Youtube Comments on the new USMC rifle squad M27+ reorganization
wimmisky
6 months ago
The sole piece of good news out of this is the pushing of MAAWS down to squad level; finally lethal, precise, extended range HE capability to push that shitty low pressure 40mm round out of that role, and maybe the addition of a doctrinal DM finally. Be honest, you're stripping 3 SAWs not because 12 M4/HKwunderguns have more firepower, but because you don't/can't maintain them and because you're forcing junior enlisted to carry so much useless shit that they physically can't carry an actual machinegun. The idea that two decades into GWOT and during a period when you're trying to reorient towards renewed great power competition with China and with Russia you're considering equipping a squad with one higher level radio system, one drone (yeah, right, the ones we have currently are never used because A. they're not authorized, B. they cost so much that the main benefits of a drone can't be exploited because of risk to the system and C. nobody knows how to use them because of lack of experience caused by A/B), one designated marksman (who now has to replace 3 machineguns to provide the squad's lethal long range suppression/killing power), one tablet (doomed to be obsolete upon adoption, a burden upon issue, and in inventory forever - remember Toughbook) and one laser range finder is pretty entertaining. I wonder if all those generals who were LTs in the Cold War honestly believe this BS they're trying to sell to junior enlisted. Oh, wait, I almost forgot, by stripping the riflemen out of the squad you're removing the major enabler that Marine rifle squads have always had the foresight to retain over their army counterparts, resiliency. Not only in combat where if somebody with a critical weapon goes down the rifleman can immediately step in, but in garrison as well thanks to perpetual chronic manning/training shortfalls which aren't going to magically go away. Hopefully they're not so senile that they can't appreciate the irony of two decades of mismanaged wars and dereliction by their peers ensures the Marine Rifle Squad of the 2020s is going to look like a Soviet motorized rifle squad of the 1980s. Except with considerably less fires, air support, mobility, and no heavy armor, also known as everything that made that structure functional. Are we still telling lance corporals that forward deploying a light infantry battalion to the Baltic will deter the two dozen Russian mechanized battalions too because of "superior fighting spirit" too?
wimmisky
6 months ago
If you're there when that happens drop your rifle, five years in a russian POW camp is better than an inscription on a marvel statute to the brave defenders of 'insert little pissant shithole here'. Our elected leaders have long and storied traditions of sacrificing a few hundred dead men in uniforms, bravely sacrificed because those politicians wanted to pursue aggressive expansionist foreign policies with no willingness to commit resources to them, and the assurance that if they overreached with their threats and a foreign power responded and killed the token force they forward deployed as a burnt offering the American people would instantly spring to action and demand a war. And there is nothing better for the career of an American politician or a bureaucrat than a war where he gets to get better men than himself killed. GWOT, Somalia, Balkans, Iraq three times now, the dozens of "small war" interventions the Marines have been deployed to die on over the centuries, WWI, WWII, Vietnam, Mexican American war. Every victory bought after years of blood of the best of us, the sweat of the hardest of us, the heart of the bravest of us, and ink&pontification of us. The men who believe the most, work the hardest, and sacrifice the dearest are the very ones that get punished for doing so, while those just brave enough to profit off of their bodies are the ones that make out like thieves. Every one started with a whole lot of dead Americans who volunteered to serve their country, and who were knowingly and deliberately sacrificed by their elected leaders who swore with fingers crossed to preserve and protect.
Except we've now got no mobility, no CAS, and no naval guns. The largest naval gun is 5", the fleet depending on how you count is 1/3 to one half the size and facing an A2/AD threat that means our Marines cannot count on having access to naval fires, and look at the state of the surface fleet because of no maintenance and poor training. Our vehicles are a shitshow and falling apart, and that's not turning around anytime soon. Between us and the Army failing at creating a new vehicle program when we finally get new vehicles the per-hull cost is going to be over 25 million apiece because of the costs of all the failed programs, which means we'll get fewer than we need, and they'll get run more and worn out faster. Which is exactly what happened with the F35. The F22 took a decade longer than it was supposed to, we planned on buying half what we needed to replace F15, we ended up buying 1/10th. The F35 was going to "fill the gap", took two decades longer, to come online, and best case we're getting 1/3 of the airframes. Carrier air that is supposed to provide the bulk of our support doesn't have the range OR the payload because they replaced the tanker fleet, long range fighter fleet, and long range strike fleet with pure fleet F18s and now F35s with less payload, 1/2 at best range, and no shipboard dedicated tanking. You mention NATO which is appropriate because that's where most of our liability comes from, but during the cold war the British, Germans, and even the French all contributed substantial combat power. All of them immediately demobilized in the 90s, to the point that none of them is capable of fielding a fully manned, trained, and equipped brigade, yet alone the former Corps level formations that we used to be able to count on. If our general officers continue being yesmen to their political masters while facing no consequences from above or below, and in some cases even being cheered for it, when those political masters walk us into a real shooting war with the Chinese or the North Koreans or the Russians or the Iranians the first 1500 men who get sacrificed to ensure the American people will demand an escalated war are going to be the lucky ones, because the rest of us are going to have several years of getting butchered without the equipment we need, the training we want, or the fidelity and courage of the officers we deserve.
