about this before to a limited extent...The Army (actually the whole DoD...including my Air Force) is a huge monolithic organization that was rebuilt after Vietnam with only one mission... to fight the Russians in the Cold War/WWIII. Now we are stuck fighting insurgencies and terrorists around the world with the wrong force composition and skill sets and an entrenched leadership that is still planning and thinking about fighting the wrong war. My own USAF leaders are still focused on "Network-Centric Warfare", Anti-Ballistic Missile Defenses, Airborne Lasers, F-22 Raptors, and I don't have enough M-4's or Close Combat Optics so that my squads can deploy with a more effective weapon. The Lessons Learned are being absorbed at the lower levels but not at the highest levels.


Just my opinion/observation. Take care

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