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Thread: Great Power contentions

  1. #751

    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    If this war drags on without either side looking to win soon then there could be peace talks coming up. NATO would be involved.
    Wooooo!!!

  2. #752

    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    Ukrainian scout trainee critical of the manifest backwardness of the US military. I suspected this was a trainee of the battalion-scale 6-week "combined arms" program in Grafenwoehr, Germany I mentioned back in the late winter, but the author also mentions it involving a brigade formation, so maybe it was one of the Bradley or Stryker brigades.

    One of the major points is the refusal of US instructors to think outside the paradigm of "pure recon on foot." There was zero tactical UAV (civilian drone) training despite repeated requests, and little practical combat training.

    A lot of comments proposed that soldiers must be trained in non-electronic and non-drone backup methods, ignoring that these are inferior and waste the precious time of soldiers soon to be deployed in a real-live war with real-life tactics, practices, and procedures that contradict mere dusty doctrine and theory (namely, both sides have from the beginning relied on networked digital apps fed real-time tactical drone observation data to manage most artillery fires; somehow they've not been reduced by EW to wishing for old-fashioned FIST teams). It's like demanding riflemen be trained on iron sights equally as with ACOGs or other optics, reducing overall competence in practice.
    @spmetla
    Last edited by Montmorency; 07-14-2023 at 06:21.
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  3. #753

    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    Wooooo!!!

  4. #754

    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    The one big prediction I'm already labeling a wrong call of mine with respect to Ukraine's 2023 campaign - though there's still time this year for events to prove me more prescient - is that almost all of the activity would take place within the administrative borders of Zaporizhzhia. So far it's been a majority, but only a majority. The majority again of that remainder is what we might refer to as "semi-wrong", taking place along the Donetsk side of the Donetsk-Zaporizhzhia border, but the rest is further north, especially around Bakhmut. Call that a sixth of the overall effort. I had thought - hoped - that UFOR wouldn't expend much on pressuring Bakhmut, and I concluded against a Velyka Novosilka axis because I assessed that the optimal location for the eastern axis through the Russian defensive network would be cross-country between Hulyaipole and Polohy.

    I'm glad that Ukraine has received elevated artillery munitions flows, but they need more tubes and crews now for coverage. Eastern Europe is gradually producing a marginally self-sufficient production base in large Soviet-caliber rounds, but really the replacement and initial supply of 155mm cannons is not adequate. Ukraine needs to receive at least one per day - with a properly-trained crew - indefinitely just to account for attrition, with the only candidate platform being the large outstanding storages of M109s. That is to say nothing of the need for delivery platforms for new arty brigades by the time NATO can produce a couple million shells a year.

    Ukraine still needs a proper war economy with government-directed industrial policy, and proper investment in its development and manufacture of military-grade recon drones. Also, the US needs to really get started on investing in the development of true loitering drones, for point defense and counter-drone war. Just tactical drone warfare in general is a big blind spot for NATO.

    But as I've noted since last fall, Ukraine and NATO need to prioritize institutional reform of UFOR from the ground up first of all, increasing the level of skill and professionalism to the extent that the operational and tactical default wouldn't be a consistent convergence on Russian methods. (Literally, by the end of June people were beginning to remark that the structure of the UFOR campaign closely reflected the shape of Russian/Wagner winter offensives.) The feasibility of large-scale forcible recovery of territory can't be rated highly with a basically attritional strategy against a larger opponent and with reliance on external sources of supply.

    For yet another formulation:

