One step closer... Army looking to acquire LAV-25s

[swaghauler]

I think a lot of what we are seeing here is the result of "Consolidation Directives" coming down from the Secretary of Defense. Chuck Hagel instituted a policy (a while back now) that ALL of the branches needed to get together and buy the same "stuff" in order to simplify supply. In this order, were directives to find "common ground" on ammunition, missiles, and everyday things like boots, batteries, and radios. I know this is why the continued acquisition of the Griffon Missile was stopped by the Navy and why the Army has sold them Hellfire Longbows. It is also the reason that the F35 was equipped with 25mm Autocannon instead of 20mm (over Air Force objections). The other branches decided to equip 25mm as standard and the Air Force was "out voted." I wonder how interesting things are going to get now that both the Navy and the Army seem to have concluded that 25mm is "inadequate" against newer threats and have decided to move up to a larger 30mm round. I'll bet that's also why the LAV-25 is now being considered by the Army. The DOD said "get a common AFV with the Marines to simplify parts/maintenance and training" or else. The Army is just "along for the ride" on this procurement because they got to keep their upgraded Bradleys.

[pmulcahy11b]

... and still completely overmatched by the BMP-3 or BMP-4.

The Airborne is always overmatched -- on paper. It's our skill and the element of surprise that equalizes the odds.

[Olefin]

Hey, Olefin, d'ya think you could sneak a coupla AGS's off-campus They'd be lots of fun cruising the circuit in York, don'tcha think Might keep down some of the street crime, too.

I would love to have been able to drive one - got to take an M88, a M109 and a Bradley for a spin - one benefit of working there - and we found some very interesting things in those vehicles that we refitted - included lots of live ammo, grenades, you name it

[Olefin]

The Airborne is always overmatched -- on paper. It's our skill and the element of surprise that equalizes the odds.

I seem to remember the Germans during the Bulge thinking they could easily push the Airborne out of the way - didnt work very well back then either

[raketenjagdpanzer]

Army acquisition - hell, all procurement for all branches except maybe Naval (sub/surface) is so fucked it's not even funny.

The M1 was a world-beater...fifteen years ago. The US' artillery systems are so out of date it's laughable, and they're using up MLRS' as targets at Elgin (I've seen the photos of them being hauled out and prepped) because hey, HIMARS is good enough, right The K9 Thunder from South Korea is in every way a superior artillery system to the M109-whatever-revision-we're-up-to-now. Longer range, more accurate. Don't even get me started on the edge South Africa have. The proof is in the purchasing; armies are ditching the M109 for the K9. We had a great chance with the Crusader SPH! Now we don't even use parts of it, despite it being qualitatively better than the 109.

Stryker never, ever should've been bought. Ever. MGS was worse than terrible, and this new 30mm turret looks like something a kid bodged together out of two model kits, and is worse in every way to competing vehicles.

We've flushed how many billions down the shitter on the useless F35 When we could've kept F22 lines open (not that the F22 should've been procured anyway: the YF-23 was the better aircraft...). My wife works for the Army, and was at work the day Congress canned the RAH66, my God what a cluster. They had a battalion's worth of people who were getting ready to move to Orlando and Ft. Rucker and elsewhere who literally woke up one morning and found that they were either out of work, or despite having sold their homes and packed up their families, being told they weren't going anywhere.

Shit's just getting worse and worse, and I'm sick to death of thinking about it. Our military either drags along half-broken fifty year old shit that has to be babied along and was outclassed 30 years ago or pours money into whiz-bang junk that might work in another decade when the software for its systems is finally written, debugged, patched, patched again, updated, and patched. There's no middle ground, there's no "we've got good working gear in between those extremes". If we had to go to war tomorrow - I mean a real war, not this Fahrenheit 451-esque phony, 20-hour war bullshit against troops that wouldn't rate "Category-C" in the WarPac lineup - the results would make the retreat down the Korean peninsula look like a St. Patrick's Day parade.

/rant

[ArmySGT.]

The Airborne is always overmatched -- on paper. It's our skill and the element of surprise that equalizes the odds.

The Airborne era is over. C-141, C-5, and even C-17s would never make it into a peer or near peer air space with the lead time that information has now.

Tap the phones at Domino's. Begin real time imagery of Green Ramp, and the real time surveillance of parking lots at 82nd HQ, the RDF Bde, Langley, and Dover AFB there will be a hell of a lot more then 12-20 hours to prepare.

Anyway that's another thread. Airborne is for SOF and putting Rangers into third world hostiles that cannot protect their own air space.