Quote Originally Posted by reed11b View Post
The reason I stated "close" fighting was due to the tendency of infantry theorists to focus on firepower over mobility and tend to organize to assualt static positions to the best that I can figure out. Dismounted 120mm and even 81mm mortars make little sense, as does heavy long range AT weapons, yet they keep appearing in organizational schemes low on the echelon scale. The other reason was that reconn "purists" state that reconn should not have ANY heavy wepons or HE projection capability since reconn is looking and not fighting. This is also flawed. As usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle.
Eyhh... yes and no. Yes, you are right in the purist approach, and yes, no dismounted 81 or 120mm.

However, if we take rifle Platoons to be the basis for the capability we are talking about, then they do need support. You need mortars from somewhere. How and who needs to be examined. I am working on this at the moment, looking at Infantry Battalion of less than 500 men.

AT weapons, such as Javelin or Spike are required, but they are an optional capability. Any platoon should be able to employ them. - so could you have a Mortar Platoon, worked the same way?
Could they be manned by the artillery?
Point is, if we all agree on where we are going, we can then discuss how we get there!