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Quote Originally Posted by John Helin
    It's likely that many of the problems we've seen since the offensives of last years will persist. Enduring challenges with command and coordination will likely limit the AFU ability to create significant strategic success in the short term. This is further challenged by dwindling amount of AFU reserves to exploit breakthroughs.
    [...]
    Equipment is only as good as its users. Experienced UA brigades are doing better with worse equipment than the newer NATO trained ones. Indeed the challenges of this summers offensives should definitely prove that despite western wishes there is no magic bullet to end the war.
    [...]
    The west, mainly the US, at least has doctrinal and training, as well as high level C2 understanding of how to do large scale mechanized offensives. It's not just air supremacy, seeing how Russia had ability to do some of that coordination in the first weeks too.In general we also have to get away from the discourse where Ukraine is always choosing the optimal solutions or has mastered modern warfare in a unique way. It hasn't. Most of the great successes came on the defensive, and often with great costs. Defence has proven to be a lot easier than offence here. That doesn't mean that the West doesn't have a ton to learn from Ukraine. It absolutely does. However, there is a lot of institutional problems that are in the way of objectively better Western methods of doing things. One big thing is the enduring complaint of Ukrainian hierarchical top-down-command, where instead of flexible mission tactics commanders micromanage subordinates and don't give them freedom to choose solutions that best fit their own tactical situations.
    [...]
    What this means is that the West must commit for the long haul. Instead of only giving Ukraine quick off-the-shelf western solutions, ie. equipment, we must start building long term solutions together with the Ukrainians to overcome their unique challenges. This will demand a lot of adaptation, compromises, commitment, willignes to learn and maybe even humility, from both sides of the deal. It should look very different from the current piecemeal approach to aid.
    Last edited by Montmorency; 08-05-2023 at 17:34.
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  5. #755
    Coffee farmer extraordinaire Member spmetla's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    Ukrainian scout trainee critical of the manifest backwardness of the US military. I suspected this was a trainee of the battalion-scale 6-week "combined arms" program in Grafenwoehr, Germany I mentioned back in the late winter, but the author also mentions it involving a brigade formation, so maybe it was one of the Bradley or Stryker brigades.

    One of the major points is the refusal of US instructors to think outside the paradigm of "pure recon on foot." There was zero tactical UAV (civilian drone) training despite repeated requests, and little practical combat training.

    A lot of comments proposed that soldiers must be trained in non-electronic and non-drone backup methods, ignoring that these are inferior and waste the precious time of soldiers soon to be deployed in a real-live war with real-life tactics, practices, and procedures that contradict mere dusty doctrine and theory (namely, both sides have from the beginning relied on networked digital apps fed real-time tactical drone observation data to manage most artillery fires; somehow they've not been reduced by EW to wishing for old-fashioned FIST teams). It's like demanding riflemen be trained on iron sights equally as with ACOGs or other optics, reducing overall competence in practice.
    Considering that the US has not waged a conventional war since 2003 I'm not surprised that American trainers will be seen as a bit behind curve compared to what's happening in real-time in Ukraine. This is probably amplified by the size of the US military which means its trainers must likely stick to current US doctrine and practices which are being updated but have not yet been updated to represent what we've seen the last year and a half. Smaller European militaries are liker to adapt more quickly and implement today's lessons learned in their training rather than the large and unwieldly US Army TRADOC bureaucracy.

    The emphasis on ground scouts and recon though reflect a lot of hard lessons learned in decades past in which the US has tried to essentially get rid of ground scouts with technology (recon planes, sensors, ground focused radar etc...) and in every war finds that it must still have scouts on the ground to find enemy gaps.
    Think the trend that's not represented in the current training will be that ground recon (infantry and cavalry scouts) will need to be an even more selective group of individuals as opposed to the current US approach in which it's just a mission set anyone can do. US CAV scouts do need higher GT scores to qualify but there's no selection process like for SOF, this may be something that needs to happen though as using SOF to recon in the close fight would be a waste of resources.

    Ground recon is much more dangerous and difficult though irreplaceable as drones are not quite up to the level yet of locating minefields, bypasses for obstacles, and so on. For enemy focused recon drones are superior though they are not all-weather. The terrain of Ukraine also makes it much more favorable for drones, much more densely wooded areas would be more difficult for them to operate in.

    The current US approach to small drones is still in its infancy for the overall force. Micro drones and off the shelf stuff are in use at the NTC and JRTC and in some current units but it's not uniform across the force yet so doctrine and training TTPs need to catch up.

    "Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
    -Abraham Lincoln


    Four stage strategy from Yes, Minister:
    Stage one we say nothing is going to happen.
    Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.
    Stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do.
    Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now.

  6. #756

    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    A measure that can boost Ukraine's potential without compromising combat capabilities should involve the training of ~500 NCOs and mobilized officers in the US, in a 6-7 month program similar to the US TBS and OIC courses. This will help to prepare platoon and company commanders.


