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The blame obviously lies with the leadership of Israel for calling it a war and not an anti terrorist operation.
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Nov 7, 2023 19:16
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Whatever happened to a good ol' "Police action?" seems like that term fell out of favor in the 90s.
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Nov 7, 2023 19:17
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Orange Devil posted:So FF serious question about all this tradition stuff right, how do you actually impart these in times of crisis? Like I imagine these regiments swelled the gently caress up and also had a lot of errr throughput in WW1. Seems like with the shorter training times and then straight off to the front and the need to teach a lot of fieldcraft and soldiery in as short a time as possible it'd be real tough to get anyone inducted into the sheer volume of all this nonsense. Well, units were traditionally responsible for their own training, so the cadre left behind at RHQ would train the newly mobilized troops. Their entire experience of the military would be their own traditions. The need to train millions, plus standardization means that hasn't happened in over a century, so instead units are responsible for providing instructors to the centralized schools. My first day in the army I was absolutely beasted by a Corporal from the The Cameron Highlanders of Ottawa (Duke of Edinburgh's Own) for referring to his Balmoral as a Tam O'Shanter to another candidate. So we all received a brief lecture on highland dress while doing pushups. Now, a Balmoral and Tam are the same thing, I guess, but the CH of O are firm in calling it a Balmoral. I don't know about the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders of Canada, who are based in Winnipeg. Because each arm provides instructors for basic training, the artillery makes their presence felt because Corporals and Master Corporals of Artillery are called Bombardiers and Master Bombardiers, which means they can jack up pretty much any soldier with less than a few weeks' experience for slipping up and calling them the wrong thing. Each arm also tries to jockey to make sure their own soldiers get Top Candidate, or at least don't gently caress up too badly. So, the instructors I knew best were the artillerymen, and my course officer was an artilleryman also. Then, obviously trades courses are run by each trade so you can include this in formal instruction, and all of the course staff, including support staff, are members of the same trade. Plus it takes place at one of their big bases. Finally, as soon as someone arrives in battalion their calendar if filled with dinners, sports tournaments and ceremonies that reinforce all of these identities.
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Nov 7, 2023 20:00
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can't they just make the lanyard longer?
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Nov 7, 2023 20:57
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bedpan posted:can't they just make the lanyard longer? We've already gone over this extensively and the answer is no, they can't
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Nov 7, 2023 21:02
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Lolling at the thought of an alternate history where the US never has a revolution, but develops otherwise identical to how it is now, so we have units like "the second royal battalion of Iowa (duke fistingtonshire's own) guard grenadiers" and units stationed in las vegas pining on about their rich highlander heritage
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Nov 7, 2023 21:12
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Frosted Flake posted:Finally, as soon as someone arrives in battalion their calendar if filled with dinners, sports tournaments and ceremonies that reinforce all of these identities. Yeah, so peacetime. I'm talking about times of crisis.
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Nov 7, 2023 21:13
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Orange Devil posted:Yeah, so peacetime. I'm talking about times of crisis. New Army units had strong identities, because they were all raised together. They had a strong group identity and assumed a regimental identity as well. The battalions already in France had harder time maintaining their identity as casualty replacements filtered in. To butcher the Ship of Theseus metaphor, it's better that whole sections be replaced at one, because at least the Bow (Ship of Theseus' Own) will have a coherent identity that fits into the bigger picture. Replacing plank by plank is shakier. That's why when battalions were wiped out in the Second World War, Winnipeg Grenadiers and the Royal Rifles of Canada at Hong Kong, the reconstituted Regiments were reassigned to home defence and saw no further action.
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Nov 7, 2023 21:19
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Justin Tyme posted:Lolling at the thought of an alternate history where the US never has a revolution, but develops otherwise identical to how it is now, so we have units like "the second royal battalion of Iowa (duke fistingtonshire's own) guard grenadiers" and units stationed in las vegas pining on about their rich highlander heritage Before and during the American Civil War, America briefly experimented with having a proper army.         
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Nov 7, 2023 22:18
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Was there ever any kind of scholarly consensus reached as to whether the US system in WW2 of 90 divisions constantly reinforced by replacement depot men was more effective than 200 divisions with whole divisions routinely coming off the line to refit?
