- Reaction score
- 9,761
- Points
- 1,360
Lightguns said:My concern would be repeating the mistake that the Israelis made. They decided in the 50s that all infantry should be paratroopers, those that couldn't or wouldn't were sent to the mechanized infantry which was under funded to fund the paratroopers. The result was that their infantry corps valued paratroopers travelling light to mechanized infantry and thus the mechanized infantry became a ******* that was transferred to the Armoured Corps who underfunded it and let it's training go because of the lessons of 67 when infantry rarely dismounted. In 73 when the Arabs got ATGMs the armoured paid the price of not having a trained mechanized infantry. The quick fix was to give the paratroopers half tracks from reserve infantry units whose troops were turned into labour for the engineers. Thus wasting the vertical insertion capacity of a majority of the paratroopers.
Lightguns,
I think this is exactly what the Army is scared of. It's part of the reason (not the only one) the Airborne was killed off.
I've said this before:
The Canadian Army's entire history is "mechanized warfare in Europe" we're comfortable with it. The Army as an institutional is uncomfortable with commando forces because they take away from what the institution believes is its core raison d'être.
A commando regiment would require giving it primacy as far as funding and picks of the litter go. The Regiments and other Corps would never stand for it.
Any Commander that pushed for this would end up spending his entire command fighting institutional and regimental inertia.
The Americans suffer the same problem. I worked with a US Green Beret on exchange here, he noted that they have the exact same things happen down South, "want to attempt 75th Ranger or Special Forces? Better hope you pass because the knives will be out if you don't". He also noted that the Regimental component of our Army adds an additional complication that they don't suffer from.
There's a reason they've been slowly clawing back responsibility for everything SOF career related. They've had to in order to advance the yard stick.