    There is indeed plenty of ground-based recon going on in the war, but it's not a specialized role most of the time as we're seeing. Though it does have a specialized operational structure by Soviet/post-Soviet doctrine, so maybe it's more precise to say that while there are some dedicated recon elements, anyone can be expected to carry out accountable recon activities. We see a lot of ad hoc squad-level recon by fire among both sides. Squad and platoon-level UAS capacity is usually crowdsourced and not supplied by regulation, so if you don't have a drone, there's no choice but to hoof it. There is a heavy reliance on SOF for more complex recon missions, or those that venture through the grey zone into enemy-controlled territory, which shouldn't be that dissimilar to US doctrine. (I think the Ukrainian trainee above was most critical however of a mindset that prioritized doing everything analog and by muscle, so to speak.)

    There could be reasons for the US not to universalize ground recon operations in this way, given the much higher level of both professional training and specialization, and greater availability of large, high-echelon recon drones. I'm definitely not familiar with the current discourse. But even the point about the difficulty of drones with forests only goes so far, since we know consumer drones have been used extensively in the Serebryanka Forest, the Svyati Hori national park area along the Siversky Donets River west of Kreminna that's been contested for almost a year. Videos aren't hard to find, such as this longer one of a Russian drone team guiding infantry through the woods in real-time*. Thermals help a lot too. (In a truly dense forest or jungle, only light or airmobile infantry can really work anyway; we may even recall Vietnam.)

    As you indicate, it can be profitable to emphasize organic tactical drone capabilities among infantry while retaining a more focused, specialized element for appropriate circumstances. Just like mobile firepower (e.g. tanks) in the immediate area is more responsive than air support, giving a squad visibility on their immediate area is more responsive than liasing with battalion or brigade HQ. Establishing organic drone platoons/companies at all levels, or special army or theater-level drone units that are assigned on a task basis are also approaches that have been observed.

    What's clear with respect to Ukraine IMO is that to the extent Ukrainian soldiers are being given abbreviated courses of individualized training as opposed to comprehensive and prolonged generation of large units, it's inappropriate to insert US doctrine that is contrary to the day-to-day practices on the real battlefield and is too inefficient to supplant them. It wastes precious training time.

    And to be cliche, every war is different and there will be good lessons to be discerned both toward general best practices as well as contextual adaptations. Moreover, every country has different circumstances, so there may be some sound lessons that the US, as opposed to other countries, could ignore in favor of emphasizing others (e.g. maybe for sake of argument massive EW and countermeasures could compensate for lack of tactical UAS).


    But some lessons are still inevitable:

    Boxer, a toy that costs almost 30 million dollars. It will still die to an ATGM, an FPV drone, and will be immobilized by a mine.

    Planners in the West must understand that wonder weapons only work against weak opponents, where enemies have limited capabilities.

    If the NATO country takes part in the big war, they will end up with 2 armored brigades (6000 people) and 200000 infantry on trucks.

    What the war in Ukraine has shown is that scale matters. Paying 80% more for a 20% efficiency upgrade only works on paper.

    Have you heard about the new British ASRAAM-mounting Supacat? Seemingly in a few months they jerry-rigged trucks with ASRAAMs, and their double-digit range counters helicopters well, perhaps being better in range and pop-up availability than Buks with Sea Sparrow. I bet designing a new mid-range SAM platform from scratch - albeit with better specs overall - would cost several billion dollars in R&D, take 5-10 years to reach serial production, and then contract for $10+ million a unit. This is just the kind of frugality and improvisation we need more of.


    *It's been commented a lot that ubiquitous drone technology will push advanced militaries back towards centralization and micromanagement of tactics, maybe not at the staff level but up through the lieutenant-colonel or equivalent. The availability of real-time information will reactivate those managerial impulses in the command element, so the argument goes, and though it may be effective in some cases (e.g. Wagner's MO), it can also undermine mission-oriented tactics at the lowest level. Not a high-level example, but one that comes to mind is one of the more famous Ukrainian emplaced defense videos, in which a squad commander frequently receives updates over his radio, like "Hostiles inbound 11 o'clock", "Do this", "Do that", "Throw a grenade", "Reposition"... How do you interpret this trend? The revival of "network-centric warfare?" The videogamization of command?
    Last edited by Montmorency; 08-12-2023 at 05:09.
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  7. #757
    Coffee farmer extraordinaire Member spmetla's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    There could be reasons for the US not to universalize ground recon operations in this way, given the much higher level of both professional training and specialization, and greater availability of large, high-echelon recon drones. I'm definitely not familiar with the current discourse.
    The US has scouts at the battalion level (special selection of regular infantrymen), the brigade level (a squadron of cavalry scouts light/stryker/ or heavy), and soon again at the division level with DIVCAV coming back, and in the past when we had regular Corps the ACRs acted as Corps Scouts.

