Coota0

Warmaker, back to the M-4, what do Marine Corps chopper pilots carry while flying? M-16 or just a service pistol?

There was an article today on military.com about fielding a new rifle or at least a new upper reciever for the M-4, I'll see if I can find the link again.

Dang, a guy goes away for a couple of days to get a flight physical and all hell breaks loose. Army doctrine of the last 50 years has been based around the Armor division, it has only been in the last few years that the Army has sought to reorganize to a lighter force. During Vietnam the war there was considered a sideline, with the real threat being in Europe. Using the 1991 Gulf War and the 2003 Gulf War as refreneces you can see where an armored force was used to quickly overwhelm and defeat enemy ground forces (admittley the Marines had a twist on it in GFII) Army doctrine is based around Armor (even today it is being based around the Stryker in many cases,) Marine dactrine is based around the infantry. I never said that Special Operations would replace the infantry, I said it would have more of an emphasis placed on it. That means enlargement and better procurament. I've talked to a lot of Army Aviators in the last few months the only form of Air Cav left are the Cav Troops/Squadrons flying the OH-58Ds (armed scouts) and the few units designated as Air Cav because of their "mother unit" (i.e. 1st Cavalry Division air assets) I thought I was pretty clear in stating that I was referring to Air Cav in the divisional sense used in Vietnam. If it's still around (and I pointed out the doctrinal differences between Air Assault and Air Cav) please fill me in.

While I agree that terrorsim is most likley the more reasonable threat to defend against, to quote an old pilot axiom "It's the one you don't see that gets you." Besides a scenario in which the United States is in a land war with Chinease forces doesn't mean it will start with an invasion of China or the U.S. China signed a non-agression treaty with Russia several years ago which could blossom into more and mean a war in the middle east or Europe. (most unlikley scenario in my opinion) China is becoming an industrial giant and will be resource hungry. There is a possibility of an attack on Formosa, it would take a lot less in sea-lift capability in this case. China could side with the NKs again (wouldn't be the first time) or move agressivley toward one of it's neighbors in a desire to gain more resources. China also recently commissioned a carrier.

A few thoughts on the last couple of threads: UAVs- I think UAVs will swing like a pendulum from the very limited use we've seen over the last 7-10 years to an over dependence/ over use of UAVs (basically the idea that every job can be accomplished by a UAV) swinging back to a midway point in which it is realized that UAVs are a niche weapon and excel in some areas while being less than adequate in other areas. I also believe that politicians as well as the public will always desire a human in the loop. It would have been far more efficient to have to not have two people in a nuclear missile silo. I think you will still have pilots, just in some areas you will have a guy sitting at a computer fighting instead of in a cockpit. I do not think we are anywhere near being able to replace rotary -wing pilots with a computer, and I believe some aviation jobs will be able to be accomplished easier or cheaper in a convential means. Air Power Revolution- I believe the revolution in air power will be in troop movement, getting troops to the conflict zone faster (strtegic lift) and to the battlefield faster (tactical lift) the V-22 and C-27 are the beginnings of this IMO. Ground Side- I think we're in a difficult spot for ground warfare. We've moved to a lighter force that is no longer capable of defeating a determined enemy with numerical superiority (China) and we've yet to find a superior way to handle what is going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. If our leaders come to view China as a major threat then I forsee a reinvestment in heavy forces (Armor) to defeat the Chinease military. If we see terrorism as the greater threat I bleive that infantry/ special operations will become the primary branch within the Army. The battles we tend to see with terrorist groups seem to be in cities with street to street fighting, new tactics will ahve to be developed for these battles. To thsi end I think there will be a enlargement and emphasis placed on the special operations to elimenate these threats at their source before they emerge and wreak havoc on the United States or their allies. I believe that there should be a reimergence of the Air Cav concept. I think it would be instrumental in helping to pacify(?) Iraq as well as in a conventinal large scale conflicts. In Iraq an Air Cav division could be used as a quick reaction force, one battalion could be stationed in three regional zones, with the headquarters battalion in Baghdad. When trouble arises in an a region anything from a platoon to battalion sized element could be quickly dispatched to deal with the situation. This would not work in the largest of Iraqi cities(I have other ideas there, but that is for a different thread.) In a conventinal war you would have a force that could be moved behind enemy lines to cut off enemy supplies our sow confusion while still being able to be resuplied form the air, much in the same way Airborne Divisions were able to do the same in WWII. Unlike an Airborne unit, however the Air Cav unit could be moved or retrieved by helicopter if needed and would have an organic form of close airsupport in it's attack helicopter and scout helicopter units. Air Cav could also be equipped with artillery or light armor (Stryker) flown in by CH-46s or C-130s, or C-27s if fielded. While this is similar in concept to the mission of Air Assault as I understand Air Assault their mission is to assault a target and then retreat, the Air Cav Unit would act in the same way as a conventinal infantry division (not saying that the 101st can't, just that they speaclize in a different mission.) Finally I would like to argue that Cavalry has been pushed aside and instead argue that Cavalry has eveolved into new forms. First was the idea or Armored Cav with the tank forces of the U.S. Army in WWII, then the Air Cav concept in Vietnam, and today while the Army still fields Armored Cavalry, and Air Cavalry (in the form of the OH-58D) and many Stryker units have been flagged as Cavalry not because they ride horses but because they perform the traditional Cavalry mission of screening the flanks of a force, scouting, and breaking through to the enemy's rear and sowing confusion. Sorry to jump from aviation to ground pounder stuff. My $.02 worth.

