From:	Paul J. Adam Paul@********.demon.co.uk
Subject:	Starting equiptment [was: Value and so on]
Date:	Mon, 19 Jul 1999 16:39:13 +0100

In article <LOBBJIIHDGKNJHCGCIMMIEAHCFAA.arcady@***.net>, Arcady
<arcady@***.net> writes
>> Hmmm... thirty years ago only special forces had night vision gear on any
>> serious scale of issue. The new infantry weapon for the US gives every
>> infantryman his own thermal imager and laser rangefinder.
>
>Which US is that? I don't remember getting any gear like that when I was in.

Not surprised - OICW isn't expected to hit service for a while yet. But,
current expectation is that every rifleman will have a thermal-imaging
sight for his rifle (Hughes have done a good job getting weight and cost
down, by managing to eliminate reference sources and the need for
cooling air)

> Few soldiers in 2060 will ever see close range combat.

Yeah, and missiles made close air combat obsolete too :)

>They'd be used to
>hold a position or perform mop up operations after aircraft and then drones
>had done the initial attack.

I don't know... time and again we've heard that _this_ advance in
firepower or technology will eliminate the need to fight through the
enemy position on foot, but time and again it turns out that you don't
own the ground until the infantry get there.

>> Conscript militaries drop in utility as the sophistication of warfare goes
>> up. You can teach a man to stand in line and load and fire a musket quite
>
>The best military in the world. With the highest tech and highest level of
>training is a conscription military located in the middle east...
> The Israelis have motivation. And that makes them darn good.

To a point - they have the big advantage of knowing where they'll have to
fight. Gets a lot more complicated when you have some troops in
Northern Ireland, some in the Persian Gulf, more in the Balkans and a
garrison in the Falklands...

> The toughest marines among all the nations that the US sees as allies are
>also from a conscription country.

Same applies - and be wary of making comments like that around the
bootnecks.


--
Paul J. Adam