6 months ago
The sole piece of good news out of this is the pushing of MAAWS down to squad level; finally lethal, precise, extended range HE capability to push that shitty low pressure 40mm round out of that role, and maybe the addition of a doctrinal DM finally. Be honest, you're stripping 3 SAWs not because 12 M4/HKwunderguns have more firepower, but because you don't/can't maintain them and because you're forcing junior enlisted to carry so much useless shit that they physically can't carry an actual machinegun. The idea that two decades into GWOT and during a period when you're trying to reorient towards renewed great power competition with China and with Russia you're considering equipping a squad with one higher level radio system, one drone (yeah, right, the ones we have currently are never used because A. they're not authorized, B. they cost so much that the main benefits of a drone can't be exploited because of risk to the system and C. nobody knows how to use them because of lack of experience caused by A/B), one designated marksman (who now has to replace 3 machineguns to provide the squad's lethal long range suppression/killing power), one tablet (doomed to be obsolete upon adoption, a burden upon issue, and in inventory forever - remember Toughbook) and one laser range finder is pretty entertaining. I wonder if all those generals who were LTs in the Cold War honestly believe this BS they're trying to sell to junior enlisted. Oh, wait, I almost forgot, by stripping the riflemen out of the squad you're removing the major enabler that Marine rifle squads have always had the foresight to retain over their army counterparts, resiliency. Not only in combat where if somebody with a critical weapon goes down the rifleman can immediately step in, but in garrison as well thanks to perpetual chronic manning/training shortfalls which aren't going to magically go away. Hopefully they're not so senile that they can't appreciate the irony of two decades of mismanaged wars and dereliction by their peers ensures the Marine Rifle Squad of the 2020s is going to look like a Soviet motorized rifle squad of the 1980s. Except with considerably less fires, air support, mobility, and no heavy armor, also known as everything that made that structure functional. Are we still telling lance corporals that forward deploying a light infantry battalion to the Baltic will deter the two dozen Russian mechanized battalions too because of "superior fighting spirit" too?
wimmisky
6 months ago
If you're there when that happens drop your rifle, five years in a russian POW camp is better than an inscription on a marvel statute to the brave defenders of 'insert little pissant shithole here'. Our elected leaders have long and storied traditions of sacrificing a few hundred dead men in uniforms, bravely sacrificed because those politicians wanted to pursue aggressive expansionist foreign policies with no willingness to commit resources to them, and the assurance that if they overreached with their threats and a foreign power responded and killed the token force they forward deployed as a burnt offering the American people would instantly spring to action and demand a war. And there is nothing better for the career of an American politician or a bureaucrat than a war where he gets to get better men than himself killed. GWOT, Somalia, Balkans, Iraq three times now, the dozens of "small war" interventions the Marines have been deployed to die on over the centuries, WWI, WWII, Vietnam, Mexican American war. Every victory bought after years of blood of the best of us, the sweat of the hardest of us, the heart of the bravest of us, and ink&pontification of us. The men who believe the most, work the hardest, and sacrifice the dearest are the very ones that get punished for doing so, while those just brave enough to profit off of their bodies are the ones that make out like thieves. Every one started with a whole lot of dead Americans who volunteered to serve their country, and who were knowingly and deliberately sacrificed by their elected leaders who swore with fingers crossed to preserve and protect.
Except we've now got no mobility, no CAS, and no naval guns. The largest naval gun is 5", the fleet depending on how you count is 1/3 to one half the size and facing an A2/AD threat that means our Marines cannot count on having access to naval fires, and look at the state of the surface fleet because of no maintenance and poor training. Our vehicles are a shitshow and falling apart, and that's not turning around anytime soon. Between us and the Army failing at creating a new vehicle program when we finally get new vehicles the per-hull cost is going to be over 25 million apiece because of the costs of all the failed programs, which means we'll get fewer than we need, and they'll get run more and worn out faster. Which is exactly what happened with the F35. The F22 took a decade longer than it was supposed to, we planned on buying half what we needed to replace F15, we ended up buying 1/10th. The F35 was going to "fill the gap", took two decades longer, to come online, and best case we're getting 1/3 of the airframes. Carrier air that is supposed to provide the bulk of our support doesn't have the range OR the payload because they replaced the tanker fleet, long range fighter fleet, and long range strike fleet with pure fleet F18s and now F35s with less payload, 1/2 at best range, and no shipboard dedicated tanking. You mention NATO which is appropriate because that's where most of our liability comes from, but during the cold war the British, Germans, and even the French all contributed substantial combat power. All of them immediately demobilized in the 90s, to the point that none of them is capable of fielding a fully manned, trained, and equipped brigade, yet alone the former Corps level formations that we used to be able to count on. If our general officers continue being yesmen to their political masters while facing no consequences from above or below, and in some cases even being cheered for it, when those political masters walk us into a real shooting war with the Chinese or the North Koreans or the Russians or the Iranians the first 1500 men who get sacrificed to ensure the American people will demand an escalated war are going to be the lucky ones, because the rest of us are going to have several years of getting butchered without the equipment we need, the training we want, or the fidelity and courage of the officers we deserve.
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