 LAND POWER TRANSFORMATION
The Land Power Journal |
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Vol. 2 No. 7 |
July 2004 |
Awesome painting by legendary Paratrooper, artist and aviator Lou Drendel of the 1967 173rd Airborne Brigade jump into Vietnam called "OPERATION Junction City"
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Table of Contents
EDITORIAL
U.S. Army lying to Congress and its Soldiers: the latest denial of M8 Buford AGS light tanks to the Airborne, "Modularity" madness continues
FEEDBACK!
What is RPG-resistant armor?
GEOSTRATEGIC
Could we even do D-Day again?
OPERATIONAL
Army plays around with Stryker-MGS airdrop while terrorist leaders are on the loose: Airborne on 18-hour alert needs airdrop tracked armor NOW
TECHNOTACTICAL
Italian Army maximizes use of their M113 Gavin variants in Iraq combat
DoD HOT LINKS
Carlton Meyer's www.G2mil.com
Summer 2004 Articles
Letters - comments from G2mil readers
The Netfires Boondoggle - $1.1
billion wasted this year alone
The Calamity of Urban Warfare
- a 2002 G2mil article
C-Mag
- twin rotary rifle ammo drums
For the
Record - the U.S. Army's official report on prisoner abuse
Army
Running Out of Ammo - not good
The
Gray Zone - Rumsfeld's Secret
Technical Realities - National Missile Defense is a scam
2004 U.S. Air
Force Almanac - every fact you need
Defensetech - G2mil
without the attitude
The U.S. Navy's New Automated Ship - fewer sailors
U.S. Troops Intrude - Pakistan remains a safe haven for terrorists
Military
Prepositioning - GAO report on recent and future ops (pdf)
Prison
Abuse in Iraq - an insider clue
Russian
Airmobile Forces - still impressive
An
Open 2002 Letter to President Bush - prisoner abuse is not new
Military
Week - military news
Previous G2mil - May 2004 issue
Past Editorials - by Carlton Meyer
2005 Base Closures- likely closures
Visit G2mil's library
PME HOT LINK
The Fisher Report: Beware of Red China
E-mail Land Power Transformation Staff
ON THE RADIO AND TV
General David Grange daily and weekly Thursday appearance as Military Commentator on CNN's Lou Dobbs MOMEYLINE Show, "Grange on Point"
Return to Land Power Transformation home page,
click here
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EDITORIAL
 U.S. Army lying to Congress and its Soldiers about Stryker-MGS airdrop
The draft report from the Army's Military Traffic Management Command sheds doubt that the Stryker-MGS can even airdrop from large C-17s. It categorically rejects Stryker-MGS airdropping from smaller C-130s. The corruption of high Army officials by General Dynamics Land Systems, makers of the Stryker deathtraps knows no ends. Troops welfare and mission accomplishment means nothing to them. Wasting money and securing post retirement jobs with GDLS means everything to them. On our upcoming 4th of July we need as Americans to start acting like free and brave men and get our Army in order. Firing top Army Generals is where we need to start, but President Bush doesn't fire anyone so we should fire him in November. We highly recommend our readers read the MTMC Stryker-MGS Report carefully. Another deception is the Army's recent "modularity" reorganization which some vague power point slides were recently floated to Congress. To view the ppt slides and see what they mean: www.geocities.com/pentomicarmyagain/whymodular.htm
Carol Murphy FEEDBACK! Why not electro-armor to defeat RPGs?
Tim Duncan asks;
"When you refer to RPG-resistant armor for M113s, is this what you are referring to?
'Dstl scientists have developed a revolutionary Electric Armour system which can resist attack by RPGs or other shaped charge weapons whilst remaining of a practical weight and size for armoured vehicles to carry. A recently demonstrated system, consisting of bulletproof metal plating, insulation, power distribution lines, and storage capacitors weighs a mere couple of tonnes, but
has a protective effect equal to carrying an extra 10-20 tonnes of steel armour.'
www.armedforces-int.com/article.asp?pubID=15&catID=96&artID=451
This sounds awesome and it seems like it would solve a lot of problems. I just can't understand why this wouldn't be implemented and why they have to ride around in thin-skinned Humvees and Strykers?
