one of the videos i saw in the last week was one taken by the Afghanistan Al Quaida forces as they assaulted a pro/US military base in the mountains.

it was a side and frontal assault up steep slopes with automatic weapons and RPG support. they were 'owned' as the video discussion mentioned because the US called in A-10 support as the battle progressed. quite a few of the militants were killed or wounded... you could see them being carried back from the front lines by their forces.

anyway...

due to the rugged territory and hills of that war front, they move almost exclusively on foot or in small fighting forces and carry their weapons on backpacks or in hand.

might i suggest the force multiplier WE need in this is a significantly larger air surveillance presence in AWACS , "Joint STARS" , or UAV flights. this is especially needed with IR system detection of such forces as they move in the terrain at night or by day.

with our air eyes, there is no reason to ever be surprised by an attack or by an ambush. we would have seen them as they moved, deployed, and
set up for assaults.

one of the other posters here mentioned;
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'...Afghan insurgents really are ####ty tactical fighters. They have three things going for them - they know their turf, their determined and they know kill zones. Other than that, I wouldn't put them on such a lofty "small unit fighter" plane as you do. They tend to die fast and hard if they haven't beat a hasty retreat once the initial surprise comes to an end....'
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they do not have the eyes over the battlefield, they have eyes on the ground. we have an advantage there and must use it to our purpose and also to defend our forces against local 'tactical' battles with high attrition rates.
we may not know the turf, but we surely can see it.
that's a major advantage.

and knowing where the enemy is and their movements to the battle field or attack points, we can avoid kill zones and ambush situations if we use these technologies before our troops move and after they are in an area.

and another thought. the terrain in those mountains provides few relatively travel routes, even for militants on foot. these foot routes are choke points and kill zones we can use against the enemy.