    s you indicate, it can be profitable to emphasize organic tactical drone capabilities among infantry while retaining a more focused, specialized element for appropriate circumstances. Just like mobile firepower (e.g. tanks) in the immediate area is more responsive than air support, giving a squad visibility on their immediate area is more responsive than liasing with battalion or brigade HQ. Establishing organic drone platoons/companies at all levels, or special army or theater-level drone units that are assigned on a task basis are also approaches that have been observed.
    The US has actually done so and for a while now. At the company level there are Raven Small UAS systems available which I had when I was a company level commander ten years ago. The bigger problem there is that the Raven is a flying 'sensitive item' that if it goes of course, gets stuck in a tree, etc... is a major property book item to recover and any incident with a Raven crashing in a training area is still an 'aviation crash' of a sort which requires a bit of investigation. Not to mention that (especially the guard) when you only have so much training time available, incorporating the raven into your training plan and getting those soldier (it's an additional duty not a special job set) the qualifications needed to fly without a master trainer nearby can be taxing and generally does not match up specifically against your assigned training tasks so a lot of people just don't really train on them.
    The solution to the above is the US needs to treat small UAS and drones as more expendable items, sorta like ammunition so that people can train aggressively with them without the fear of having to walk through the wood line for three days looking for a crashed drone.

    What's clear with respect to Ukraine IMO is that to the extent Ukrainian soldiers are being given abbreviated courses of individualized training as opposed to comprehensive and prolonged generation of large units, it's inappropriate to insert US doctrine that is contrary to the day-to-day practices on the real battlefield and is too inefficient to supplant them. It wastes precious training time.

    And to be cliche, every war is different and there will be good lessons to be discerned both toward general best practices as well as contextual adaptations. Moreover, every country has different circumstances, so there may be some sound lessons that the US, as opposed to other countries, could ignore in favor of emphasizing others (e.g. maybe for sake of argument massive EW and countermeasures could compensate for lack of tactical UAS).
    Fully agree on both points, just as we've seen with armor, application to a breakthrough in the american style without american air power to back it up is foolish.

    Boxer, a toy that costs almost 30 million dollars. It will still die to an ATGM, an FPV drone, and will be immobilized by a mine.

    Planners in the West must understand that wonder weapons only work against weak opponents, where enemies have limited capabilities.
    The Boxer works though in the Australian model in which it's likely opponents are indonesia or china's expeditionary capabilities. Also, an IFV or APC still get infantry farther forward, faster, and with more protection than walking.

    What should change though is the top dollar that the west pays out for essentially an APC with a mounted gun. There's a lot of overhead, graft, and inefficiency that's unnecessary, part of that is buying on a scale of dozens to low hundreds instead a production run of thousands.
    Much as the Europeans hate to work together on major defense purchases they need to really settle on a one or two base models for each platform role instead of each country having a different version. If all of europe settled on the CV-90, Lynx, or ASCOD for the IFV roles they could make larger purchases at less cost with only small variations from country to country.

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    Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.
    Stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do.
    Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now.

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  8. #758

    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    The Boxer works though in the Australian model in which it's likely opponents are indonesia or china's expeditionary capabilities. Also, an IFV or APC still get infantry farther forward, faster, and with more protection than walking.

    What should change though is the top dollar that the west pays out for essentially an APC with a mounted gun. There's a lot of overhead, graft, and inefficiency that's unnecessary, part of that is buying on a scale of dozens to low hundreds instead a production run of thousands.
    Much as the Europeans hate to work together on major defense purchases they need to really settle on a one or two base models for each platform role instead of each country having a different version. If all of europe settled on the CV-90, Lynx, or ASCOD for the IFV roles they could make larger purchases at less cost with only small variations from country to country.
    From a practical and political standpoint, I personally don't think Western Europe or CAN/ANZAC should prioritize national resources on remilitarization for mass mechanized attrition, so it's not that I oppose something like the Boxer on principle. It would have been for the best if NATO militaries were tightly focused on complementing the US in the Western hemisphere and everyone was on that same page. But from the perspective of Eastern Europe, or most other countries (to the extent a given country should even have a military), you really prefer something like a souped-up BMP-2 type of bulk platform (with higher survivability) as the most cost-effective IFV solution. Russia (post-Soviet) has exported BMP-2s for ~$300K, which I believe is something like the export price of a Javelin CLU and one missile. The Yemen deal in the 2000s was ~$200K per unit. If the chart below is correct, BMP-3s tend to sell for around $3 million/unit (another source showed a contract price for domestic manufacture at around $1 million/unit), which IMO is not worth the added value.
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/sebasti...h=347cbc234b1b
    https://dfnc.ru/en/analytics/export-...s-from-russia/

    Click image for larger version. 