EDITOR: Tim, electro-armor as you suggest are termed "Active Protection Systems" or APS. The Army's senior leaders are corrupt and have a private agenda to emasculate the Army into rubber tired trucks. APS is an "icing" that can be applied to any "cake" that can take the weight etc. Thus, the Army immorally reserves APS as an icing that can only be applied to its sexy Stryker and FCS cakes when the truth is it can and be should applied to M113 Gavin, M2 bradley and M1 Abrams tracked AFVs. The good news is that the Stryker wheeled truck is so overweight it cannot even accept a 2,000 pound APS system! The "icing" is too heavy for wheels but not for tracks. Furthermore, you never want to put all your hopes in one armor layer--you need mutliple armor layers: a sacrificial spaced layer to pre-detonate RPGs, the hull itself with a ceramic layer, and a spall liner behind to catch anything that still gets through.
Could we even do D-Day today?
Landing 125,000 troops into Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944 was a STRATEGIC OPERATIONAL MANEUVER that brought an end to the nation- state regime of Adolph Hitler in WWII. As we celebrate the men who changed the world on the event's 60th anniversary, we need to ask ourselves if we are equal today to the same task? 25,000 Paratrooopers/glidermen were delivered by 3D maneuver using 2,000 C-47 twin-engined transports each able to carry 20 men or tow 1 glider @ 200 mph. Today, the U.S. military has but 500 C-130 aircraft that can carry roughly 60 men @ 300 mph. If we scraped up every single C-130 in the U.S. military, we might be able to duplicate what the "Greatest Generation" did on D-Day--if we had enough Paratroopers- -which we do not. In WWII, we had 5 DIVISIONS of Paratroopers/glidermen (100,000 men), today we have less than 5 BRIGADES or under 10,000 actual "trigger-puller" airborne infantrymen. Following the Paratroopers on D-Day, were roughly 100,000 men in water landing craft to effect 2D maneuver. If we pooled together ALL of the water landing craft in the Army and Navy we could only deliver 1 division's worth of marines or Army troops ashore, or 10,000 men. The sad truth is that we couldn't right now do "D-Day" because we have a peacetime garrison military that is not at war. If we put the same amount of effort into building the 10,000 twin-engined C-47s that were built into 4-engined C-130s, assuming a 2-for-1 difficulty exchange, we'd have 5,000 x C-130s. But we do not. We have only 500, C-130s and most of them were built over 20 years ago during the height of the Cold War production duels with the Soviets. America has not been at war over the last 20 years and mass-producing any war weapons, and has atrophied into a state of unreadiness where we can't do a D-Day. Some may say, "we will never need to do a D-Day again". Rethink this again. American needed "D-Day" on 9/12 2001 when Paratroopers should have dropped en masse along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to prevent terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden from escaping. It didn't happen. America needed "D-Day"---regardless of whether it was right to invade Iraq or not---right after "Shock and Awe" airstrikes failed to get ANY Iraqi leaders, thousands of Paratroopers should have descended upon Saddam and his minion's escape routes into Northern Iraq to prevent the bloody guerrilla war which so far has killed over 800 Americans and grievously wounded another 4,000. It didn't happen. We did drop the one gallant Airborne Brigade we had from nearby Italy and then slowly flew in tracked armored fighting vehicles (TAFVs) by landing aircraft one-at-a-time, and Saddam and his loyalists were able to escape to start the insurgency. Without actual, PHYSICAL overwhelming ground maneuver forces no amount of mentally directed firepower will suffice to kill/capture cunning enemies hiding in a still very large planet earth. The earth is still a very large place and to control it requires large amount of military force: STRATEGIC OPERATIONAL MANEUVER--like on D-Day---and what we lack today to win the war against sub-national terrorists hiding from our sensors and aircraft bombing amongst difficult terrains and civilian populations. Some apologists will state that our C-130s are so much qualitatively better than the C-47s that our lack of force size is somehow offset. While flying only 100 mph faster and indeed with GPS able to drop its Paratroopers exactly where they need to be, the C-130 is only able to deliver 3 times the troops at 100 times the cost such that we only have 1/100th the amount of airlift (ability to move forces in three dimensions) that we once had in WWII! The one huge advantage today's C-130s have over C-47s; a high-t-tail and rear ramp to airdrop light tanks/armored personnel carriers has NOT been fully exploited to date. What's Needed to do D-Day Today In today's media world, surprise is fleeting--if we want to get Bin Ladens before they can escape we must be able to do D-Days at a drop- of-the-hat. Since we do not have the size like we once had in WWII, we truly have to be at least 10 times better than the enemies we are fighting. We do not want to fight the enemy "even" our men with M16 rifles in their hands riding around in infamous vulnerable HMMWV trucks versus theirs with AK47s, RPGs in their hands and roadside bombs ready to explode at a touch of a cell phone button. The American or enemy Soldier can both carry 50 pounds of food, ammo, water on their bodies and move at best 5 mph. We need to do 10 times better than this on D-Day. Instead of dropping 60 Paratroopers fighting the enemy "even" we need to drop 20 from every C-130 (like we did from C-47s in WWII), but only after a M113 Gavin light tracked armored fighting vehicle (TAFV) goes out by cargo parachutes first. 