Go buy the Wargame games, I suppose? Short of watching a RAND simulation you're not going to see any on the Internet that don't rapidly devolve into nationalistic chest thumping.
I have disagreed with her a lot, but comparing her to republicans and propagandists of dictatorships is really low. - An idiotWargame sims: depends on the era. The Wargame series strikes a fun balance between realism and gameplay, Steel Panthers is free and has a heavy focus on realism, if you can stand the bare-bones UI, and there are tons of "grognard" games at almost any level of command, any realism level, any era, from individual/squad/platoon to grand strategic.
On the Let's Play Archive, look for War in the East and War in the Pacific for two of the most extreme examples. Grand-strategic, theatre-level command of either the entire Eastern Front or the whole Pacific War, day by day. That's Matrix Games for you.
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.Man, I missed something big.
Hell if you honestly feel there's a lack of men like that in the world then become one, fill the void you see with your own deeds.
Oh and don't take time off the forum, by the sound of it we may be the only people in your life who aren't either middle aged depressives or 15 year old trolls
Oh God, these are almost cathartic.
Member of UK armed forces charged with Northern Ireland-related terrorism offences
[Royal Marine] Ciaran Maxwell, 30, was arrested in Somerset, southwest England, last month.
He is charged with making and storing explosives linked to the preparation of an act of terrorism and was appearing at Westminster Magistrates Court in London later on Friday.
Maxwell, of Exminster, Devon, was also charged with fraud and possession of cannabis.
Police said related property searches in Exminster were now complete but those at a wooded area in Devon would continue into next week.
Heard a bit of this on the radio this morning. Lacking any other details, I'm betting he's Catholic.
(It's cool, I'm Catholic too)
Chinese Militarization Spurs Resistance and Buildups Across Disputed Asian Waters
A look at what has been going on since the Hague ruling. To be short, plenty of military maneuvers and military equipment loans/purchases.
As an addition to the Chinese military topic, it's explicitly the lack of military power which has made the Chinese embrace the Three Warfares so strongly. So far, restraint is what has prevented direct conflict and enabled the use of such "grey zone" tactics. A stupid mistake or accident has the chance of triggering a pretty deep crisis in the area. However, the sooner it happens the easier it will be to extinguish, as China still hasn't got the naval power to make up the difference in naval power or properly apply an A2/AD access strategy.
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
rollin' on dubs
China does not have a senior NCO corps or Field Grade officers to school their junior leaders or new soldiers. Without the "tribal knowledge" to guide new platoon/section leaders, they will be borked when the bullets fly.
What saved the US Army and Marines after Vietnam? Junior officers and NCO's became senior leaders who passed on what worked and what didn't work even as conditions in the post-Vietnam military really sucked. The Air Force and Navy formed aggressor squadrons to train their pilots and spent money on ECM and stealth so that they had good pilots and not throw good money after bad training.
China? They are good at parades, awarding them selves shiny medals and scaring the sh_t out of fishing boats, but how does their NCO corps and junior officers fare when there's incoming fire?
I tried to walk like an Egyptian and now I need to see a Cairo practor....
rollin' on dubs
"Train like you fight and fight like you train": the reason most US and Western militaries do wargames is "The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in combat". Desert Storm was fought dozens of times at the US National Training Center in For Irwin California. In PATRIOT, we did air battles until we hated being in the van but man did crews get gud.
China has no NTC, no training corps, a weak NCO corps. NCO's don't just make privates clean and do pushups, they also train junior officers. Most commie/tinpot militaries view ranks as a strict caste: Officers at the top, privates at the bottom and junior NCO's are overpaid privates. Case in point: the Russians have their jet engine mechanics all be officers because they would never trust a jet engine to a private.
The US? It's common to see million dollar weapon systems being worked on by some gal/guy fresh out of AIT/Tech school at about 17-23 years old. Supervised by NCO's and junior enlisted with more experience, but we make sure that noob learns the job.
I tried to walk like an Egyptian and now I need to see a Cairo practor....That said, the inevitable caveat: China has the capability to change that, if it was willing, and most commentary out of the Chinese armed forces emphasize the importance of switching to a leaner, more technological army, instead of the old-style conscript army. It's been a quarter-century since Desert Storm, after all. Whether the reforming tendencies can overcome bureaucratic inertia is an open question, but they are there.
Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.From what I recall reading, morale and resiliency are pretty major issues for PLA troops. Stuff like having to cancel planned week-long exercises due to the troops not being able to handle it.
They can fix it, but it won't be overnight. Figure it takes about 20 years to teach an army a whole new set of habits (long enough for the green privates and lieutenants to all take up fishing and bingo in old age). For all we know, they're doing that right now but just haven't gotten there yet.
How long did it take the Vietnam-era US military to become the Desert Storm-era US military?
Was the solution to bring their own attack helicopters to engage in wicked helicopter vs helicopter dogfights in the canyons?

There is a different thread? For what? I assumed we would discuss hypothetical wars and other such scenarios here. Maybe even do a war game simulation.
Please allow me to introduce myself, I am a man of wealth and taste. Nice to meet you, hope you can guess my name.