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    Czechia recently announced a package deal for 246 CV-90 Mk.IV, a few months ahead of Slovakia signing on 152 units. News reports attest the respective contracts at $2.2 billion and €1.3 billion. Let's round it up to $4 billion total for 400 units plus spares, support, and all else typically associated with such contracts. That's effectively $9-10 million per unit. Cut that cost in half, make it the upcoming Mk.V model, and carry over the price cut to the older models, and the CV-90 could be extremely competitive worldwide. I would definitely prefer a Mk.IV to the overspecced BMP-3 at the same price point. But to make it possible you would probably need to get several dozen European countries to agree to massively subsidize Sweden to produce thousands, which can't happen without an unprecedented quid pro quo and technology transfer between EU members. Especially since it would be matching or beating the Polish Rosomak/Borsuk and South Korean K21 at price point, to say nothing of Lynx or smaller competitors.

    I hope we don't have to find out, but in West Africa we may soon receive the first 21st-c. lessons on the requirements of 'real war' for countries that aren't rich or in the top tier.
    Last edited by Montmorency; 08-12-2023 at 22:02.
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  9. #759

    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    @spmetla

    I'm sorry bro, but come on. Come. On.

    Just like the trainee reported.

    This is right up there with the perennial complaints from the Pentagon in the media on how they wish the Ukrainian military would try just shooting less artillery.
    Last edited by Montmorency; 08-28-2023 at 11:27.
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  10. #760
    Coffee farmer extraordinaire Member spmetla's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    It's kinda of mind boggling what's coming out of the pentagon. Same with the criticism of the offensive so far. The "this is Kursk not rebels" comment sums it up best.

    Ground recon is great but drones are absolutely essential in modern war.

    "Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
    -Abraham Lincoln


    Four stage strategy from Yes, Minister:
    Stage one we say nothing is going to happen.
    Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.
    Stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do.
    Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now.

  11. #761

    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    Quote Originally Posted by Angry Staff Officer
    The "kids these days wouldn't storm Omaha beach" crowd get super uncomfortable when you then ask them how they feel about mandatory service, nationalized industry and transportation, and rationing

    I can't find the quote directly, but in one of Rick Atkinson's WWII books, he highlights how the winning essay in Life's "Why I Serve" essay contest for '43 or '44 was simply, "I got drafted"

    National service & national industry combined to bring about victory in both world wars

    No discussion about large scale combat operations against a near-peer enemy should happen without discussing both of those things

    And yet. And YET. The US military services chalk that up to "political problems that aren't our problem" and then try to make war plans

    *Nations* fight wars, as wars are an extension of political and social ends -- but if you try to fight a war without the nation, like, oh, I don't know, the last 20 years, then you get a military that is divorced from national strategy and a people disconnected from reality

    And this is why historians don't get invited to many parties. Apparently we're too negative.
    Heh. But though it's not the poster's exact point, I reckon if the US has to reinstate a general draft to fight a war, something would seem to have gone very, very wrong. Like "World in Conflict" wrong.

    Tangentially, it's generally agreed now that in the past year - including the "partial mobilization" - Russia's military has recruited at least half a million personnel. (I'm referring just to the military, not Wagner or anything else.) There's the well-known 300K, but the rest have been voluntary or semi-voluntary recruits (prisoners, the accused, debtors, immigrants, people tricked by administrative means, covert mobilization, etc.) subject to 'hard-press' treatment. It's probably why the leadership has been acting so confident that their ongoing losses have been covered.
    Last edited by Montmorency; 09-15-2023 at 02:07.
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  12. #762
    Coffee farmer extraordinaire Member spmetla's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    Would agree with the premise that the US needs to look at economic and industrial capacity in a wartime setting and take that more seriously. If there's a war with China and most of the worlds ships are made in China, Japan, and South Korea we're going to have a bit of a problem worldwide building ships for our own commerce and military if those shipyards are building for their militaries. I think China is still thinking that the US would be a 'paper tiger' in a war over a periphery interest. Think their lesson learned is a direct attack like Pearl Harbor is a no-no but a gradual ramp up in the scale of war from the current 'competition' to more blatant war of Taiwan would cause the US to backdown or just dither about too long before it could make an impact in time.