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Nov 7, 2023 22:20
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Frosted Flake posted:Before and during the American Civil War, America briefly experimented with having a proper army. it’s really funny reading american civil war memoirs of Regular Army officers having to command Volunteer units, and concluding that the Volunteers were adequate troops but you always had to explain the reasoning behind your orders to their satisfaction before they’d do it
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Nov 7, 2023 22:23
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Frosted Flake posted:Before and during the American Civil War, America briefly experimented with having a proper army. Maybe you'd still be an empire if you didnt go all in on silly outfits.
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Nov 7, 2023 22:26
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tatankatonk posted:Was there ever any kind of scholarly consensus reached as to whether the US system in WW2 of 90 divisions constantly reinforced by replacement depot men was more effective than 200 divisions with whole divisions routinely coming off the line to refit? I know both western allies had a lot of problems in late 1944, 45 with casualty replacements. On the one hand, individual replacements seem to have gotten a frosty welcome in American units. On the other, nearly the entire leadership of 7th AD was sacked by Monty after going into action in Normandy and not wanting to fight.
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Nov 7, 2023 22:29
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Turtle Sandbox posted:Maybe you'd still be an empire if you didnt go all in on silly outfits. You know what would help with maintaining an empire? Not getting bogged down in two pointless wars while a great power an ocean away continued to develop.
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Nov 7, 2023 22:35
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Lostconfused posted:You know what would help with maintaining an empire? Not getting bogged down in two pointless wars while a great power an ocean away continued to develop. we put all the factories there ahead of time so that they dont need to ship all the equipment back over after conquering us like the soviets did to germany.
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Nov 7, 2023 22:50
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Frosted Flake posted:
unfortunately it appears you have posted about captain woman. I won’t tell the mods but you may want to edit
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Nov 7, 2023 23:14
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Since you raised the issue, I think my "posting about women" rule should be amended to exclude Sweet Polly Oliver and Marie from La fille du régiment.
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Nov 7, 2023 23:20
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I like how their hat straps are already pre-positioned for gagging purposes
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Nov 7, 2023 23:21
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Slavvy posted:I like how their hat straps are already pre-positioned for gagging purposes I'm deducting this from your pay
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Nov 7, 2023 23:23
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Trabisnikof posted:smallpox would have been (theoretically) used against strategic targets far away from the battlefield, while non-lethal but debilitating agents like Tularemia would have been used against the rear echelon to degrade military capacity. so why does a APC need biological resistance? it seems like you'd want to launch it behind enemy lines with like, smallpox blankets or some kind of aerosol missile or whatever. seems like an APC would make a bad target for a bioweapon
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Nov 7, 2023 23:30
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Marzzle posted:so why does a APC need biological resistance? it seems like you'd want to launch it behind enemy lines with like, smallpox blankets or some kind of aerosol missile or whatever. seems like an APC would make a bad target for a bioweapon So these specific ones are NBC reconnaissance vehicles, which all major militaries have, and are intended to carry around specialists in a WW3 scenario to detect what weapons of mass destruction are in use. So, for example, they have Bhangmeters to detect battlefield nuclear weapons and attempt to classify their type and yield. For bioweapons use, they would travel to the site of a biological weapons use report, and attempt to identify the agent. The reason the crew would be protected by the vehicle would be so they don't have to do all of their work in MOPP suits.
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Nov 7, 2023 23:32
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Sorry men due to cutbacks you're going to have to walk 30km through the hot site scanning for chemical traces, in full mopp4. Take an extra water canteen with you.
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Nov 7, 2023 23:48
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Trabisnikof posted:not exactly what you meant, but apparently calling tech support lines during combat happens with some frequency I’ve heard the airplane mechanics talking about all the times that they had to fly a Boeing guy out to tell them how to fix their plane.
