Size of the Platoon and Company

[William F. Owen]

Wilf,

I totally disagree on the terms of the game changing or not, and here is why:

So what we might be "disagreeing" over is the expression "game change?"

GMLRS is a good thing, but it's just one stick in the golf bag, and it's advantages are all relative - that is my point. GMLRS is not, in and of itself going to alter how the infantry work. I base this purely on an historical perspective.

There are numerous precision fires technologies, such as Loitering Munitions, GPS and laser guided weapons and even armed UAVs which will all bring highly reactive accurate supporting fires to the combined arms battle, but as you yourself have alluded, the challenge remains the C2/C3I.

[tankersteve]

Gents,

Army used GMLRS, from tracked MRLS launchers, extensively in Iraq. I am not sure if it is used in Afghanistan yet although I am pretty sure that either the 82d or 18th Airborne artillery were to get the HIMARS.

In Ramadi, the GMLRS allowed one to drop an entire building with very little damage to adjacent buildings. I have a great video feed of a GMLRS destroying a car being used by an IED emplacement team. So if you want to talk about accuracy, it can take out a stationary car on a city street.

Tube artillery is right in the game. Copperhead is pretty much forgotten as designating with a laser and getting the correct reflection angle was apparently more work than it was worth. Now we have Excalibur with the same capabilities as GMLRS but with less range and a greatly reduced warhead size.

All this does is give the commander multiple options, with different warheads providing different collateral damage radii. And yes, there really is an upper airspace deconfliction piece when shooting GMLRS.

Tankersteve

[Cavguy]

Gents,

Army used GMLRS, from tracked MRLS launchers, extensively in Iraq. I am not sure if it is used in Afghanistan yet although I am pretty sure that either the 82d or 18th Airborne artillery were to get the HIMARS.

In Ramadi, the GMLRS allowed one to drop an entire building with very little damage to adjacent buildings. I have a great video feed of a GMLRS destroying a car being used by an IED emplacement team. So if you want to talk about accuracy, it can take out a stationary car on a city street.

Tube artillery is right in the game. Copperhead is pretty much forgotten as designating with a laser and getting the correct reflection angle was apparently more work than it was worth. Now we have Excalibur with the same capabilities as GMLRS but with less range and a greatly reduced warhead size.

All this does is give the commander multiple options, with different warheads providing different collateral damage radii. And yes, there really is an upper airspace deconfliction piece when shooting GMLRS.

Tankersteve

Steve,

I coordinated in that GMLRS you mention on the Racetrack. A week prior 1/6 MAR lost 4 marines to an IED which annihlated a HMMWV at that very location. It was some sweet payback. The leaked video doesn't show nearly the detail we had. (which is a good thing) If the Marines hadn't had called in the strafing run, I'm sure the locals would have thought the IED exploded on the emplacement team. It was perfect.

(BTW, that video was leaked by someone, and shouldn't have been, but it's out there now)

In Ramadi, I held the record (at the time) in theater with 22 GMLRS missions shot through the RFCT TOC. We liked it for all the reasons you mention. I think this was covered in another thread awhile back, but I mentioned that commanders liked the option of destroying rooms without destroying the building, among other things.

Niel