10 of the Paratroops would stay to secure the drop zone, the other 10 would mount up into the Gavin and head out to do tactical and operational maneuvers. The 10.5 ton M113 Gavin carries 5000+ pounds of weaponry, ammunition and food, travels at 50 mph and swims across lakes, rivers and if fitted with waterjets even oceans so we out- maneuver, out-shoot and out-last any enemies we encounter. Instead of cramming our Paratroopers full of grenades, bullets, explosives, rope, medical supplies which increases their chance of jump landing injuries put this in their light Gavin track. The Army has thousands of Gavins sitting unused in storage to re-equip every "Delta" Weapons company in the Army Airborne which now drive around in vulnerable HMMWV trucks. The Delta Company's Gavins with space in their backs can give A, B and C companies a ride under armored protection as needed. The American Army Airborne could land within minutes anywhere in the world and instead of sitting there for days, fan out in its Gavin TAFVs and cut-off all of the enemy's escape routes. The Russian Airborne has done such Operational Maneuver Groups (OMGs) for years using their 8-ton BMD family of tracked armored fighting vehicles. They took Prague and Afghanistan, remember? The American Airborne air- delivered light TAFVs into Panama, and we actually got nation-state dictator Manuel Noriega shortly thereafter. True, but forgotten by our Army. All of our 500 x C-130s could be stretched to carry up to 92 Paratroopers, fitted with in-flight refuelling plumbing and "J" model propfans for 400 mph speeds and global ranges. Instead of cramming marines in handfuls of surface amphibious ships at $1 billion each for 6 months at a time which can be easily sunk by precision guided weapons in one strike, we should build a 4-engined version of the Russian A-40 jet seaplane that can speed them from the United States at 500 mph and land them in the water where they drive out from nose-open ramps using M113 Gavins fitted with waterjets to be OMGs from the sea. The Russian Naval Infantry use the same BMD amphibious-airdroppable TAFVs as their Airborne units use to get maxium Air/Sea, 2D/3D force synergism. Again, we have thousands of M113 Gavins in storage, mass-produced during a time when we were in a Cold War threatening to go hot that can be inexpensively upgraded into "Amphigavins" to enable Navy/marine strategic operational maneuvers. America needs to be able to do D-Days, but Generals/Admirals must be fired first The dirty secret of winning WWII is that for us to get to the point of being able to do D-Day, President Roosevelt had General Marshall fire hundreds of Generals and Colonels who were standing in the way. The same thing is needed today with Generals and Admirals insisting that $BILLIONS be spent on mechanically unreliable V-22 half- airplane/half-helicopters to fly off the decks (at best 300 mph) of obsolete mentality amphibious ships to try to preserve the decaying status quo, when even if they worked at $80 million each can only deliver 20 marines and no TAFVs--and cannot land in the water. For this same price we could get two 4-engined "A-80" jet seaplane transports delivering 40 marines inside 4 M113 Amphigavins arriving at 500 mph to anywhere in the world, onto either sea or land. Other Army Generals are insisting that Congress supply them $3 BILLION a year for 10 years to develop a 20-25 ton "Future Combat System" that in 2012 will be just as 5-10 tons overweight to fly in a C-130 as their 19-21 ton Stryker "interim" wheeled truck is today. The 300 Stryker trucks crammed full of electronics gear and skimping on physical armor protection rolling on air-filled rubber tires that burn are so fragile that even though they are kept in the quietest spot in Northernmost Iraq now require $111 million in repairs. The Army Generals have a solution for the FCS being too heavy to fly in a C-130: Congress should give them more $BILLIONS to develop a huge heavy lift helicopter that also doesn't exist. Nevermind, that their "icing" of computers can be put into existing Gavins now to get the "network-centric" warfare capabilities the Generals say are sooooo vitally needed. They say without a multi-billion dollar FCS/heavy lift helicopter "cake" there can be no "icing". Without both of them there can be no "D-Days" (effective strategic, operational maneuvers). Clearly, to do D-Day today, we need a major "house-cleaning" of out-of-touch, can't-do Generals and Admirals who want to fund their fantasy projects and not what the troops and America needs today to win. P.S. CAVEAT: please do not quibble; I know a C-130 routinely paradrops 62 Paratroopers (2 non-jumping safeties to pull in static lines) and can be crammed with 80 in war time. I also know that we have 100+ C-17 4- jet transports that can drop 102-108 Paratroopers--the latter if the AF adds the last possible 6-seat section. However, this would complicate the WWII-to-today's D-Day comparison with at best 10,000 more troops delivered, a moot point. The point is we are physically less capable today than we were in WWII. Think long and hard about this.
