Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!apple!amdahl!amdcad!military
From: willey@arrakis.nevada.edu (James P. Willey)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: The death of mobile war
Message-ID: <26710@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Date: 11 Aug 89 05:51:08 GMT
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From: willey@arrakis.nevada.edu (James P. Willey)

	[This article originally used [] for parenthetical comments.
	 Please use () instead since [] are usually used for the
	 moderator's comments, like this one.  --CDR]

In article <8803@cbnews.ATT.COM> bnr-di!borynec@watmath.waterloo.edu (James Borynec) writes:
>The problem of organizing the fire is largely a matter of the proper
>doctrine.  The British had this down pat in WWII.  Today, with modern
>battlefield computers and communications, there is no technical reason
>that the time from initial call for fire for all of the guns in a Corps 
>to the time that rounds start to land should be more than two minutes plus
>time of flight (say 3 minutes in total).  Several of the worlds armies
>can do this today.

	I recently read First Clash: Combat Close Up In World War Three
by Kenneth Macksey.  It was apparently written as a training aid for
the Canadian military.  (I highly recommend it.)  Anyway, it deals with
the problems of communication on the battlefield, among other topics.
Several problems arose with the use of the fancy equipment used these days.

1.  Radio silence has to be maintained for as long as possible.  The forward
observation officer (FOO) wants to keep his location unknown to the enemy for as
long as possible.  The enemy will do his utmost to locate him and remove 
him from the action as soon as possible.  If the FOO is located early in the
engagement, then he may likely be incapacitated when he is needed most.

2.  The defenders know that the enemy is coming, so the attackers will be
more likely to use their radios.  As the forces get closer, the frequencies
begin to overlap. Thus it may take a while to find a clear frequency.

3.  Like the artillery, the FOO is easy to locate. (location of artillery has
already been discussed, so I will not go into that here)  Thus, if the FOO
is to survive, he must move if his position might have been compromised.
(like using his radio to call for fire support)  During these moves, he will
be out of contact.

4.  This is less of a problem, but since the enemy can locate the FOO easier
than most other troops, any troops defending the area the FOO is currently in
will not appreciate the artillery bombardment that would be inevitable if
the enemy were to locate the FOO. (The fire support may be beneficial to the
troops, but tell it to them when they have to ride out the bombardment after
the FOO has high-tailed it out of there:-))

Moral of the story:  High tech computers and communications equipment may be
nice, but they aren't the cure-all they are advertised to be.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   Kyle held his chin high, gazing down his nose at Rick.
"What d' you think's so good about the military?"
   Rick showed his teeth in a snarling smile.  "Free bullets,
free food ... and it sure beats working  for a living."
                                 (Robotech)