modern warfare?

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modern warfare?

Fri, Apr 2, 2010

Call of Duty 4

In today’s combat, is the infantry soldier obsolete? Specifically, is world-war II style combat of clearing houses and towns while engaging masses of deadly hostiles gone? With advanced helicopters and air strikes, along with tanks, is modern combat moving towards a different style? Or is it not technology, and it’s instead the fact that powers like the US and UK have no real challenge on the battlefield? It’s all good with me as long as our guys are safe and we’re killing the enemy, I was just wondering if you think there will ever be a time in the future when either a power will emerge to challenge the US and its allies, or battle will shift back to ground-based combat, instead of vehicles or air strikes. Hopefully, we can move away from those days.

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9 Comments For This Post

  1. jinxster12 Says:
    April 2nd, 2010 at 7:07 pm

    we are still in ground based combat no matter the technology we still need live soldiers to do the ground to ground combat someone needs to decide where to look with all of this tech.

  2. salsa shark Says:
    April 2nd, 2010 at 7:43 pm

    Technology may always improve the tactical advantage of a nation such as ours, but a soldier with his boots on the ground and the training our superb military provides will always mark the ultimate difference between freedom and oppression.

  3. James H Says:
    April 2nd, 2010 at 8:39 pm

    i dont know if in the future there wont be a need for ground pounders, but for now, small unit operations are a huge part of the battlefield. especially sniper ops. its good to have assorted assets in any unit, tanks, brads, humvees, air support, however, it seems that there will always be a need for the guy on the ground.

  4. Nick K Says:
    April 2nd, 2010 at 8:58 pm

    The first two answers are wrong. The modern war between two nuclear powers will last only a few minutes. No need for infantry whatsoever. A few nuclear bombs – and the whole country will be unlivable. What’s the point of having infantry if everything is radioactively contaminated? Life itself is not going to be possible in such circumstances. There would be nothing to fight for.

  5. Wookie Says:
    April 2nd, 2010 at 9:31 pm

    Very insightful questions. Unfortunately, the answer isn’t easy. Any group or nation will fight a war in such a way that gives them the best opportunity to be victorious. In Iraq, for example, the insurgents know that they cannot face our troops in “typical” warfare battle-grounds and hope to be successful. This is why they attack us with remote operated IEDs, rockets and mortars in a variety of ways which are used to disguise who is using them. As a result, we are still forced to use infantry to clear buildings, inspect vehicles, etc., etc. We do still have the advantage due to helicopters, infra-red, tanks, etc. as back-up and to help soften targets but these have severe limitations to bring the enemy out in the open.

    As for if there will ever be a power that can challenge the US militarily, the answer is yes. China could be a very formidable opponent due to shear size of population. Plus, the US has a segment of society bent on weakening and demoralizing our military any way possible.

    Please keep the open, intelligent mind that you sound like you have. It is badly missed.

  6. jdub Says:
    April 2nd, 2010 at 10:25 pm

    Well lots of factors determine what style or type of warfare we use, if going in and blowing the crap out of a place works for us, then we call the US Air Force in to get the job done, if we want to mopp through a town, we send the US Marines and US Army in, it all depends on the situation and mostly why there is still a separation of branches. But as far as this Modern day warfare, I believe that there is always going to be a need for human operation and combat, as far as do we really have a challenge on the battlefield, well yes and no, we do, as a US Military kick ass, we have the worlds best a largest Air Power, and we are more technolicialy advanced from other nations, but that doesnt mean that we dont have weaknesses, and that there will come a time where America wont experiance any casualities, becuase in essence there will always be casualities of war. But there will always be places that only humans can get to, therefore there will always be a need for ground-based combat, if not, we would have sent B-52 and other Jets in just to blow the crap out of Iraq in the first place.

  7. abouch66 Says:
    April 2nd, 2010 at 10:45 pm

    The infantry man is as important, if not more, today than he’s ever been. Yes, we have great technology, that one would think make the infantry man obsolete, but they are about the men over the engaging the enemy the most. Its the only way we can fight the insurgency without having huge amounts of collateral damage. Air strikes are nice, but it would look bad on the news if we dropped a bomb to level a block every time an IED went off, the country would be leveled in a week. They’re the guys on the ground, looking for the bad guys, clearing houses, manning check points.
    There’s really no one who can oppose us head to head, so this asymmetric warfare is here to stay, guaranteeing the infantry man his job for a long time to come.

  8. wsulliva Says:
    April 2nd, 2010 at 11:31 pm

    When I was in, I was flying the cutting edge of technology for that war, the armed helicopter. The modern-day equivalent of the horse cavalry.

    Still, our PRIME objective was to fly in support of the ‘grunt’ — the guy who affixed a bayonet and crawled down into the hole with the enemy.

    So it was, so it shall be. Everything else — supports the Infantry.

    wsulliva

  9. sharma Says:
    April 3rd, 2010 at 12:02 am

    MY DRILL SARGEANT TOLD ME, EVEN THO I HAVE AN ASSIGNED MOS, I HAVE GOOD EYES, GOOD LEGS, AND A TRIGGER FINGER, IM AUTOMATIC INFANTRY IF THEY NEED IT. NO, THEY ARE NOT OBSOLETE.
    FOR OUR SOLDIERS ARE CLEARING HOUSES NOW, IN THIS WAR, GOING UP AGAINST BOOBY TRAPS,
    AND BOMBS. TODAYS WAR, IS COMPLEX AND NOT SO CUT AND DRY LIKE IN THE PAST. MY HATS ARE OFF TO THE TROOPS TODAY, THEY ARENT SURE WHO THE ENEMY IS TIL THE FIGHT IS OVER. I SALUTE ALL VETERANS AND SOLDIERS, BUT I PRAY FOR THE SOLDIERS TODAY THAT THEY MAKE IT HOME SAFE.

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