    For terms of conscription, well the US might need to do that in the future just for our peace-time force as the US population continues to live increasingly unhealthy lives and as military service requires more skilled persons than in the past. If kids are still wanting free college but not willing to serve a few years in peace time to do so then what other incentives are there?

    "Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
    -Abraham Lincoln


    Four stage strategy from Yes, Minister:
    Stage one we say nothing is going to happen.
    Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.
    Stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do.
    Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now.

  13. #763

    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    I’ve consistently seen it remarked that the military’s uncompetitive pay scale and unappealing work conditions discourage potential applicants in the context of a high-employment economy (esp. since the late 2010s).

    IIRC in WW2 enlisted GIs were paid comparably to white-collar workers. We can’t afford that now, but I think before long something like the link is going to be the bipartisan consensus.
    https://www.military.com/daily-news/...roops.html/amp
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  14. #764
    Backordered Member CrossLOPER's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    Quote Originally Posted by spmetla View Post
    For terms of conscription, well the US might need to do that in the future just for our peace-time force as the US population continues to live increasingly unhealthy lives and as military service requires more skilled persons than in the past. If kids are still wanting free college but not willing to serve a few years in peace time to do so then what other incentives are there?
    Not a dangerous trend at all.

    Healthcare costs insane? Military service.
    Basic college education unreachable? Military service.
    Many common jobs paying wages not worth considering? Military service.
    Rations not high enough for survival? Military service.
    Habshelter unlivable? Military service.

    Maybe the solution is the reverse?

    Quote Originally Posted by Article View Post
    https://www.military.com/daily-news/...roops.html/amp
    The White House also argued the changes would create "pay compression" in some areas.

    "This would remove an important incentive for enlisted members to seek increased responsibilities and earn promotions at the grade of E-6 and higher, harming military readiness," the statement said.

    The House's defense spending bill was already unlikely to become law as-is after Republicans included a slew of partisan riders aimed at Pentagon policies that conservatives consider "woke."

    The funding bill would, among other provisions, prohibit surgery or hormone therapy for transgender troops and ban funding from being used to pay for travel and leave for service members seeking abortions.
    The US is absolutely screwed unless the leadership gets it into their head that dangling promises of better pay, and interfering with medical care is unacceptable.
    Last edited by CrossLOPER; 09-27-2023 at 18:28.
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  15. #765

    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    Speaking of college education, the latest reporting finds an 8-year life expectancy gap between college Americans (bachelors or higher) and no-college Americans (though including 2-year degree and some college), largely because the latter are much likelier to have worse healthcare, environment, diet, and working conditions.

    More broadly than life-expectancy, we could almost say non-college Americans live in Mexico, and college Americans live in Western Europe.
    Last edited by Montmorency; 10-04-2023 at 02:27.
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  16. #766

  17. #767

    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    There is a long history in media of a bias toward national foreign policy, and moreover the accessibility and relatability of the events and the place/people. Look at coverage of terrorist attacks and natural disasters in more vs. less developed countries.
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  18. #768

    Default Re: Great Power contentions



    Wooooo!!!

  19. #769
    Coffee farmer extraordinaire Member spmetla's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    It is quite crazy how the Houthi 'rebels' now have cruise missiles and ballistic missiles with the ability to launch strikes on the Saudis and Israelis.
    Glad the DDG was there to detect and stop those missiles while transiting the Red Sea. Not a friendly neighborhood as the USS Cole remembers.

    "Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
    -Abraham Lincoln


    Four stage strategy from Yes, Minister:
    Stage one we say nothing is going to happen.
    Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.
    Stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do.
    Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now.

  20. #770

    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    Quote Originally Posted by spmetla View Post
    It is quite crazy how the Houthi 'rebels' now have cruise missiles and ballistic missiles with the ability to launch strikes on the Saudis and Israelis.
    Glad the DDG was there to detect and stop those missiles while transiting the Red Sea. Not a friendly neighborhood as the USS Cole remembers.

