All matters MRAP JLTV (merged thread)

[Infanteer]

I can't beleive I missed this one.

Plus villages are where the people live. The key is to travel light and never stay in the same place more than 12 hours. Not as much fun as working out in an ad hoc gym on a FOB that takes an occasional mortar round but eases resupply in many senses and is considerably more effective.

To an extent, yes. You gave me this advice prior to my deployment and although I took it to heart, it lasted me 30 minutes (as a Pl Comd, I didn't really have a choice). Infact, we travelled heavy - couldn't avoid it - and stayed in the same place for 5 months.

Why. To the first part, "travel light" was almost impossible. Water is heavy and we needed lots of it. There was no way of getting around this except for getting around two force protection concerns. First was we couldn't use local water - most of it was mixed with village waste and agricultural fertalizers. Second was to use a small gator to pack extra supplies, but this was a no-no as we had a patrol killed on one some years back and we tried to avoid roads and paths. Result is we carried lots of water and this limited our range unless we got helo resup; dismounted platoon patrols weren't high enough on the list to justify that.

I've heard of the Brits using local water in Helmand; perhaps this was away from the heavily populated areas?

As to "not staying in one place for 12 hours", someone has to stay in the villages - as you mentioned, that's where the people live. Just coming to their village for a fight is a sure way to really piss them off. Someone has to share the security burden with them against a guerilla opponent, otherwise you are just cedeing a vacuum to the enemy. Galula's "Static" and "Mobile" forces is a good analogy. However, putting highly trained and equipped infantry in the static role is, IMO, a waste of resources, as they should be the "mobile force". But, in Afghanistan, we really didn't have anyone else to do the static piece.

I planned week-long patrols; my NCOs gave me wierd looks when I proposed them. First, the idea of long range patrols were limited by an extremely small AO - I could walk from one end of my company AO to the other in a day. Kandahar, although a big province, features quite a dense concentration of forces. Most of the province is deserts and mountains so all the people, those fighting and not fighting, are in a small green space around the Arghandab River.

So, all this is to say that travel light and never stay in the place is a good practice if the METT-TC provides for it.

Outside of a few spectacular successes along Route 1 that have garnered more media hype than had actual effect, the TB aren't very good at targeting the logistical tail. These are not your Daddy's mujahadeen.

Agreed.

And, at least for the USMC, logistical support convoys aren't a drain on combat formations. The CSS guys (and gals) do it themselves.

Us to - service elements generally get their own "force protection" element.