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Nov 7, 2023 23:48
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Frosted Flake posted:So these specific ones are NBC reconnaissance vehicles, which all major militaries have, and are intended to carry around specialists in a WW3 scenario to detect what weapons of mass destruction are in use. So, for example, they have Bhangmeters to detect battlefield nuclear weapons and attempt to classify their type and yield. I do find it kinda funny to think of a WW3 where countries are being flattened by nuclear hellfire left and right and within that chaos some random assholes are driving around in their janky NBC recon vehicle to determine exactly what the yield of those strikes were because drat it that was their assigned mission. Relateledly in this Pivot To China stuff I've never heard anyone suggest that ceding space to China might be a bad idea. It seems like there would be some obvious problems with a peer rival owning the space above your head. As I recall the most capable of the various anti-ballistic missile systems were actually space based but they were cancelled presumably for requiring too much actual engineering and not enough graft. It makes sense to me as I'd expect destroying a missile in the mid course phase is more doable than terminal and that'd be before a missile MIRVs. I remember reading somewhere that Rods From God might not be as easy as it seemed in scifi, but I'd think a space based nuclear arsenal would be a pretty big deal for being a more credible first strike. The assumption is that you'll always have lengthy warning on a nuclear strike from the big ballistic launch you can't hide but dropping from space would presumably hide that and give the target a lot less time to get their nukes in the air. I also know China has anti-ship non-nuclear ballistic missiles and while they would be very effective the counterargument is that no country is going to believe them saying 'bro these are just anti-ship missiles no nukes are on them I swear' when those big launches go off. Basing them in space seems to solve that problem. Letting China setup whatever they want in space because the US is limited to rocket delivered satellites and asking rich guys to ride on their dick rockets seems like a bad idea if you care about America being able to nuke another country (not me please fund a revamped app store based nuclear trinity). With all the launches China is doing to support their space station and prep for moon stuff it's not like it'd be as obvious as it was back before their space program was running full steam. The US will always be able to hit back with the sub part of the trinity if nothing else (presuming the launch tube isn't filled with decades of beer bottles) so US always has credible response but that isn't the same when they want to be the aggressor.
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Nov 8, 2023 00:57
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it’s against the rules to put weapons in space
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Nov 8, 2023 01:33
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FuzzySlippers posted:I do find it kinda funny to think of a WW3 where countries are being flattened by nuclear hellfire left and right and within that chaos some random assholes are driving around in their janky NBC recon vehicle to determine exactly what the yield of those strikes were because drat it that was their assigned mission. If I can tie that together with what Orange Devil teases me about, British Army regiments were able to keep their full regimental bands, otherwise extraneous personnel you see, by bandsmen being in charge of CBRN decontamination. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDEkoqbdgPE "LCpl Walshaw is enjoying a full and varied career within the Army, not only as a ceremonial musician, but also within his secondary role of CBRN (Chemical, Biological, Radioactive and Nuclear) which involves operating a Chemical Decontamination Unit attached to a field hospital." 
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Nov 8, 2023 01:51
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Even Ukrainian fire fighters had a soviet BTRs from the 80s if they had to respond to chemical exposure.
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Nov 8, 2023 01:53
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What kills me about the crash in East Palestine, Ohio was that every small town sheriffs department has an MRAP but there is no fire department with any kind of proper protective gear, let alone specialized vehicles.
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Nov 8, 2023 02:08
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Frosted Flake posted:What kills me about the crash in East Palestine, Ohio was that every small town sheriffs department has an MRAP but there is no fire department with any kind of proper protective gear, let alone specialized vehicles. It's America in a nutshell  .