    Quote Originally Posted by Shashank Joshi
    Houthis fired 19 missiles and drones in a single salvo. Precision strike capability is proliferating and is accessible to more & more states and groups (https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers....act_id=3752391
    ). Any country not investing in air-defence systems now is in for a world of trouble in a few years.

    At least we know our destroyers can intercept 19 targets in a single engagement.
    Vitiate Man.

    History repeats the old conceits
    The glib replies, the same defeats


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  21. #771

    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    Quote Originally Posted by Montmorency View Post
    At least we know our destroyers can intercept 19 targets in a single engagement.
    Hmm, now there are some claims that the USS Carney could not have been where the US claimed it was in the Red Sea at the time of engagement, and that if it were, it could not have been engaging Houthi missiles, none of which have the range to strike Israel - so to the extent there were Houthi missiles being launched, it was KSA intercepting them. Not going to take the effort to check the facts against primary sources and raw data for something like this, but worth pointing out the controversy.
    Vitiate Man.

    History repeats the old conceits
    The glib replies, the same defeats


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  22. #772

    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    Wooooo!!!

  23. #773
    Coffee farmer extraordinaire Member spmetla's Avatar
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    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    Thought Perun did a good piece on the crisis there. Seems unlikely that Venezuela will actually invade though, fingers crossed they don't. Though if they do I think a US carrier group off the coast would be able to wreak havoc upon the long supply lines and everything that is bigger than a 4x4 truck that I doubt an attack would come.

    I think rather than a military invasion that Maduro will just use the gray zone tactic of acting likes it's their territory by allowing loggers, miners, and oil exploration to start and see if anyone will dare stop it.

    It's the lesson learned from 2014's Crimea invasion and the reef building campaign by China, at levels short of war the ability of the US and friends to influence events is extremely difficult. With the internet our opponents are allowed to and do excellent information warfare to create discord about policy or distracting domestic problems (perpetual immigration problems for the US and Europe for example). When it's aggressive merchant marines, coast guard forces or paramilitiaries such as Russia's "little green men" there's too little outright conflict to draw the US in decisively. This allows the opponent to rise the stakes or just act as if the territory is theirs and force an reversion to the previous status quo to require the victim to resort to outright force.

    We see this with the Philippine coast guard. If they start shooting at Chinese "Blue and White Hull" ships it starts a war they can't win and would allow the US to weasel out of its defense agreement as China would paint the Philippines as the aggressor using force to change the status quo.
    I see the same will likely happen in Guyana. Maduro will simply just start to use the territory as if it belongs to Venezuela. Guyana is too weak to do anything outright and isn't guaranteed outside support to assert claims over its territory so it will eventually lose de facto control over its territory. An outright invasion by Venezuela would be too risky, costly, and potentially bring in outside forces which could spell defeat or internal instability.

    Though Maduro would be right to gamble on the US willingness to intervene or not. Looking at the Houthi actions in the Red Sea and the complete lack of action by Biden in a military manner along this major sea artery shows the US as weak, divided, and for the moment impotent as any foreign war further risks Biden's reelection chances.
    The actions of the Houthis should have compelled a powerful intervention up to essentially a giant raid against the Houthis by the USMC to destroy their ability to attack ships in the Red Sea with the backing of the Saudis and the rest of Yemen. No one in the US wants another war in the middle east but the actions of the Houthis demand a response.

    Perun's video:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWSE9dPEx6Y
    Last edited by spmetla; 12-16-2023 at 20:43.

    "Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"
    -Abraham Lincoln


    Four stage strategy from Yes, Minister:
    Stage one we say nothing is going to happen.
    Stage two, we say something may be about to happen, but we should do nothing about it.
    Stage three, we say that maybe we should do something about it, but there's nothing we can do.
    Stage four, we say maybe there was something we could have done, but it's too late now.

