Saturday 23 April 2022

Heavy Infantry

 
Whiskey Company of 45 Commando Royal Marines patrolling from Forward Operating Base Jackson at Sangin in Helmand Province in Afghanistan on the 11th of December 2008
 
 
Herein we shall compare the weight carried by an eight man British Army infantry section to that carried by eight infantrymen of An Independent Army For An Independent Nation,whilst ignoring accessories and items which are likely to be of similar weight and recognising that published weights often vary widely,as do the loads carried by infantrymen.
 
A soldier from B Company 2 Battalion the Parachute Regiment with an L85A3 rifle during Exercise Wessex Storm on Salisbury Plain on the 22nd of November 2020
 
 
Six L85A3 rifles,each with seven,thirty round,magazines and two hundred and ten cartridges,weigh about ninety-seven pounds.
 
Lance Corporal Thomson and the 12th Mechanized Brigade Reconnaissance Force in Shorokay during Operation Daas which means scythe in Dari on the 23rd of August 2012
 
 
Two L123A3 grenade launchers with EOTech aiming devices weigh about eight pounds (or ten pounds with Vectronix and Wilcox Rapid Acquisition Aiming Modules),the weight of ammunition for these may be ignored as it is similar to that of it's proposed replacement,the Half Pound Grenade.
 
A foot patrol of Royal Marines from Delta Company of 40 Commando passes near Kajaki Afghanistan on the 18th of June 2010
 
 
One L7A2 General Purpose Machine Gun with one thousand linked cartridges weighs about ninety-three pounds.
 
Royal Marines from 40 Commando on patrol in the Sangin area of Afghanistan with an L129A1 Sharpshooter rifle and an L85A2 assault rifle on the 6th of June 2010
 
 
One L129A1 rifle with ten,twenty round,magazines and two hundred cartridges,weighs about twenty-five pounds.
 
A Paratrooper from 5 Platoon of B Company of 3 Para takes cover after throwing a grenade during Operation Oqab Tsuka in Helmand province Afghanistan on the 31st of August 2008
 
 
Sixteen L109A1 hand grenades,weigh about sixteen pounds.
The above items,including two thousand four hundred and sixty cartridges and sixteen grenades,weigh about two hundred and sixty-five pounds,an average of about thirty-three pounds per man.
 
The LoneStar Future Weapons and Beretta USA RM277R rifle proposed for the Next Generation Squad Weapon competition
 
 
Eight Quarter Inch Rifles,each with seven,thirty round,magazines and two hundred and ten cartridges,shall weigh about one hundred and sixty pounds.
 
A Japan Ground Self Defense Forces soldier from the 36th Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Division with a Type 89 rifle and Type 06 rifle grenade on the 26th of March 2020
 
 
Sixteen Half Pound Grenades shall weigh about eight pounds.
 
The Thales SquadNet Soldier Radio
 
 
Four modern section radios shall weigh about two pounds.
 
Royal Marines with 40 Commando are engulfed in dust after disembarking from a helicopter and watching it lift off again on the 1st of January 2013
 
 
The above items,including one thousand six hundred and eighty cartridges and sixteen grenades,shall weigh about one hundred and seventy pounds,an average of about twenty-one pounds per man,twelve pounds less than British infantrymen carry at present,but adding another seven hundred and eighty cartridges (twenty-six boxes of thirty) to bring the total up to two thousand four hundred and sixty rounds shall increase the weight to an average of about twenty-six pounds per man.
Thus,an infantry section of An Independent Army For An Independent Nation shall be more mobile than the current British Army section,or carry more food and water,more ammunition or more heavy weapons,such as the proposed Three Inch Mortar and Six Inch Rocket Launcher,whilst also having lighter training and logistical burdens.
 

Wednesday 20 April 2022

The War In Ukraine: The Infantry Is Obsolete

 
 
 
But will a video of a Ukrainian infantry section attacking Russian infantrymen,who apparently drove a convoy of soft skinned civilian vehicles to within yards of the enemy without posting any security,convince transformationalists that the infantry is obsolete?
 

Sunday 17 April 2022

The War In Ukraine: General Sir Richard Barrons

 
General Sir Richard Lawson Barrons KCB CBE the then Commander of Joint Forces Command on the 23rd of April 2013
 
 
One could be forgiven for thinking that the former Commander Joint Forces Command,General Sir Richard Barrons,had never been a British Army officer as his article in today's Sunday Times newspaper about the current unpleasantness in Ukraine not only lacks the acronyms and buzzwords which make so many sound like teenage management trainees but also appears to have been written by a man who understands the bloody business of land warfare,however,this otherwise very sensible piece must be challenged on the claim that tanks need to be "made lighter".
 
A Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Challenger 2 Main Battle Tank prepares to fire its main gun during a training exercise near Basra in Iraq on the 17th of November 2008
 
 
Protection against modern infantry weapons weighs hundreds of pounds per square foot,protection against tank fire is even heavier,and a modern armoured vehicle is further burdened by the increasing volume and weight demands of weapons,sensors,communications,countermeasures,battle management systems and their associated power and cooling requirements,a problem which would be exacerbated by the adoption of electric propulsion.
 
A T72 tank destroyed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine near Mariupol on the 7th of March 2022
 
 
Unless the laws of physics change,the trend for ever bigger and heavier tanks is likely to continue and heavy losses of medium tanks in Kuwait,Chechnya,Iraq and Ukraine demonstrate the consequences of ignoring the reality of armoured vehicle design.
 

