Quote Originally Posted by Lastdingo View Post
largely ignored the assertion that division-sized air assaults are quite illusionary.

I mean that this assertion is more worth a debate and that such a debate would be much more interesting.
Air Assaults/Airmobile operations and Airborne operations are not the same. Let's try to use the correct terminology. It's like saying a Abrams and Bradley are alike because they both have tracks. What we're talking about is Airborne operations.

Have you ever heard of DRB status? A DRB is the equivalent of the fire brigade. THey're deployable anywhere in the world within hours of notification. I'm not sure Meyer's proposal, but unless he's going to screw over a brigade's worth of people for 3 years at a time, the Army isn't going to can the contingency valve.

The problem is that people like Meyer forget that once Iraq is through we have a very real possibility of becoming involved in a high-intensity conflict scenario again. All things being equal, since we scaled down to the 10 division concept we haven't left ourselves a whole lot of margin for error. Airborne operations are excellent for massing conventional firepower behind the FLOT/FEBA and disrupting logistical lines of communication. Having that option alone may require a potential adversary to hold more in reserve than orginally factored in.

As for Meyer's track record, just thumb through his other idiotorials. He's had an axe to grind against the Army for a long time. Few, if any, of his posts have anything good to say about the Army. Keep this in mind - Meyer is the same tool who said that the CIA has done better at unconventional operations than SOCOM and therefore SOCOM should be eliminated. They should revoke his internet access....