  24. #774

    Default Re: Great Power contentions

    The White House strategy throughout most of the Gaza War, albeit awfully gently and tentatively, has been to press Israel to deescalate in Gaza and find a non-final solution. Our relations with Egypt and the Saudis, among others (Muslims in general really), are diving due to their dissatisfaction with our role. The Palestinian Authority may not even survive beyond 2024, with polls suggesting its unpopularity is at or near record heights. The Iranians and Hezbollah have pretty clearly signalled since the start that they want this situation to wind down without any side attempting to change the status quo. We don't have to accept that it's trivial to shrug off Houthi actions, but spreading the war to peripheral actors by our own hand has near-unlimited downside, and for what? A temporary degradation of the capabilities of a group we have no real truck with other than trying to get the Saudis to make peace with them over the past 5 years.


    Speaking of Perun, he did point out with respect to Ukraine last winter that the long-term progression of the war would see Ukraine and Russia equalize on soldier and unit quality and motivation or morale. We could see that already in play in October 2022. The Texeira leaks in April were of course cast an incredibly dour picture of UFOR, which indeed was accurate, but I believed even then that there was a long-term possibility of reclaiming the South and negotiating back close to prewar borders, assuming UFOR had spent the time training their assault corps to drive forward at a main effort (broadly the Azov Uplands) regardless of losses (30%, 40%, whatever) just to break the defensive belt somewhere and compromise it progressively. Thus they could make an argument to NATO for guaranteeing concrete support toward a limited goal, say over the next two years. But by July, as we learned that the Ukrainian leadership was rejecting as too risky large-scale operations for small-unit infiltration - the tactic Russian defenses are best equipped to absorb - I understood it was a near-hopeless situation.

    It's incredible that reporting has consistently indicated most in the US and UA general staffs were convinced underequipped green brigades with on average 3 months of cumulative training would blow past the best-rested RuFOR formations in the best fortifications outside the Korean DMZ at a ~1:1 strength ratio. All prior evidence indicated that an offensive operation in such conditions could only proceed with great difficulty - again why I assumed GSUA planned for a bloody Hail Mary just to take some modest territory in order to make the point and enable future operations. In reality, UFOR and RUFOR have been converging on largely the same offensive tactics and structures since Summer 2022, and only a comprehensive remodeling of UFOR to the General level would be enough to offer some sort of edge. Meanwhile, increasing Ukrainian conscription woes have been reported since at least 12 months ago, whereas Russia again surprised even me by constructing a good enough incentive and shadow mobilization scheme to add at least 250-300K new personnel this year, to a total net size of the VSRF of as many as 1.5 million (12 months into the war the VSRF + separatists undergoing absorption, less PMC, were probably at least 1.3 million heads). I haven't seen up-to-date data on the average age of members, but it may even be a little lower than UFOR's current average age of 43 (per the Zelensky Time interview). In other words, notwithstanding the obvious point that if NATO was ever prepared to make the financial and resource commitment to see through restructuring their partner's military that chance was lost in 2022, it is too late for Ukraine itself to attempt such a task itself. Their best human resources have been recruited, or expended, or are outside the country.

    Equipment attrition has been steadily declining for the past year, implying that the Russian storage and production of equipment will be sufficient to sustain parity with UFOR's level for a good three years if necessary. The vast majority of RuFOR losses overall, notably, come from their own inefficient attacks, which they could presumably finally choose to cease at whichever point it became too stressful for them. The balance of Western aid looks set only to allow Ukraine to survive.

    Economically, the Russian sale price of petroleum products has recovered in the second half of the year, and the global capitalist paradigm is so complex and robust that not even the likes of Poland can, or is willing to, keep its companies from selling vital machine parts and tools quasi-directly to Russia.

    In August I was predicting that RuFOR would launch an offensive during the winter to attack the Orikhiv salient. I think they still will, but it bespeaks Russian confidence that they've been willing to take some of their worst equipment and personnel losses of the entire year in South Donetsk this fall for the less strategically-relevant Avdiivka salient (personnel exchange ratios seem to be tolerable for Russia here, but the equipment exchange ratio may almost be the worst of the whole war).

    The reported March 2022 truce proposal, coupled with a bilateral alliance with Poland, looks to have been the best case for Ukraine.

    I might as well post this obscure blogger who dropped a handful of posts last fall and disappeared. I read these at the time they were published, and pretty much agreed with the whole. If our political and military classes had shared his interpretations however, they might have declined to support Ukraine in the first place, anyway. But I do have contempt for the blindness of the commentary class who got high on their own supply.
    Last edited by Montmorency; 12-17-2023 at 18:58.
    Vitiate Man.

    History repeats the old conceits
    The glib replies, the same defeats


    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 



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