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Nov 8, 2023 05:13
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FuzzySlippers posted:I remember reading somewhere that Rods From God might not be as easy as it seemed in scifi, but I'd think a space based nuclear arsenal would be a pretty big deal for being a more credible first strike. they're not. an ICBM uses about the same delta v you'd need to get to orbit in order to come screaming in on a target at mach gently caress-you on a suborbital trajectory. going into orbit and then coming back down with comparable speeds would take far bigger rockets to use far smaller warheads. this would be made even worse because your deorbit stage needs to have highly stable and thus less efficient fuel (you can't be constantly refueling and refrigerating it), needs to be mechanically and computationally simpler (you can't have ground crews maintaining it all the time) and also can't be in LEO, because LEO satellites degrade a hell of a lot faster than missiles in silos. everyone knows exactly where your dumb missile is at all times, unlike silos and it would be trivially easy for anybody with a satellite in a similar orbit to destroy it unlike if it was in a silo 'rods from god' as a science fiction concept make sense for a fictional society that has industrial capacity in space already or as a terror weapon against a target that has no missile interceptors whatsoever and thus can be casually deorbited at a minimum delta v
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Nov 8, 2023 05:18
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if there was any reason whatsoever to militarize space (beyond what it is already, with imagery and positioning satellites ofc) we would have done it a long time ago, the fact that war in space would be a catastrophe for humanity wouldn't have stopped us the reason we didn't is its loving stupid there's no point
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Nov 8, 2023 05:26
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atelier morgan posted:if there was any reason whatsoever to militarize space (beyond what it is already, with imagery and positioning satellites ofc) we would have done it a long time ago, the fact that war in space would be a catastrophe for humanity wouldn't have stopped us it's not exactly stupid or useless. the problem is that it'd be immediately obvious to everyone that you were doing it and they'd immediately do it too, and it's only advantageous if you're the only one doing it. and you can't attain Space Superiority and monopolize it because if you blow up everyone else's stuff it becomes a big cloud of orbital shrapnel that also shreds all of your own stuff. so thus far nobody has bothered. in the event of an actual direct war between two sides that both had the capability it would absolutely happen the instant one of them decided that their opponent was getting more out of satellites than they were, they will launch operation gently caress space and ruin low earth orbit for everyone
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Nov 8, 2023 06:03
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atelier morgan posted:if there was any reason whatsoever to militarize space (beyond what it is already, with imagery and positioning satellites ofc) we would have done it a long time ago This whole line of thinking seems to assume the US makes considered rational decisions on long term development strategies when there's been no evidence of that for decades. Plenty of space projects looked promising and got abandoned for quirks of bureaucracy rather than ethics or impossibility. It's not like America took a long sober look at space before abandoning it and said yep this will never be useful. Working backwards from that assumption seems dodgy. I'm also pretty doubtful the US is tracking every object every country sends into space carefully, even rivals, when it can't even track who owns all of its defense subcontractors. Every article on space command gives the impression of underfunded chaos trying to do anything at all. Any steady hand on the till ideas about the US military seem outdated.
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Nov 8, 2023 06:19
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US Air Force may remove 105mm cannon from AC-130 gunshipquote:U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command confirmed to Defense News it is considering removing this howitzer-sized weapon, used to carry out punishing strikes on ground targets, from the aircraft as early as 2026. The idea comes as the service rethinks how it will use the heavily armed gunship following the end of the Afghanistan War and amid a greater focus on America’s top adversary, China.
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Nov 8, 2023 06:20
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All unguided weapons must be replaced by guided weapons that cost 50x as much.
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Nov 8, 2023 06:28
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quote:command now does not have the procurement funds to remove the cannon and to either patch up the hole or replace the weapon They only get a trillion dollars a year so it makes sense they couldn't slide any funds over from somewhere else. It's actually quite an optimistic assessment of the future if the military thinks it'll be spending less time leisurely murdering helpless people below them in the future.
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Nov 8, 2023 06:30
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Frosted Flake posted:Before and during the American Civil War, America briefly experimented with having a proper army. reading stuff about the Mexican American war and it’s nuts how much fancier the Mexicans are
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Nov 8, 2023 06:48
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Do these people think theres a palce for the AC-130 in a war against China? The plane that only exists to shoot people without AA capabilities
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Nov 8, 2023 06:54
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KomradeX posted:Do these people think theres a palce for the AC-130 in a war against China? The plane that only exists to shoot people without AA capabilities How else are we gonna get our sweet Call of Duty missions
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Nov 8, 2023 06:57
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gradenko_2000 posted:How else are we gonna get our sweet Call of Duty missions I guess it'll be one of tbose missions where the player character dies to underscore the drama. Does COD even do that anymore? Or is suggesting that our Special Operator Death Squads are mortal too anti-American?
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Nov 8, 2023 07:01
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