Going back to the original theme of cost versus efficiency
If the issue is the effect vs efficiency the use of the Javelin IS VERY cost effective. The cost of a Javelin missile is far less than the cost of just one British soldier's widow's pension and his cost of replacement, let alone the costs if any are wounded by the shooter
They are and should be. Every place is not iraq and every war isn't
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Originally Posted by
Schmedlap
Or are we suggesting that Javelins are going to be humped by light infantry?
like these. Light infantry has no 25mm or 40mm AGLs nor even many .50s. They also are allergic to armored vehicles... :D
Day to day combat in an envirionment where armored vehicles
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Originally Posted by
Schmedlap
...how could the weight and bulk of Javelins, CLUs, and those giant batteries (I forget the nomenclature) possibly offset any lack of capability?
are used by the bad guys can be a seemingly very long duration 'mission.' METT-TC applies to Javelins just as it does to everything else. Guys in the late 40s used to complain about carrying the "heavy and clumsy" M9 RL -- until they tried to shoot T-34s and found out they didn't stop 'em.
They got the bigger, heavier and more clumsy 3.5" M20 and didn't complain a bit. That was in Korea. Hopefully we won't go there again... :wry:
Javelins are like everything else, a pain to carry when you're on foot -- but literally vital when they're needed. Don't base everything on one war. Or on peacetime, which is essentially what now we're now in -- except for the guys outside the wire in Afghanistan. Sometimes.
No real need for Javs in Iraq and, time and place dependent, not so much in the 'Stan. No one really needed Recon or Scout platoons in Iraq, either. That isn't guaranteed to be true at another time and place. I guess Javelins are like that old saw about guns. "You usually do not need a gun but when you do, you need it really bad."
As an aside, my time in both light and mech infantry showed me that they are two different breeds of cat. Neither is 'better' than the other; neither is 'wrong' in what they do and how they do it. They just do things quite differently and they literally think on a different plane. Not having a vehicle to come home to gives one a different outlook and changes what's important. And what one has to carry... :D :cool: