But there are all sorts of juicy tidbits in there — a calm confidence among the Taliban that victory is inevitable (which differs from the pansies at HNW who merely maintain that defeat is unthinkable), the well-supplied and luxurious life of the fighters, and is that a U.S. Army issue MOLLE pouch in the main photo?

Give it a read

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For some good news, Army Future Combat Systems is getting thinner and thinner, and we can only hope it soon will go away entirely.

The Future Combat Systems (FCS) is designed to make the Army lighter and more agile through an intricate web of manned and unmanned ground and aerial vehicles all linked together by a digital network.

This program has existed for so long and promised so much that is now hovers as some potential Olympian god with a penchant for smiting the unbelieving. But what remains a mystery is how a highly complex electronic network requiring extra gear, training and logistics will create a “lighter and more agile” Army.

If the Army wanted to become “lighter and more agile” I would advise them to jam a few people in with the Taliban (see above) and relearn light infantry tactics. Of course, the “lighter and more agile” Army is the secondary mission of the objective, the first being to make Boeing and Science Applications International Corp rich. Cashing in at $160 billion (not yet finished) it would seem it has been a thundering success in at least one arena.

Post from: The Ball Gunner

From the Army Times -
(Side note: Don’t let the name fool you, the Army Times Publishing Co. is owned by Gannett newspapers and has no official affiliation with the military.)

Army to buy thousands more Mk19s, M2s

By Kris Osborn - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday Sep 16, 2008 6:46:22 EDT

The Army is buying 4,600 Mk19 grenade launchers and 29,900 .50-caliber crew-served M2 machine guns, whose heavy-caliber rounds and high rate of fire have proven valuable in infantry counterinsurgency efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, service officials said. (Service officials? Was it Colonels Larry, Curly and Moe?)

Such weapons help target small groups of insurgents on the run or blended in with the local populations.

“Normally with a 7.62mm, you have a lot more difficulty when you have an enemy going behind a cinder block wall,” said Richard Audette, Army deputy project manager for soldier weapons at Picatinny Arsenal, N.J. “With a .50-caliber, you can take the wall out.”

I pretty much expect most journalists to not have a grasp of these things. But, really? We’ve obviously broached a new level of absurdity.

“Blended in with local populations?” The MK-19 shoots 40 milimeter grenades in either high explosive  and high-explosive dual purpose (when you want to either blow up or shred everything)  and the venerable M-2 (ma deuce for those who love her) was designed as a primarily anti-armor weapon. So as Gen. Petraeus departs our new counterinsurgency tactics will involve launching vollies of grenades into crowds or firing indiscriminately with a weapon created to take out light vehicles.

You see that hoss on the far left - that’s our darling. The one second from the right is 5.56 NATO, the bang-bang that comes out the end of the M-16s and M-4s. The round third from the left is 7.62 NATO used in the M-60, M-240 and the old timey M-14. Short of that cute little .22 (far right) and the bulldogish 7.62×39 of AK-47 fame (third from the right) none of these round would have any difficulty with a “cinderblock wall. ” If you need any further proof here’s some Bubba on YouTube popping a cinderblock with a dinky little 9mm highpower.

So what we’ve got here is some prime, grade A horse manure. Using a .50 machine gun or a 40mm automatic grenade launcher for counterinsurgency is not only stupid it’s sheer lunacy. Hosing down the joint when someone goes “behind a cinder block wall” is a good recipe for losing a counterinsurgency, because either of those weapon systems will surely “take the wall out” in addition to taking out the wall behind that one, and the one behind that and the one behind that. If it’s a 40mm grenade it will probably go through a few walls and then blow up. If this sounds like a good way to win hearts in minds in a crowded urban area then… well you probably belong in Army logistics.

Surely no one in the Army actually believes this. But they will merily feed it to the clueless wonks in the media who will regurgitate it for the rubes and most notably the rubes in Congress. Likely these systems are in dire need of replacement. The M-2 entered service in 1921 — no, that is not a typo — and during my days in green I was assigned a few that I would be willing to swear came from the original factory order. The MK-19 is an atrocious beast to clean and maintain under the best of conditions. Having lugged a weapon through the middle East sand let me assure you that is about as far removed from the best of conditions you are likely to find.

What the order comes down to is simply stuff wearing out and breaking and the request is being couched as needed for “counterinsurgency.” From one end, it is an innocuous justification for things they need. From the other end, and this is the slippery part, it is the manifestation of a trend to label anything and everything as counterinsurgency as a way to AVOID justification. The F-22? Need it for counterinsurgency! Future Combat Systems? Gotta have that for counterinsurgency! The USS Ronald Reagan? We’ve got all those insurgent carrier groups out there. You don’t want them winning, do you?

The entire selling point of the new counterinsurgency strategy was that it existed outside of the bureaucratic brontosaurus of the Pentagon. If it has been munched up already then the future is exceedingly doubtful.

Post from: The Ball Gunner