Saturday 16 April 2022

The Forgotten Victims Of Misandry

 
Then Brigadier Sharon Nesmith who is now a Major General on the 20th of June 2014
 
 
As a woman,Major General Sharon Nesmith may not be the stereotypical victim of institutional misandry,but it is high flying female officers like her whose careers are forever tainted by their superior's obsession with "first woman" headlines.
 

Friday 15 April 2022

The Three Lemons

 
A Pinzgauer Vector the highest priority of General Sir Richard Dannatt Commander in Chief Land Command on Salisbury Plain during the Vehicle Study Day on the 13th of September 2006
 
 
For centuries historians have struggled to explain the United Kingdom's frequent military defeats,but it was not until the advent of internet forums that the military illiteracy behind the deaths of hundreds of thousands of British soldiers became well documented,however,senior officers have long recorded their ignorance for posterity through the medium of defence procurement and herein we shall discuss several current projects.
 
An Ajax armoured fighting vehicle during cold weather system trials at Tame Ranges in Sweden between February and March 2019
 
 
An equivalent to and contemporary of the British Warrior Infantry Fighting Vehicle,A.S.CO.D. (Austrian Spanish COoperative Development) was developed by Austria and Spain,but despite needing a much larger number of vehicles,the British Army chose the improved A.S.CO.D. 2,rather than an all new design or a Warrior variant,as the basis of it's transformational Future Rapid Effects System which later became Ajax,an armoured reconnaissance vehicle which has neither the protection to withstand hits from weapons such as the 9M133M Kornet-M missile and 2A46 tank gun nor the fire power to suppress them,and which therefore must conduct reconnaissance by stealth,a task which requires neither medium armour nor a medium cannon,however,as Ajax currently does not work it may never enter service,which would be most fortunate.
 
A 99 Squadron Globemaster unloads new British Army Apache helicopters from Kansas City in the United States at Royal Air Force Brize Norton on the 24th of November 2020
 
 
Designed almost half a century ago,the Apache attack helicopter,as one of the few aircraft capable of delivering large numbers of precision weapons at night,had it's "happy time" attacking Iraqi forces during the liberation of Kuwait in Nineteen Ninety-one,a dozen years after that,during the invasion of Iraq,a force similar in size to the British Army's entire front line attack helicopter fleet was shot to pieces,in half an hour,by the poorly trained and equipped Medina Division over Karbala and in the Afghan war and Iraq wars combined more Apaches were lost than any other manned aircraft type,nevertheless,British Army officers decided that in an era of precision guided weapons a helicopter,with a large signature,which flies at slow speed and low altitude in close proximity to,and direct line of sight of,the enemy was the future of air warfare,before ordering another fifty,which may still be in service for the aircraft's eightieth birthday.
 
A Boxer Combat Reconnaissance Vehicle and an Abrams Main Battle Tank at Mount Bundey in the Northern Territory of Australia on the 15th of May 2017
 
 
The Boxer armoured truck,which shall already be a dozen years old by the time it enters British service,uniquely combines a modular hull which increases it's size,weight and cost for negligible benefit with a profile larger than a Main Battle Tank,ground pressure four times higher than an equivalent tracked vehicle,mechanicals which are exposed to enemy fire,a machine gun armed remote weapon station and protection against cannon fire both of which are inadequate in the front line and unnecessary anywhere else,and an ability to drive across Europe which,as the war in Ukraine has demonstrated,is utterly irrelevant.
 

Tuesday 12 April 2022

The Transformational Boxer Vehicle

 
A Kornet missile fired by cadets of the Training Center for Combat Use of Missile Troops and Artillery of the Land Forces of the Western Military District on the 20th of April 2017
 
 
The Russian 2A46 125 mm tank gun,BM-57 57 mm automatic cannon,Hermes missile,9M133M Kornet-M missile,9M133 Kornet missile,9M123 Khrizantema missile,9K121 Vikhr missile,9M120 Ataka missile,9M119M Svir/Refleks missile,9M117 Bastion missile,9K115-2 Metis-M missile,9K115 Metis missile,9M113 Konkurs missile,9K111 Fagot missile,RPG-32 Barkas (Ruchnoy Protivotankovy Granatomyot) rocket propelled grenade,RPG-30 Kryuk rocket propelled grenade,RPG-29 Vampir rocket propelled grenade,RPG-28 Klyukva rocket propelled grenade,RPG-27 Tavolga rocket propelled grenade,RPG-26 Aglen rocket propelled grenade,RPG-22 Netto rocket propelled grenade,RPG-18 Mukha rocket propelled grenade and RPG-7 rocket propelled grenade can all penetrate the Boxer vehicle's armour,it's exposed tyres,wheels,suspension and drive train can all be damaged by artillery shell fragments,mortar bomb fragments and small arms fire and it's ground pressure is about four times higher than an equivalent tracked vehicle,yet some think that using Boxer as a front line combat vehicle would be transformational.
 

Saturday 9 April 2022

Wednesday 6 April 2022

The War In Ukraine: Teaching New Dogs Old Tricks

 
A Challenger 2 Main Battle Tank of Cyclops Squadron Royal Tank Regiment with 1 Armoured Infantry Brigade on Exercise Saif Sareea 3 in Oman on the 1st of October 2018
 
 
Logic,history and Grand Logistics tell us that,for a Main Battle Tank,other tanks "are rarely engaged as they make up only a very small percentage of battlefield targets,more common targets such as Kornet missile teams being best engaged by a large calibre rifled gun",but while combat in Ukraine yet again demonstrates that infantry is the primary target for an armoured vehicle,the British Army is sidegrading it's Challenger 2 tanks with a smoothbore gun optimised for engaging last generation Russian medium tanks.