04-14-2014, 01:27 AM
JASmith Wrote:We seem to have gotten bogged down in the morass of caliber-specific arguments and have lost sight of the basic question.
Let's reset with a summary of the Gen III capable assets as listed above.
Damn, I had spent almost an hour addressing the aforementioned morass of caliber specific arguments. It was brilliant, brilliant, I tell you. - BUT IT IS GONE. Damn you timeout function (automatic logout when a post has not been sent in an unreasonably short amount of time)!
Many of my opinions are influenced by working in North Africa for a couple of years. The terrain within 50 miles included rocky desert, mountains and wooded forest. During the summer, there was a constant haze over the landscape that reduced visibility some. Windstorms occurred often. By contrast, on many winter days, the air was so clear that we could clearly see the mountain range over 30 miles away.
From what I have seen, it looks like many areas in the Middle East. It is entirely possible that counter-insurgency actions would occur in an area with some similar features. Depending upon the weather conditions of a particular day, it would not be difficult to set up long-range ambushes.
Shoulder-fired weapons with an effective range much less than a PK-family machine gun would be at a significant disadvantage. In this case, weapons with a GPC-like range would prove useful. It is important to note that our 7.62x51 MMGs only come close to matching the range of their 7.62x54R adversaries. In order to achieve an overmatch, something more along the lines of a .338 NM* would be required. This is why I see a .338 weapon in the MMG role, if any.
The 50 BMG remains the HMG.
If we adopt longer ranged weapons, how would our adversaries adapt? Our enemies are not stupid and will try to take advantage of our weaknesses. A good example of this is the trend to attack from beyond the effective range of our 5.56x45 weapons. What would they do this time?
To address the issue of man-portable long-range HE weapons, we need something between the SMAW and the Javelin. The Javelin is a high-tech and expensive anti-tank weapon. A hell of a lot of Javelins have been used, but I don't see no dead tanks.
There might be something like this already in the pipeline.
Organic surveillance:
Needed immediately: The troops need a portable device to locate the source of incoming enemy fire. As stupid as it may seem, I have yet to see any battle footage where our soldiers could see over or around their cover. I have seen helmet cam videos of the machine gunner popping up and spraying a significant portion of Afghanistan because he has no idea where the enemy fire is coming from. Hell, periscopes were common in WWI. Our guys have helmet cams to watch each other but no "enemy cams" or even simple periscopes to spot the enemy shooting at them. If a "lipstick" camera has sufficient resolution, it would be difficult to spot. If nothing else, buy a bunch of IPhones and hand them out.
Of course, an acoustic device that could determine the shooter's position would be very helpful.
Link to overhead surveillance: This may not strictly fall into the "organic" category, but it could be used in the field.
Limited usefulness/needs work: There are small drones that can send back images. How resistant they are to signal jamming, I do not know. The hand launched ones that I have seen fly so slowly as to be useless in a significant crosswind or headwind.
One of the drones (switchblade?) carries a camera and a small payload of ordnance. If spotted, it would seem to be an easy target for any skeet shooter. I am not kidding.
* The .338 Norma Magnum has a shorter case than the Lapua Magnum, but allows longer bullets to be used. This provides more options for bullet shape and composition.