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Once the on station ability of drones rises to round the clock saturation coverage levels, evading elite troops going on snatch and grabs is going to become tremendously difficult. Electronic observation that never leaves, dumping raw info into a bank of computerized pattern analysis, combined with HUMINT on the ground, is going to become a net with a very tight weave. It's already tightening now.


now what I want to see is, as these things are developed as machines, and as a key part of a system, that these are put in use on our Southern border...... to be ever watchful against coyotes con dos piernes. Enough already of the continual infiltration across wilderness on our southern flank. If the narcotraficantes are so easily able to penetrate our "defenses", I see nothing to persuade me real terrorists are not, or ever will not, be as well. Close off that border to unauthorised incursions, and we benefit militarily and economically. The drug trade is in the billions, and it is all tax free. HUGE amounts of revenue not being used for any good purpose. Not to mention the moral rot following hard on the drug trade itself.
 
I want a Predator to protect my house, LOL. They only cost about $5 mil each not
counting operating costs. :)

I just walked by the TV and they are saying that two more important Taliban were
captured - area governors or whatever they call them.

I have to wonder how much of this is coming from aerial intel. ??
 
This absolute stupid stuff of the Hague convention, I've always thought that the idea was to win when you are shooting at someone. With this outdated World War one regressive thinking our guys have died. I want the other guy to die if he is foolish enough to engage us on the battlefield. So much for the other outdated concept that wounding the enemy requires X amount of support people, that is all gibberish to foster the Hague treaty crap. Glad to see the Marines are trying to take the upperhand, of course the politicos are in our latest shoot-out, watch out for civilians, tell them to leave are get sent to heaven with thier brethern. This isn't a Hollywood movie. Waiting for thr ACLU to talk about dum-dums. Bill
 
This absolute stupid stuff of the Hague convention, I've always thought that the idea was to win when you are shooting at someone. With this outdated World War one regressive thinking our guys have died. I want the other guy to die if he is foolish enough to engage us on the battlefield. So much for the other outdated concept that wounding the enemy requires X amount of support people, that is all gibberish to foster the Hague treaty crap. Glad to see the Marines are trying to take the upperhand, of course the politicos are in our latest shoot-out, watch out for civilians, tell them to leave are get sent to heaven with thier brethern. This isn't a Hollywood movie. Waiting for thr ACLU to talk about dum-dums. Bill

Yep, I know I keep repeating myself, but IMHO the last war we outright won was WWII when we didn't care who we killed. We nuked Japan and pounded Berlin, not caring about civilians or civilian property. We knew that for the war to end, the citizens had to want it to end too.

My definition of winning is to get the other side to sit down, sign a surrender agreement, and totally and permanently change their behavior.

The interesting thing is that Japan and Germany are now allies.

Since WWII we have gotten all PC about war. This crap in Afghanistan is getting our guys killed. We are still defending the border in Korea!!

We "won the hearts and minds of the people" in Japan and Germany in a completely different and effective way, imho.

$.02
 
What I think Afghanistan is proving out in small arms is that we have not escaped the phenomenon of "fighting the last war." The 5.56 is not up to the task of the mountainous distances horizontally or vertically when shooting back in that country.

But WW2 proved that fire superiority won fights and that most engagements take place inside of 100 meters and Korea reinforced that volume of fire was terribly important.

The adoption of the 5.56 and the subsequent close quarters firefights in Vietnam seemed to vindicate the fire superiority notion. The idea in combined arms is that if something is outside of easy elimination with the 5.56 based small arms, call in arty, armor, or an air strike to deal with it.

Of course all three call ins are problematic in Afghanistan for problems of distance, terrain, or altitude in the case of attack helicopters. First the M-14 came creeping back out of the armories, and now work arounds are being developed for the range limitations of the 5.56 at distance.

Ironically, the Germans had it right with the very first assault rifle that an intermediate cartridge is the best compromise between range and bite. Though sporting rather unspectacular ballistics, the 7.92x33 could fill both roles of providing a base of fire and killing soldiers dead individually with authority at 300m. The 7.62x39 utilizes the same concept, but the AK is the limitation in this round. Bolt guns, AR conversions, and other "commie" platforms like the VZ-58 have all proven there is more to the 7.62x39 than meets the eye when it's fired from something other than an AK. Nevertheless, even the Russian special forces abandoned their 5.45x39 rounds in Chechnya and went back to the 7.62 for better barrier penetration and a greater likelihood of shooting the enemy DRT, than they were seeing with the lighter round.

The 7.62x51 was never a true intermediate round, it was a modernized .30-06. The Remington 6.8SPC has alot of promise, but with the massive domestic and NATO investment in the 5.56 over the past five decades, the general adoption of a true intermediate round looks unlikely. It shouldn't be, but politics and conversion costs are a bigger concern than terminal performance it seems.

The 6.8, or the 6.5 Grendel as a dark horse, could be the DODs first true intermediate round if only they'd spend a fraction of the amount of one B-2 bomber to pick and develop one.
 

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