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Swarms

Kirkhill

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Swarms of Small Diameter Bombs dropped from F16s/F18s to decoys to deep sea gliders.







 
Swarms of Small Diameter Bombs dropped from F16s/F18s to decoys to deep sea gliders.








So you posted this in the Artillery thread just to rub it in, right? ;)
 
Weeeeelll....šŸ˜‰

Just wondering what artillery is these days now that every projectile now has Slim Pickens' Minime riding it to the target
 
Back in 1969 when they showed me my first SS11 anti-tank missile and I asked "why isn't this in an artillery anti-tank battery?" I was rudely told by the armour and infantry instructors on the course that anti-tank was an armoured and infantry task. The fact that at the end of the WW2 the artillery had seven anti-tank regiments with 28 anti-tank batteries with 150 towed and 150 self propelled 17 pdrs in Europe alone didn't seem to matter.

Since most swarming or loitering munitions are tube launched "indirectly", I think the artillery might have a higher claim on them this time around. That said, the artillery hasn't got one PY to dedicate to that skill set without giving up some of its grand total of 24 guns, radars, UAVs, FOOs, FSCCs, ASCCs. On the other hand the infantry and armour seem prepared to give up tanks and mortars and so on without hesitation - a company or a recce squadron here or there would seem to be of very little moment. šŸ˜‰

That said, these launch systems are easily assigned to reserve units. The control systems are a bit more complex but still quite total force manageable. So there's that.

Seriously. This crap needs quick sorting out and doctrine developed to hang a new structure around. There has been a paradigm shift that needs to be quickly addressed. The fact that we saw the writing on the wall seven years ago in the Ukraine and haven't even moved forward to their standard much less the Azerbaijan situation does not bode well.

:cry:
 
So many choices for this - could be air force, British, or swarms. I am going to stick with swarms on the grounds of a bombardier is a bombardier no matter how he or she gets to work and both are scions of the Master General of Ordnance.


We all recognize over the last two, three decades, perhaps longer, [that militaries] have had to make that trade-off between mass and technology, because technology came at a high price, and that technological sophistication cost significantly more than the simpler platforms that were being replaced. But I think weā€™re at a turning point now, and I think weā€™re at a point where we can look to technology to bring us mass. We can have mass and technology and technological sophistication. And itā€™s that technology that that enables us to have that mass.

[Look at] todayā€™s tactical unit of an eight-ship of Typhoon or eight-ship of F 15s. Well, in the future that eight-ship equivalent might be 100 swarming drones, 10 uncrewed combat aircraft loyal wingmen and two piloted motherships. The numbers and the calculus changes because of technology.

Thereā€™s an opportunity now for us to reframe that narrative of ā€œitā€™s a choice between mass and technology.ā€ I think you can have both.

... weā€™re going to need different skills into the future. Iā€™m going to need more people that understand space, Iā€™m going to need more data analysts, Iā€™m going to need more digital engineers. The workforce is going to have to change, and itā€™s going to have to change quickly





Navigation - does it need radio signals and GPS? Or can Lil Slim Pickens navigate the old-fashioned way? A combination of Dead Reckoning (INS), Optical Terrain Following, Celestial, Formation Flying, a bit of Bayesian analyis, a DAMASK style electro-optical terminal seeker? Everybody playing follow-the-leader but also, actually doing what the last man in the platoon was supposed to be doing? Navigating himself and correcting the course if necessary?
 
Crap being sorted quickly?

Brigades - Palladins - 25 miles (40 km)
Divisions - ERCA - >40 miles (70 km)
Corps - HIMARS/MRLS - 43 to 900 miles (70 to 1500 km)
Theater (2x Pacific, 1x Europe, 1x Arctic (NB), 1x global response) - SM6/Tomahawk and LRHW - 1100 to 1759 miles (1760 km to 2800 km)


Meanwhile the USAF

Drones



ICBMs? Space Force or Air Force



Given these standards I suggest that Canada (5514 km East-West by 4634 km North-South on land - add 400 km EW for EEZ and 200 km NS) is a Theatre and the appropriate defence capability is SM6/Tomahawk/LRHW.

I further suggest that the Theatre support a single Corps with a single Division.
That the Theatre be an entirely domestic command.
That the Corps be an Allied Corps (we are wealthy and tech savvy but short on bodies - we should be prepared to support our allies in depth - 1st Canadian Army as model)
That the Division be a permanent reaction force tasked to the defence of Canada but capable of hiving off Brigades, Battle Groups and Combat Teams to support allies.

Special Forces to work with Long Range Strike (Arty, Rotary and Air - manned and unmanned)

Holding ground with live infanteers - the last political move.
 
Potentially another piece of kit - THOR is a counter to swarms of UAS. A high power "radar" emitter with the effect of an EMP?


Threat and Counter

But what is the Counter to the Counter? Doesn't that already exist is the form of Anti-Radiation Missiles?
 
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