OPERATIONAL Why is the Army trying to airdrop Stryker-MGS when it already has tracks that can?
Army plays around with Stryker-MGS airdrop while terrorist leaders are on the loose: Airborne on 18-hour alert needs airdrop tracked armor NOW By LPT Staff First, an investigative report from Nathan Hodge:
Defense Today Next, more unreported problems: Stryker-MGS stranded on honeycomb stacks with 8 deflated rubber tires
Another aspect of airdropping wheeled vehicles like Strykers is they need absurd nylon straps that have to be attached to tires to pull them off their honeycomb stacks---will this work if all 8 Stryker tires are deflated? Tracked vehicles after airdrop don't need such devices and simply drive off after being de-rigged: see M113 Gavin airdrop photos here: www.geocities.com/equipmentshop/m113combat.htm FM 10-500-7 Chptr 3 Airdrop Derigging Procedures www.adtdl.army.mil/cgi-bin/atdl.dll/fm/10-500-7/Ch3.htm EXCERPT: e. Removing Vehicles with the Heavy Drop Derigging System. The HDDS is an upgraded version of the drive-off aid. It can be used with the HMMWV, 2-l/2-ton truck and the 5-ton, 900-series truck. The vehicle (with tie-down assemblies removed) when powered up, will progressively wrap the webbed ladder around the two wheels (using the platform for leverage) and pull itself clear of the honeycomb (Figure 2-7). PIC: www.adtdl.army.mil/cgi-bin/atdl.dll/fm/10-500-7/Fig3-7.gif Drive the vehicle only enough to free it from the honeycomb so the vehicle will be able to move under its own traction. Stop the vehicle, place it in a neutral gear, and engage the emergency brake. Carefully remove all loose honeycomb and wood items. If the items are not completely loose, do not continue to bother with them. Release the emergency brake and carefully drive the vehicle onto the platform, slowly unwrapping the HDDS from the wheels, thus separating the vehicle from the platform. The type I, l/4-inch cotton webbing will break when the vehicle reaches the end of the HDDS. And last but not least, the uncensored MTMC draft report:
DRAFT INFORMATION PAPER
TECHNOTACTICAL
Yet another example of a NATO Army maximixing M113 Gavins
LESSON #1: OPTIMIZE WHAT 'YA GOT
The Italian Army like many other world armies realize how great the M113 Gavin light tracked AFV is and have optimized them. Unlike the egomaniacal U.S. Army which is too proud to admit anyone that had gone before them did anything great, and always wanting to exalt themselves and squeeze money from Congress with new "cash cows" like Strykers. The Italians optimized their M113 Gavins (called VCCs) by in the back angling the rear deck so firing ports were possible to fight from wthin the vehicle "buttoned up". This nice-to-have feature is OK as long as you can use your dismount hand weapons and not have to switch to a specialty weapon like the M231 firing port weapon the Bradley fighting vehicle has. But the best way to fight mounted is heads-out from the top using GUNSHIELDS. The Italian M113 M113 variant above in Iraq has gunshields for the TRack Commander (TC). However, to keep the ports open to fire you cannot have applique armor to pre-detonate RPGs. So what the Italians have cleverly done is hang wire mesh and sand bags over the firing port area to pre-detonate RPGs. Notice everywhere else the VCC has spaced angled armor tiles---shame on the U.S. Army for not even having this on their M113 Gavins. LESSON #2 APPLY ERA
www.armytimes.com/content/editorial/editart/061804front22.jpg Despite being struck by an enemy rocket-propelled grenade, an Army Bradley Fighting Vehicle brings supplies to "F" Troop, 4th U.S. Cavalry, during a gun battle with insurgents south of Baqubah, Iraq, that lasted 12 hours. Notice that the ERA counter-explosion was not some huge conflagration. This fear that infantry nearby would get hurt from the ERA counter-explosion so we can't use ERA looks like a self-defeating myth. The Army through the capable Israeli company RAFAEL is trying to apply ERA "icing" to the bogus Stryker "cake" to excuse away some of its weaknesses. This will not enable Stryker to not get stuck in mud or be easily mobility killed through its air-filled rubber tires that easily burn. An enemy attacking Strykers/w-ERA will simply employ counter-mobility devices to immobilize them if they try to go off-road, use same devices on roads to stop the lead vehicles to create catastrophic ambushes. Instead of attacking with RPGs, they'll save their rockets and throw bottles of gasoline/oil with lit rags at the Stryker's many rubber tires. The ugly question is why is ERA not on M113 Gavins when years ago the RAND study concluded 60% coverage was possible compared to just the 35% ERA coverage now on the BFVs that are lucky to have ERA.
