as obsolete as the movie portrays? is the air force that superior that infantry isnt needed any more?
2007-02-20 20:20:59 · 11 answers · asked by Beaujock 1 in Politics & Government ➔ Military
Two A-10 just last killed a British soldier it is sad but it happens all the time. Arresting these who do will eventually cost us more lives as someone is going to be scared to open fire and there will be a BIG incident. If someone is drinking or horse playing I can see may-be arresting someone other wise I think they need to leave it alone. If I could get a picture to you, everyone to include you would see what I am talking about. I was sitting in a cupola on a 113 APC when we were attacked. After the firefight I got up and there on both sides of the cupola were bullet holes from someone behind me. Scary as hell! Then I reached down and picked up the book I had been reading before the attack with a bullet hole clean through and it had been sitting between my legs.
Yes, air power has moved ahead and if you don't have to worry about civilians, traffic or power lines you could probably bomb them into surrender. But you will always need boots to check on something if nothing else souvenirs. Best of luck and God Bless You and Our Southerner People..
2007-02-20 23:01:17 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Unfortunatly, friendly fire incidents do occur.
Infantry and snipers are still needed. You need someone to occupy the area that your going after. Depending on what kind of war you are fighting then one group will do better than the other. For instance, in a conventenal war you need air superiority. Look at WWII or the first gulf war. If you don't have a strong air force in a conventenal you will get decimated. You can take out large groupings of enemy troops at one time with an air force.
However, in a guerilla war such as Iraq or Vietnam the I would say that the ground unit is and was the more needed of the two groups. When your target is mixed in with civilians your can't just bomb everything for risk of hitting non-combatants. That's when you need guys on the ground to selectivly take out the bad guys amongst the civilian population.
2007-02-20 22:14:35 · answer #2 · answered by bobcat 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Blue-On-Blue or Friendly fire incidents, did indeed happen during the Gulf War. This included ground attack aircraft hitting our troops or our allies' troops and SAM batteries firing on friendly aircraft and even friendly aircraft firing on friendly SAMs! In the confusion of battle, it's easy to make a lethal mistake. This latest conflict had one of the lowest rates of blue-on-blue ever. But any non-zero number is still bad. (You can see video for a pair of USAF A-10's attacking a column of British Warrior APCs on-line. It's horrible)
And no, infantry is FAR from obsolete. It will never be obsolete, in fact - Read Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers (Ignore the movie - it was horrible) for a good explanation of what infantry is, does, and why they fight. And why they will always be needed.
Snipers are what is called a 'force multiplier'. They are ultra-precise and able to tilt an entire battle with a single well-placed shot, often at targets that aircraft cannot find, or hit. But they are pretty useless without the rest of the team to back 'em up.
Read about Gy Sgt. Carlos Hathcock in Vietnam for some true stories about how these magicians fight.
The Air Force is incredibly potent - but it is not the be-all/end-all force on the battlefield. They have their weaknesses and strengths, just like everything else. The key is 'combined arms' - Hitting the enemy with everything, all at once and absolutely overwhelming them.
The United States has never fought a battle where we have not enjoyed overwhelming air superiority (Though during the Battle of the Bulge the weather kept our guys grounded - and out troopers paid in blood for that) - and that is a very, very good thing. Ground attack aircraft are horrible if you're a grunt.
So is artillery - unless it's on your side.
As a movie, Jarhead was pretty atrociously bad and unrealistic.
Hope this helps!
Orion
2007-02-20 20:45:53 · answer #3 · answered by Orion 5 · 7⤊ 0⤋
Yes, there were friendly fire incidents in Desert Storm.
No, infantry and snipers are not obsolete. However, many units that were deployed for Operation Desert Shield did not end up playing a large role in ground operations in Desert Storm due to the fact that the war ended up being very short, lasting barely a month, and less than two weeks (!) for ground troops - the first ground troops moved in on February 9th and the war ended with a cease fire on February 22th, 1991.
2007-02-20 21:59:31 · answer #4 · answered by Abby K9 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Infantry will always be needed to occupy ground. As far as friendly fire goes, yes it happens. I didn't see the movie so I don't know if the actual event portrayed actually occurred or not.
2007-02-20 20:27:04 · answer #5 · answered by Cybeq 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
A10 Friendly Fire
2016-12-18 16:52:30 · answer #6 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Airplanes don't and will never hold territory, men on the ground do that.
2007-02-21 02:52:52 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
you need them for occupying urban areas, and for securing borders but large scale land battles are now done by "weapons systems".
2007-02-20 20:47:38 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
It is a movie.
In other words a fictional event written by and made by people who have no military experience whatsoever.
2007-02-21 03:15:52 · answer #9 · answered by MikeGolf 7 · 0⤊ 2⤋
The US have developed 'friendly fire' as a skill since WWII. Sometimes its their own troops, other times its their allies.
The recently example from the Iraq war as seen on TV is a classic example of an over-organised SNAFU!
2007-02-20 21:10:38 · answer #10 · answered by Ranjeeh D 5 · 1⤊ 8⤋