For those who follow the Ukraine - Russia conflict online, it’s common to read claims that Russia’s military is incompetent and losing because it’s not simply rolling over the Ukrainians.
Even if you deploy long-range strike capability, many battles soon progress to boots on the ground. Especially true when fighting insurgents and troops in defilade. We don't use/can't use "game changing" weaponry against insurgents in cities in order to reduce the number of civilian casualties. Military strategists in this country, at least, still view warfare as open terrain warfare similar to WWII, and we develop weapons to fight those types of battle. We've learned nothing from Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, etc.
So, then most fighting quickly progresses/digresses to between soldiers or soldiers with insurgents. To give you an idea of how difficult it is to win when fighting has moved to this level of engagement:
From Turley, Jan 10, 2011: "There is an amazing (and startling) statistic out of Iraq and Afghanistan: the United States has fired an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed. The U.S. is going through so much ammo that manufacturers are struggling to keep up. In another milestone, U.S. troops in Afghanistan now surpass the number in Iraq.
The U.S. military are now importing ammo from Israel to keep up the rate of fire.
US forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan – an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed – that American ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand."
That's why the Russian progress, while steady, is slow. The Ukrainians had 8 years to dig in, mostly in urban or naturally strong positions. I'm sure the Russians knew this. They're patiently dismantling all this--with artillery. While Ukraine is a large space, there are no mountains to retreat to.
Agreed. I was just focusing/reinforcing one of the points I think you were making and that is that "game changing" weaponry has done little to "change the game." Artillery has been used for centuries and very effective against static targets. You don't need a billion dollar super drone to hit targets that don't move.
Even if you deploy long-range strike capability, many battles soon progress to boots on the ground. Especially true when fighting insurgents and troops in defilade. We don't use/can't use "game changing" weaponry against insurgents in cities in order to reduce the number of civilian casualties. Military strategists in this country, at least, still view warfare as open terrain warfare similar to WWII, and we develop weapons to fight those types of battle. We've learned nothing from Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, etc.
So, then most fighting quickly progresses/digresses to between soldiers or soldiers with insurgents. To give you an idea of how difficult it is to win when fighting has moved to this level of engagement:
From Turley, Jan 10, 2011: "There is an amazing (and startling) statistic out of Iraq and Afghanistan: the United States has fired an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed. The U.S. is going through so much ammo that manufacturers are struggling to keep up. In another milestone, U.S. troops in Afghanistan now surpass the number in Iraq.
The U.S. military are now importing ammo from Israel to keep up the rate of fire.
US forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan – an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed – that American ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand."
That's why the Russian progress, while steady, is slow. The Ukrainians had 8 years to dig in, mostly in urban or naturally strong positions. I'm sure the Russians knew this. They're patiently dismantling all this--with artillery. While Ukraine is a large space, there are no mountains to retreat to.
Agreed. I was just focusing/reinforcing one of the points I think you were making and that is that "game changing" weaponry has done little to "change the game." Artillery has been used for centuries and very effective against static targets. You don't need a billion dollar super drone to hit targets that don't move.
Where's the honor in any empty battlefield?
died from a drone strike cause it was picked up on a geolocated tik tok.
Nice.