Mech Platoon: CAB or ACR

[William F. Owen]

Call me old fashioned but I dislike these things immensely. There were a number of these on HMMWVs in Iraq that I saw. I sincerely believe that these things encourage the loss of SA.

I keep hearing this. Surely it's just a matter of sensible application?
They were never and should never be used for anything other than making the weapon they employ more effective, by virtue of control, sensors and in some cases stabilisation.
They are a weapons stations. Used sensibly they have proven immensely useful.

[Ken White]

and of the deterrent effect of certain opponents or would-be opponents actually seeing a pair of human eyeballs on them as well as a restriction of weapon choice (i.e. can't use your M4 to fire a warning shot or just point at a minor menace as opposed to firing a round or few of .50 cal -- which some ROE might preclude) is real and is a serious concern.

Most of that however is offset by the sensors and stabe on the OWS. Proper training will solve some of the problems, so on balance, they're IMO a net plus. The down side is the cost but even that is less than some of the turreted solutions used today.

The SA and other issues that are concerns are not totally restricted to FID and similar ops but loom far larger there than they do in MCO. The larger advantage in a shooting war as opposed to FID is the lower and smaller silhouette and the under armor protection offered. That's my main reason for believing they're the way to go.

I'm not a COIN fan -- and I believe in special purpose equipment for special uses. Thus SO vehicles should have the simplest and best equipment tailored for the use they're likely to put those vehicles to -- and that will change from time to time, place to place and war to war. An Infantry combat vehicle OTOH should be designed to survive in close combat and therefor must meet different considerations and detectability and protection are more important.