But they do all the time at Red Flag. The Red force routinely send out 4-12 aircraft, but can engage massive numbers of Blue force aircraft because the Red force respawns after being shot down and leaving the engagement area.

Isn't that how Yeager made ace in one day.

I didn't mean that I didn't believe fowl, I was only saying the same thing you were, it looks really photshopped.

If you hadn't found the website I wouldn't have believed it. The Rafale, looks like it was cut and pasted on there...someone was having a bad camera day.

This picture doesn't looked photoshopped to anyone else?

History Channel is having a Dogfights marathon today.

I think the Hawk is pretty, but I also think the Apache is pretty.

I thought Sorpians were supposed to be a modified AMRAAM? I also thought the "Slammer" was some sort of land attack missile?

Why would you want a space fighter? If you've got no other enemy space craft to fight you don't need one. A space capable bomber would be much more useful. Then someone can develop a fighter to counter the bomber and we can develop a fighter to counter theirs and the arms race is on.

Sounds like ya'll need a small carrier (conventinal or otherwise) and some VSTOLs to work with the choppers if ya'll lose your airbases.

Maybe not in the Air Force, but orange means trainer in the Army and Navy as well as experimental. Edit to remove a pic generating an error for some folks. Sorry for the inconvenience ~JsARCLIGHT My apologies to those using dial-up.

Not denying the buffer zone, just pointing out that MBTs have defensive uses as well.

The Air support is excellent for them, they Have the F-15Es, F-16s, AH-64Ds, and the F-5s can carry ground attack weapons. In the meantime you dig in at the beach with your AFVs, MBTs and infantry with AT missiles. A defilade gives excellent cover for you tanks and AFVs, with multiple fixed defensive lines to retreat to with your armor. Ideally you would knock out the bad guys before they could ever mount a seaborne invasion. If the bad guys can mount an invasion you would then use your airpower to blow the hell out of the staging area, then use your Apaches and fighters to hit the landing force as they make the crossing, then you back that up at the beach with your infantry and Armor, Armor in defilade would make really great direct fire support againts incoming boats that have already been beat to hell. How is Singapore set for artillery? Self propelled or towed? The Arty could be used for counterbattery fire and to shell the incoming boats and infnatry at sea and on the beach.

T-38s are redesigned F-5s so the T-38 is a fighter that was cinverted to a trainer.

It's a big ocean and there are only so many satellites out there. Satellites can be confused by weather allowing a ship it is tracking to slip away. Anything but a geosynchronous satellite is continually in movement so if another satellite isn't there to pick up coverage coverage is lost. Geosynchronous satellites stay over ne point so once the ships move out of the area another satellite would still have to pick up coverage. All of this talk of Satellites is assuming there are some still up there and that we have the facilities to launch satellites. Since at least the early 80's we've had ASAT missiles (anti-satellite missiles) that can be laucnhed from an F-15 to knock down Russian satellites. I would also assume that launch facilities would be hit too,for example a sub surfacing off the coast of Florida could flatten Cape Canaveral. Long range acoustics are nice, but they can only give you a vague idea of what is going on. You could be tracking a carrier or a tanker. Long range acoustics don't give you all the intel you need. All of this is assuming today's technology when we know in Macross they have much better technology. You need multiple platforms to track enemy formations and using Radar from an aircraft would be one of the methods, as well as satellites and the use of subs to track enemy formations.

Yup they're the D. While an overstrength Battalion may not be much fire power, it's still a lot, especially when being reinforced by Apaches, Infantry Anti-Tank Teams, and I'm guessing some sort or IFV, not to mention the Singapore AF. Besdies, no offense intended, Singapore most likley only needs to withstand the first assault until its allies can get their units in gear and deployed to Singapore's defense.

Ya'll using A models or have you upgraded to D's?

I may have to pick one up and try your weathering method. Thanks.

i haven't really been following the VF-0A, but when I saw Falcon's valk I fell in love, so if this question is a dumb one let me know. Question: why does Flacon's VF-0A look like it is much more of a haze grey color than these pictures from BBTS's website?