The Military Thread

Did ourselves a 20 mile ruck march today. Feet are killing me, but it went as well as it could of. I'm going to feel like serious shit tomorrow at my desk though.

Someone commented that the training of the Philippine Marine Forces Recon is "old-fashioned" compared to our neighbors. Then someone replied to him: "Unlike our neighboring countries, they get actual combat experience, fighting communist (since the 1950s!) and Muslim insurgents (since the 1960s!)."

I was gonna say the Philipinos have been battling some sort of hostile element on their soil for quite some time clear up to modern times.

There was a brief "blip" with the two insurgencies though. The "Philippine Communist Party" started things in the 50s but lost in a power struggle in the late 60s-early 70s to what became the current "Communist Party of the Philippines" . The former was backed by the USSR, the latter was backed by China. The Muslim insurgency is also not a single continuous conflict since there have been peace talks and ceasefires (and expiration thereof) interspersed throughout the decades, not to mention the groups themselves leading the insurgency change as well.

Our Army and Marines have fought with Al-Qaeda members before it was "cool". LOL

Ah, intra-left-wing party struggles. Damn the Judean People's Front, we're the People's Front of Judea!

Entropy: That is pretty much what I mean. There is always someone stirring up shit sooner rather then later. The moros come to mind when Black Jack Pershing pacified them. We also get the interesting legend of them being buried with pig bits and shot with pig greased bullets.

Well, It's nice to see OPSEC and PERSEC are just MLAs now rather than actual rules.

>.<

Yeah I saw that. Someone is in trouble.

The Naval Special Warfare community seems to have just gone completely insane. I blame the election year. Okay, slightly flippant comment but seriously, you can't publish a book like that in an election year and not expect it to be taken as a political statement.

On an unrelated note, I was talking with a guy who was asking me why they don't just attach a guidance kit to a piece of rebar and use that instead of bombs if they're so concerned about civilian casualties. They could just hit the engine block of the target's car or drive it through the passenger seat or something.

I didn't really have an answer for that. Would that actually work?

edited 11th Sep '12 5:14:07 AM by HouraiRabbit

I doubt it would be accurate to the standards that we want.

Besides, guidance systems are expensive.. We don't put them on everything.

Actually we would call that a kinetic kill weapon system. We have them on the block for drone weapon research. The Israeli Mini-Spike has a selectable function warhead where it can either explode or be used in a kinetic kill mode. It is a guided smart missile.

It is doable just gotta hit something with a big enough impactor to take it out.

The french sorta did that in libya. they crushed tanks and cars with cement bombs.

Yes, the french dropped a laser guided rock from fighter jets on cold-war era tanks.

It's cheaper and creates less collateral damage — whatever works...

If it looks stupid but it works then it isn't stupid.

Oh yea, I'm not knocking it. It's just kinda funny when you think about it.

It's not that much cheaper. An inert kinetic energy weapon is certainly less collateral, and there's several designs you can use, ranging from a block of steel to a long rod to a cluster bomb of inerts to a pure KKV rocket. The expensive part of a JDAM pack is the JDAM guidance system. Let me do a quick check on The Other Wiki. JDAM tail kit @ ~27k$, 2000lb bomb @ ~3k$. A block of steel of similar length will cost a little more than the bomb, just for the steel, but I can't find something of similar thickness. Also, it'll be significantly heavier since steel is denser than the explosive.

However, if you did a large batch with the less material you'll need for the aerodynamic shape, you might be cheaper for the steel block. Or using a different material. Assuming you don't want a tungsten carbide spike in the middle or something.

edited 11th Sep '12 4:43:46 PM by Deboss

at least your not paying for the explosive.

It's rather odd the guidance system costs significantly more than the stuff that explodes.

edited 11th Sep '12 4:51:03 PM by Joesolo

Deboss; They dropped concrete bombs on them. They were shaped slabs of man made rock with a guidance package and fins slapped on.

The Mini-Spike is an infantry weapon but I don't see any reason why it couldn't be put on a drone.

Speaking of Smart Munitions. The Marines are getting the Switch Blade. A backpackable tube launched munition drone. It is guided by ground forces. Other innovations in the works include 40mm GL drones. Think smart grenades that have some self guidance or can be guided by operator.

edited 11th Sep '12 5:08:49 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Let's see, I know from my previous position that std concrete has a density of 80lbs/.6cf, so we can use the equation 120*pi*81*80/(.6*144*12) to get 1036.8 lbs. So, it's only half the weight of an equivalent. Probably saves on fuel. IIRC, @ 3.35 $/bag, so $99 for the block.

A concrete 'bomb' is pretty neat. Cast up a bunch for training ground crews on how to handle them safely, and they even double as non-explosive weapons, too.

All this is well and good now, but I shudder to think what will happen if/when we have to fight enemies that are packing this stuff.

While we're on the subject of UAVs in the Marines, the unmanned version of the K-MAX seems like an infinitely sensible way to go for logistics.

edited 12th Sep '12 5:50:56 AM by HouraiRabbit

Oooh, fin stabilized 40mm grenade launching drones sounds awesome.

Today in my classes, I've seen a couple of soliders (I guess?). As I was leaving, I asked one of them if he was a marine (yes, I have no excuse). He told me that he was from U.S. Army and he was in some kind of, what was it, ULC program or something. I would have asked him to repeat, but I felt a bit too awkward to do so.

Does anyone know what kind of program that can be?

Were they South Koreans or Americans? There are lots of South Koreans who are in some exchange program where they are stationed in SK as south koreans, but with our uniforms and US Army nametapes.

No, they were all Americans or at least Caucasians, as far as I can tell.