SOMETHING TO MAKE YOU SMILE!
SOMETHING FOR FUN: Actual letter of resignation from an employee at Zantex Computers, USA, to her boss, who apparently resigned very soon afterwards! Dear Mr. Baker: As a graduate of an institution of higher education, I have a few very basic expectations. Chief among these is that my direct superiors have an intellect that ranges above the common ground squirrel. After your consistent and annoying harassment of my coworkers and me during the commission of our duties, I can only surmise that you are one of the few true genetic wastes of our time. Asking me, a network administrator, to explain every little nuance of everything I do each time you happen to stroll into my office is not only a waste of time, but also a waste of precious oxygen. I was hired because I know how to network computer systems, and you were apparently hired to provide amusement to myself and other employees, who watch you vainly attempt to understand the concept of "cut and paste" for the hundredth time. You will never understand computers. Something as incredibly simple as binary still gives you too many options. You will also never understand why people hate you, but I am going to try and explain it to you, even though I am sure this will be just as effective as telling you what an IP is. Your shiny new iMac has more personality than you ever will. You walk around the building all day, shiftlessly looking for fault in others. You have a sharp dressed useless look about you that may have worked for your interview, but now that you actually have responsibility, you pawn it off on overworked staff, hoping their talent will cover for your glaring ineptitude. In a world of managerial evolution, you are the blue-green algae that everyone else eats and laughs at. Managers like you are a sad proof of the Dilbert principle. Since this situation is unlikely to change without you getting a full frontal lobotomy reversal, I am forced to tender my resignation, however I have a few parting thoughts. 1. When someone calls you in reference to employment, it is illegal for you to give me a bad recommendation. The most you can say to hurt me is "I prefer not to comment." I will have friends randomly call you over the next couple of years to keep you honest, because I know you would be unable to do it on your own. 2. I have all the passwords to every account on the system, and I know every password you have used for the last five years. If you decide to get cute, I am going to publish your "favorites list," which I conveniently saved when you made me "back up" your useless files. I do believe that terms like "Lolita" are not usually viewed favorably by the administration. 3. When you borrowed the digital camera to "take pictures of your Mother's birthday," you neglected to mention that you were going to take pictures of yourself in the mirror nude. Then you forgot to erase them like the techno-moron you really are. However, I assure you that those have been copied and kept in safe places pending the authoring of a glowing letter of recommendation. (Try to use a spell check please; I hate having to correct your mistakes.) Thank you for your time, and I expect the letter of recommendation on my desk by 8:00 am tomorrow. One word of this to anybody, and all of your little twisted repugnant obsessions will be open to the public. Never mess with your systems administrator. Why? Because they know what you do with all that free time! Wishing you a grand and glorious day, (withheld) AMAZING POWER OF FRIENDSHIP Despite a bitter amphibious defeat at Gallipoli, the Australian and New Zealanders were welcomed back by the new Turkish reformer, Ataturk in a very amazing and gracious thing to say. It reminds one of Chamberlain's presenting his troops arms to salute the defeated Confederate Soldiers at the Appomattox surrender ceremony. The epitome of warfighting is to make your enemies into your friends. "Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives...! You are now lying in the soul of a friendly country, therefore rest in peace. There is no differences between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours... You, the mothers who sent their sons from far away countries wipe away your tears. Your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well." ATATURK, (1934).
Professional Military Education Hot Link
LPT salutes the legendary artist, Lou Drendal who for years of service has reminded us of the romance and adventure of military service, particularly working in conjunction with aircraft.
Learn about military artist, Lou Drendel Aviation Art
by Lou Drendel
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