Monday, August 28, 2006
Night Time in the Switching Yard
Three Humvees filled with soldiers with the 4th Battalion, 320th Field Artillery, 506th Regimental Combat Team, 101st (No Longer) Airborne (merely Airmobile) Division conduct a night patrol in the Zafaraniya District of East Baghdad, Iraq, on Aug. 13, 2006.Click on it for details, like the Ma Deuce gunner in the middle vehicle dancing like an Egyptian, the ghostly passenger in the lead vehicle flipping us off and the clusters of four smoke grenade launchers on the Hummers. Do they really need those things?
DoD photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Keith W. DeVinney, U.S. Navy.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 4:59 PM 
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"Do they really need those things?"
I know I'd be happy to have them. Tactical smoke is especially useful in an ambush, because it breaks line-of-sight rapidly and limits the duration of tactical advantage arising from surprise. It's still more useful when you can see through it but your opponents can't, but I don't know whether the HMMWV carries a thermal imager.
I know I'd be happy to have them. Tactical smoke is especially useful in an ambush, because it breaks line-of-sight rapidly and limits the duration of tactical advantage arising from surprise. It's still more useful when you can see through it but your opponents can't, but I don't know whether the HMMWV carries a thermal imager.
Good point, but wouldn't speed do the same thing? I always thought that the smoke grenade things, which have been on tanks since WWII, were because it could break down or be slow because of mud or rocks and want the tactical smoke. Wouldn't it be better if it could get out of Dodge at 50 mph, like a Humvee can? Some of the weapons seemed to have thermal sights but not on the .50s.
Run like heck is a fine choice if all you want to do is get away, but obscuring the vision of your opponents is still useful. A 30-06, or an RPG-7, or (particularly) a real ATGM can reach out and touch you for quite a while even at 50 mph.
If you want to turn the ambush against your opponents and destroy the ambushers, however, breaking their line of sight immediately is quite useful. It allows you to take cover and negate their initial advantage rapidly so you can begin a counter-attack.
For an analogy, take a look at destroyer smoke screens in the days of big-gun ships. They allowed you to either depart rapidly or attack from cover.
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If you want to turn the ambush against your opponents and destroy the ambushers, however, breaking their line of sight immediately is quite useful. It allows you to take cover and negate their initial advantage rapidly so you can begin a counter-attack.
For an analogy, take a look at destroyer smoke screens in the days of big-gun ships. They allowed you to either depart rapidly or attack from cover.
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