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US Marines Study 2 Gun Platoons

I have seen the video clip Petard mentioned and it is not pretty. As one who manhandled my first gun when I was 18, the term light gun is a misnomer. There are just different variaties of heavy, awkward "iron monsters."

We gunners are a supporting arm. What we do is deliver 50 kg bullets bullets accurately and repeatedly under all conditions continuously. One of the major limitations is the weight and bulk of 155 mm ammunition amd this stuff may often have to be moved several times by hand on a troop position before it finally goes down range. At the same time the troop has to be able to protect (and administer) itself for long periods in austere conditions. All this takes a certain minimum number of people given that members will be absent for various reasons, including HTLA. We can talk about all the other options, but we (and the Marines) must dance with the one we brung, and our date is the triple seven.  In my opinion the current troop establishment is none too fat and probably provides the minimum given the factors outlined in this paragraph.
 
The picture I loaded is a Marine HIMARS in Afghanistan. The M777 isnt their only artillery option. I only brought it up to counter the truck mounted SP gun concept. For Afghanistan the M777 can go the most places.

Video 2 gun section at work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5hO124QyaM
 
tomahawk6 said:
The picture I loaded is a Marine HIMARS in Afghanistan. The M777 isnt their only artillery option. I only brought it up to counter the truck mounted SP gun concept. For Afghanistan the M777 can go the most places.

Video 2 gun section at work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5hO124QyaM

My comment was about guns. The HIMARS is a terrific addition to the arsenal, but not germane to what the Marines are studying, at least in my opinion.
 
A cold war battery had a fair bit of firepower for local defense, including M72's, Carl G's, GPMG's a 50.cal and C2's with every gun. think of evey gun crew as a Section of infantry and tactics at the time involved 4 trenches to be dug around each gun for defense and protection from counterbattery fire.
 
Colin P said:
A cold war battery had a fair bit of firepower for local defense, including...defense and protection from counterbattery fire.
And no means to see anything at night except by self illumination, also you're talking about a Bty that was usually massed together, not just a Troop of 2 guns no where near any neighbouring unit for mutual fire support. On the move that cold war Bty, especially its ech, was extremely vulnerable.

I'm not saying the way ahead should be decided by the COE, but it shouldn't be so readily dismissed either, which it often is and usually following the other commonly quoted buzz phrase: plan for a war not the war.

Our cold war Bty Order of Battle had to be adapted to the dispersed ops of Afghanistan, capability deficiencies like night vision addressed, and Regts' restructured to deal with ever increasing surveillance and target acquisition  capability demands, while sustaining force generation.

Those are the kinds of lessons I think the Marines are after.
 
We learned the value of NVG's in the 80's when we formed a defensive postion with the BCR, we had Lynx, 105, Lynx, 105, Lynx, 105. They had NVG's and we fought off an attack by the US Rangers, actually it would have been a massacre in real life (never assault a gun battery by landing helo's in front of the gun position)  :nod:

That was the last time I used NVG's till the Coast Guard
 
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