Quote Originally Posted by Fuchs View Post
Oh come on. Army aviation is the luxury version of LRS insertion and LRS exfiltration.
At Baumholder (12 x15 km, 400m maximum elevation change), yes. At Fort Irwin (110X80km, 1,500m elevation changes) No. Even more so in Alaska where Reid11B is located and trains -- and where there are few road and a lot of boreal forest and squishy tundra, No. In Afghanistan, No. This:
In most scenarios you could infiltrate and exfiltrate in a Lada Niva without unacceptable risk.
may work in Germany or much of Europe. It will not in the deserts of the ME or North Africa, in the Hindu Kush or in the Jungles of Africa, South America or South East Asia. It'll get you killed quickly in most scenarios outside Europe.
Competent and motivated LRS can their job do without such support, even if that means that the losses rise by a few per cent.
Losses aren't the major issue -- time and distance are the issues. Foot and Vehicle infil and exfil takes a lot of time...
Army aviation wouldn't be of much use for LRS in face of well-equipped opponents any way.
Without going into any TTP, that is just flat incorrect. Both the Fernspählehrkompanie and a number of US LRSU use that method routinely in exercises and elsewhere agasinst some technologically advanced opponents.
Btw, can I quote your assertion that the U.S. lacks army aviation assets? It'll be good for many laughs with friends all over the world.
As he pointed out, that's not what he said. Having a desire to snipe is okay, doing that without understanding or noticing all that is said or written can cause one to have to have a foot surgically removed from ones mouth...

As Steve Blair mentioned, that lack of direct control of Aviation has been problematic since Viet Nam -- and it was in Desert Storm and has been currently. Unfortunately, there is no easy solution; the guys who are really good at contested flights don't like to haul the nut and bolt LRS guys...
I save this file under "encountered yet another quality exaggeration, zero casualty tolerance peacetime attitude".
No one mentioned casualties other than you...

You're going to file it there? Really? I filed it under the 'All Wars will be as I Wish Them Syndrome' heading; got a bunch of posts there from Americans and others who think all wars will go a certain way and that detailed knowledge of one war, one terrain set, one Army's peculiarities lend them omnipotent expertise. Those folks always forget there are other places and other ways of doing things...

Armies that operate worldwide have to make a lot of undesirable compromises. It would be great if they could program and train more narrowly and everything was more predictable -- but it never is so they cannot.