fair enough.

2. Personally a “motorised” (rifle) regiment sounds a little to Warsaw Pact to me (showing my age!)- no seriously, a motorised infantry unit is one in soft skin trucks, not armoured vehicles (IMHO)

isn’t that just a light infantry regiment?

3. Don’t really know, it was a question – but I suppose if I think about it, same number of larger sections, so bigger overall battalion maybe…..

sounds useful given current requirements……?

cheers Jed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEDRM6l0SKs

A full 12 man section could be carried by Warthog or AW149.

I suppose we should ask if this if the correct way to arrive at a section strength?

Is the the increase in Battalion strength desirable?

FV432 or Warrior has not been deployed at all! So that is the compromise. Mobility trumps armour in this case. In the case of predictable patrols on roads that are well known to insurgents then Armour trumps mobility.

The conclusion is a mix of Warthog / MRAP but not some 8 wheel hybrid that is neither mobile or protected.

Shiny kit can be fitted to nearly any platform you want. If you can afford it. 360 degree camera arrays in daylight or thermal, shot detection, soft and hard kill integrated defensive aid suites, slew to cue with whatever weapons you feel necessary on a remote weapon turret.

1. I thought it a “square” brigade was just a term for one with 4 battalions / regiments (as opposed to a “triangular” one with 3 I suppose!)

2. Personally a “motorised” (rifle) regiment sounds a little to Warsaw Pact to me (showing my age!)- no seriously, a motorised infantry unit is one in soft skin trucks, not armoured vehicles (IMHO)

3. Don’t really know, it was a question – but I suppose if I think about it, same number of larger sections, so bigger overall battalion maybe…..

PaulG – I think they also build something called a Bionix, which would get my sons vote for sounding remotely like (Lego) Bionicle ! Although if your as old as me, it might make you think of Steve Austin the $6 Million Dollar man…. :-)

1. i thought a four-square brigade referred to an armoured brigade configured around two armoured and two armoured infantry regiments?

2. is a wheeled regiment not a motorised regiment, or is their some more complex definition?

3. re bronco mech regiments – when you suggest larger sections, are you in fact suggesting a larger battalion overall, or just fewer and larger sections within a battalion?

cheers

Not surprising that all these DARPA funded projects for modern hybrid airships tend to have a similar shape to TB2 ? Slower of course, but for vertical landing of large amounts of troops with considerable amounts of logistics……. ah well, just a thought…

1. Armoured Infantry – upgraded Warrior
2. Mechanised Infantry (Tracked) all Warthog
3. Mechanised Infantry (Wheeled) current wheeled inventory (to be replaced by something else later?)

With lots more Warthog filling in all those other support roles of the FV432 family.

Tactical question – if your using Warthog for Mech Inf, and it carries 12 bodies, do you:
1. Up the size of the standard section to maximise the carrying capacity of the vehicle
2. Reduce a Platoon to 3 vehicles (carrying 36 bods max)
3. Keep a Platoon at 4 vehicles and spread supporting bods around (Javelin and MG teams from the fire support platoon etc)
???

@Jim30

I don’t think here actually wants to but Blackhawk. We are just shooting the breeze. And we all are hopefully learning from each other too.

Also on the subject of extras, I got to see a list of the extras that could be specced on a Boeing airliner a few years ago. Even an apparently simple addition like the intermittent setting for the windshield wipers would cost the customer several thousand dollars per aircraft.

Scaled up, a parachute battlegroup could seize an airfield, and then conventional forces can be flown in.

Which I suppose requires three parachute groups.

Never mind…

It is important that we divide the future use of parachute troops into conventional operations (e.g. a strike against Iran) and asymmetric operations (e.g. a flare-up in Iraq). For conventional operations, we do need a brigade size airlift capability. What is different about today versus parachute operations in 1939-45 is that there are many more airfields. The air drop of a battalion-size force to capture one is entirely valid: you need to deploy a lot of troops very quickly and sometimes you need to do this in locations well beyond the range of helicopters. To support such an objective, you might also need concurrent drops to cut-off bridges, roads and reinforcement points or other tactical targets, such as a town or small city’s power supply. Once the primary objectives are seized, you have the means to deliver additional troops and other assets by air. Therefore a Brigade-size drop capability needs to be retained for conventional operations IMHO. The question is whether we can afford it? Alas, it seems we cannot.

As far as asymmetric threats are concerned, again a battalion and company-size operational deployments are entirely foreseeable to bring rapid relief to an area terrorised by insurgent forces.

It goes almost without saying that Special Forces need a jump capability for a variety of mission types.

Another factor that makes the parachute soldier relevant to future operations is the increasing sophistication of portable weapon systems. Javelin, for example, is a superb anti-tank system. There is no doubt in my mind that a battalion-size force equipped with Javelin could obliterate an advancing enemy tank division. Handheld computers also make the use of 60 mm mortars at platoon level much more effective.

Finally, the V-22 Osprey has been a disastrous project so far. I wonder if a larger similar type of aircraft with turbofans might provide us with a better means of long-range deployment of troops to the battlefield. Can you imagine a battalion-size force flying from RAF Brize Norton and landing vertically in a field in Afghanistan 8 hours later That’s what I call shock and awe.

Someone somewhere else on TD made me laugh out loud when i read: my fantasy airlift list would include 30 Thunderbird 2s! Such aircraft will surely come.

One thing we should remember is that the Blackhawk relies on crashworthy seating, the same type will be fitted in the Lynx Wildcat.

Sit on the floor of a Blackhawk and you’ll leave the crash site on a stretcher with a neck brace and a spinal board!