« Reply #571 on: Today at 02:37 pm »
We must do a better job of protecting our troops - anti-missile defenses, underground bunkers, quicker response to missile launches, etc.
Yeah, compare to what's happening now with how well (relatively spekaing) our troops were protected during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The U.S. military has allowed its AA capabilities to degrade over the past 20 years, so much so that it now looks like our bases in the Middle East are sitting ducks. This is the end result of both apathy and hubris. I wonder if the war plans for Iran have even been updated since then? Brings to mind USMC General Van Riper's hard lesson during that infamous wargame back in 2002:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millennium_Challenge_2002One of the central points of conflict was a territorial dispute over a series of strategically important islands. CJTF-South seized these islands and established a controversial military escort service to protect ships navigating through the region, charging a toll for its services. This led to a direct military response from "Blue," whose primary objectives were to secure international shipping lanes, neutralize Red's weapons of mass effect (WME) capabilities, and restore sovereignty over the disputed islands, as mandated by a World Court ruling. Additionally, Blue sought to halt CJTF-South's push for regional hegemony.
https://warontherocks.com/millennium-challenge-the-real-story-of-a-corrupted-military-exercise-and-its-legacy/At the start of MC ’02, to fulfill the forced-entry requirement, blue issued red an eight-point ultimatum, of which the final point was surrender. Red team leader Van Riper knew his country’s political leadership could not accept this, which he believed would lead the blue forces to directly intervene. Since the George W. Bush administration had recently announced the “preemption doctrine,” Van Riper decided that as soon as a U.S. Navy carrier battle group steamed into the Gulf, he would “preempt the preemptors” and strike first. Once U.S. forces were within range, Van Riper’s forces unleashed a barrage of missiles from ground-based launchers, commercial ships, and planes flying low and without radio communications to reduce their radar signature. Simultaneously, swarms of speedboats loaded with explosives launched kamikaze attacks. The carrier battle group’s Aegis radar system — which tracks and attempts to intercept incoming missiles — was quickly overwhelmed, and 19 U.S. ships were sunk, including the carrier, several cruisers, and five amphibious ships. “The whole thing was over in five, maybe ten minutes,” Van Riper said.
The red team had struck a devastating blow against the blue team. The impact of the OPFOR’s ability to render a U.S. carrier battle group — the centerpiece of the U.S. Navy — militarily worthless stunned most of the MC ’02 participants. Van Riper described the mood as “an eerie silence. Like people didn’t really know what to do next.” Blue team leader Bell admitted that the OPFOR had “sunk my damn navy,” and had inflicted “an extremely high rate of attrition, and a disaster, from which we all learned a great lesson.”
« Last Edit: Today at 02:47 pm by Timber Rattler »
Logged
aka "nasty degenerate SOB," "worst of the worst at Free Republic," "Garbage Troll," "Neocon Warmonger," "Filthy Piece of Trash," "damn $#%$#@!," "Silly f'er," "POS," "war pig," "neocon scumbag," "insignificant little ankle nipper," "@ss-clown," "neocuck," "termite," "Uniparty Deep stater," "Never Trump sack of dog feces," "avid Bidenista," "filthy Ukrainian," "war whore," "fricking chump," "psychopathic POS," "depraved SOB," "Never Trump Moron," "Lazarus," "sock puppet," and "Timber Bunny."
"In a time of universal deceit - telling the truth is a revolutionary act." ---George Orwell
