Quote Originally Posted by Distiller View Post

Two huge advantages a Western COIN unit has are ISR and precision stand-off fire power (which is important in case a hundred Pashtuns decide to have your scalp).
That makes the question of weapons a little secondary, for some missions a concealed PDW might be enough.
As awe-inspiring as Western ISR and precision ADM's may be, they have very real limits, and I have heard of plenty of actions where an SOF team was in trouble and it either wasn't available, or couldn't be brought to bear effectively (for a variety of reasons). So, in such a case, there still needs to be a robust force package for extraction, close enough to respond quickly. Which means CAS, helos, and possibly a rifle platoon or company reaction force, and all of this will require security...

Please forgive a comment from the peanut gallery, but I just couldn't let that one slip by...