OT: Light Armor for Airborne (was Re: Advanced Guided Missile systems)

In a message dated 7/6/98 10:48:26 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
los@cris.com writes:

> Chen-Song Qin wrote:

The 82nd was playing with LAV-25's a few years ago (along with the
German Weisel) but was running into problems with airdropping them (they had a
higher
failure rate then the M551 Sheridans).  With the M-8 Buford canceled
(which also leaves the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment (Light) out in the cold
now as a cav regiment mounted on armored Hummers) there is no armor for the
82nd and no plans to rectify this. The fixes that were given were the
following:

1) Ready reaction armor package from the 3rd Infantry at Ft Carson. Four M1
Abrams and four M2 Bradleys.  Of course this requires at least 8 C-5 or
C-17
sorties and you need a secure airhead to bring them in.

2)  The 18th Airborne Corps' AH-64 Apaches and their ability to
self-deploy
overseas. Problem is you need to replace all the ordinance with fuel tanks and
still need a secure airhead to bring in their stores and support system not to
mention the fact the aircraft will need serious downtime for crew rest and
maintenance from such a flight.

3) The 82nd now having the Javelin missile. Yeah, cute. Javelin was done to
replace Dragon.  M47 Dragon/M551 Sheridan replaced with Javelin/M8, not
Javelin covering for both but that's what they are saying now.

4)  82nd getting the E-FOG missile (Enhanced Fiber-Optic drone missile).
Helpful, but they planned on issuing that to the 82nd anyway.

A lot of it sounds like so much fast-talk to cover up a glaring gap in
the 82nd's capabilities. There's something to be said about the psychological
impact on having armor backing you up as well. Recent talk has gone back to
the LAV, but so far only in using existing versions (ie., what the Marines
have) as opposed to reexamining some concepts for mounting 90mm and 105mm soft
recoil guns. As one armor officer pointed out, the only LAV version with
anti-armor ability is the TOW carrier and an M8 with a competent crew
can have 9 or 10 rounds downrange before the LAV's second missile has
launched.

> At 01:06 PM 7/6/1998 -0700, Los wrote:

Infantry Walkers, speeder bikes and size one GEVs come to mind. Would be
interesting to do a post modern Operation Market Garden...

Gort, Klaatu barada nikto!

> PsyWraith@aol.com wrote:

> 2) The 18th Airborne Corps' AH-64 Apaches and their ability to

82d has Apaches already and much exoerience with rapid deployment of these and
keeping them up in the field. SHould fill the gap for now.

> A lot of it sounds like so much fast-talk to cover up a glaring gap in

I gotta be honest with you....Our Sheridan friends not witstanding, The 82d
has gotten along fine without much internal; armor until now. The most
sheridans you usually saw were a platoon attached to a battalion, not really
enough to go around anywhere. (Usually I didn't even see that many, but then
again I was a scout out ahead of the mess) And we always had so many damn TOWs
that you were always tripping over them, or swearing them up and down because
they get to ride around with all that extra pogey bait!

It's not like the paras go around cringing and saying "shit where's our
armor!" They've gotten pretty good at working with other (outside) units, and
have always performed well at NTC and JRTC despite inherent armor
deficiencies. It's just something that s taken into consideration when
planning missions. Next to the 101st, the 82ds most adept at making the most
of it's flying artillery (Apaches) and other helo support.

Keep in mind that in gaming terms future para units should continue to fill
the roles that they always do, that is spearheading invasions by
either air/space (interface lander comes to low/med alt and drops them)
or air assault landing. OR counter isurgency/ light infantry in dense
terrain/operations in built up area type fights. Both mean you have
already established space and air superiority and that once the airhead is
secure heavy forces will arrive.

For situations where you don't have air/space superiority then you
should go to to SOF units.

That being said, is there a light armored vehicle in the GZG range that fits
the bill of either air drop or light drop ship landing?