Fully agree that we have been stripped bare. One of my points is that the evolution of technology can help us make up the deficit. Mini Spikes are about the size of an AT-4 and can be carried and fired by an individual infantryman. This provides the long range ability to overmatch any handheld weapon or machinegun in the light role, as well as take on bunkered or otherwise protected infantry, attack light vehicles and cause damage to even vehicles like up-armoured HMMVW's, MRAP's or similar. A typical section can have 4 (the people not carrying the C-9's or M-203's). As a thought experiment, the Starstreak MANPAD is also quite light and portable, is amazingly accurate due to its mode of operation and can hit with the kinetic impact of a 40mm cannon shell, giving it the ability to damage light vehicles up to LAV class (no explosive warhead, though).
ATGMs like Spike or Javelin are somewhat larger than a Carl-G, but still man portable enough to be carried by the Platoon weapons det. This gives the ability to take on targets out to 2000+ m (I understand the Javelin can reliably hit targets out to 3000m), including heavy armour.
These capabilities are light and portable enough to be integral to the dismounted platoon, and do not *need* to be carried or used by a separate support organization. In some ways this is like the evolution of other weapons systems. Machine guns used to belong to an entirely separate corps, for example, but advances in technology made the MG's lighter and simpler to operate until they are now integral down to the section level.
The problem, of course, is we don't have Mini-Spikes, Spike or Javelin.
