NS Military Realism Consultancy Thread Mk X Purps Safe Space

[Korva]

This is the squad in a more legible scale. Everyone except the MG gunner gets an assault rifle, including the AT gunner (this is an old image). It is bigger than the IFV squad, which has 7 dismounts excluding the sergeant, but there are bigger sections out there.

I thought I was being really weird giving my grenadiers rifles, and even then only felt justified because said rifle was basically a big SMG in a holster.

In any case, if your legit riflemen only get three spare mags, your grenadier probably doesn't need three mags himself.

they have 6

[The Soodean Imperium]

I thought I was being really weird giving my grenadiers rifles, and even then only felt justified because said rifle was basically a big SMG in a holster.

In any case, if your legit riflemen only get three spare mags, your grenadier probably doesn't need three mags himself.

they have 6

i already said that i just used more words

Are a "naval fire director" and "naval aviation forward air controller" supposed to follow units at the front line and provide line-of-sight target designation and fire correction?

Or do they just sit in the headquarters and relay other units' requests for fire support?

It wouldn't be a very forward air control if he sat way back in battalion HQ. FACs are out there actually directing flight paths and observing the gunfire.

In that case, IFV-based fire control platform it is.

[Imperializt Russia]

Maybe "step" the two magazines, so it's more readily discernible?

Why do you feel the grenadier needs as many rifle magazines as the riflemen?

[Militia of the Free]

Also, IFVs? IMO sounds a bit heavy for recce units. In the Dutch army we used primarily jeeps for that. But you can experiment with it.

I prefer reconnaissance-in-force, requiring 40 tonne tanks armed with 90mm medium velocity guns, capable of destroying a wide variety of enemy materiel.

Nah mate, just use this one.

[Militia of the Free]

Are a "naval fire director" and "naval aviation forward air controller" supposed to follow units at the front line and provide line-of-sight target designation and fire correction?

Or do they just sit in the headquarters and relay other units' requests for fire support?

AFAIK in the Dutch armed forces forward air controllers get inserted by helicopter infiltration and operate by giving positions behind enemy lines. They are also used to mark landing grounds for aerial invasions. Some kind of behind-the-line reconnaissance.

[Immoren]

"(Sub-)unit commader and fire controller ought to work so closely that outsider will mistake them for lovers."

[Militia of the Free]

"(Sub-)unit commader and fire controller ought to work so closely that outsider will mistake them for lovers."

Sounds perfect for navymen.

[The Soodean Imperium]

AFAIK in the Dutch armed forces forward air controllers get inserted by helicopter infiltration and operate by giving positions behind enemy lines. They are also used to mark landing grounds for aerial invasions. Some kind of behind-the-line reconnaissance.

This sounds like something that would go at the Divisional or Brigade level.

e: although I guess in my case sniper teams deployed by helicopter could do this given the right equipment.

In this battalion's case presumably the dedicated fire direction teams would be more concerned with "2 Company can't advance because there is a flaktower Mayan pyramid line of concealed fortifications at these coordinates, we need naval gunfire to soften it up before they move in." Which is why I'm leaning toward putting them in IFVs rather than jeeps so they don't get knocked out by a stray burst of MG fire or a nearby shell impact.

Maybe "step" the two magazines, so it's more readily discernible?

They are stepped, the top one is slightly higher up than the bottom one so the convex edge of the bottom one is visible. It's just hard to tell where one ends and the other begins because they're both masses of black/dark grey pixels. I may try to make it more visible next time I edit the image, which will also include giving the AT grenadier a proper rifle instead of that carbine, giving the machine-gunner a GPMG firing rimmed ammunition, and changing one rifleman to a marksman.

Why do you feel the grenadier needs as many rifle magazines as the riflemen?

Because nobody told me otherwise years ago when I posted this on IDT ;-;

I can cut it down to three magazines for the AT grenadier if that helps. I have a feeling that the sensible option is to make the :not:RPG-7 his main weapon and issue a pistol as a sidearm, but then how will he remove hamburger when he is out of thermobaric rockets?

[Korva]

Why do you feel the grenadier needs as many rifle magazines as the riflemen?

Because nobody told me otherwise years ago when I posted this on IDT ;-;

I can cut it down to three magazines for the AT grenadier if that helps. I have a feeling that the sensible option is to make the :not:RPG-7 his main weapon and issue a pistol as a sidearm, but then how will he remove hamburger when he is out of thermobaric rockets?

He is fine with a carbine and the same amount of mags tbh.


You will have the fightingest grenadiers in Hemithea!

[Imperializt Russia]

IIRC, most irl forces do issue the RPG gunner a handgun (the Soviets certainly did).
When I said "step", obviously they are staggered above each other, I meant step as an a step, ie above and to the side, so it is more readily apparent there are two magazines there.

In PSA rifle platoons, everyone but the grenadier has a 7mm rifle, while his backup weapon is a 5.45mm short-barrel carbine. I'm considering only issuing two (maybe three, one loaded) magazines and debating making them all tracer.
The machine gunner, armed either with an automatic rifle or a belt-fed weapon, is issued a handgun. Section marksmen carry the same carbine as the grenadier.

[Dragomerian Islands]

I have been looking into something, but I was not able to find some things I needed. I have been looking into a space-based Anti-Ballistic Missile System. I have been looking at a satellite-based small-round kinetic gun as well as a satellite-based laser (like the US is developing for ground and air units). Which of these is more feasible (in the MT setting), assuming that I have the funds for it (either way would be expensive and I just want to see how feasible it is prior to implementing either one).

[Allanea]

The former - space-based armed satellites with 23mm guns have been actually fielded in the 1970s. All you'd need is some way to aim the gun.

[Dragomerian Islands]

The former - space-based armed satellites with 23mm guns have been actually fielded in the 1970s. All you'd need is some way to aim the gun.

I guess. Any ideas on how to aim?

[The Soodean Imperium]

IIRC, most irl forces do issue the RPG gunner a handgun (the Soviets certainly did).
When I said "step", obviously they are staggered above each other, I meant step as an a step, ie above and to the side, so it is more readily apparent there are two magazines there.

TBH I have a feeling that would make it even harder to see. I'll just use a picture of one magazine with "x6" or "x8" next to it, which saves space and is easier to edit.

In PSA rifle platoons, everyone but the grenadier has a 7mm rifle, while his backup weapon is a 5.45mm short-barrel carbine. I'm considering only issuing two (maybe three, one loaded) magazines and debating making them all tracer.
The machine gunner, armed either with an automatic rifle or a belt-fed weapon, is issued a handgun. Section marksmen carry the same carbine as the grenadier.

IM(unqualified)O the advantage of issuing a rifle to every squad member who needs one is ammunition commonality; in the squad I posted, all small-arms weapons fire 7.62x39mm ammunition.

Switching the LMG for a GMPG and one rifle for a semi-automatic sniper rifle will add two weapons firing 7.62x54mmR, though, and both of those personnel would benefit from 9mm pistols as backup. Which leaves me divided on whether to give the AT grenadier a 9mm pistol in place of his rifle or carbine.

[Scandinavian Nations]

Which leaves me divided on whether to give the AT grenadier a 9mm pistol in place of his rifle or carbine.

There is no right answer. Sometimes one is better, other times the other. The only wrong answer is to keep it the same in every scenario.

[Allanea]

The former - space-based armed satellites with 23mm guns have been actually fielded in the 1970s. All you'd need is some way to aim the gun.

I guess. Any ideas on how to aim?

Well, forget on using the gun on anything that doesn't actually leave the atmosphere. (The shells would destroy themselves on re-entry, they're too small to survive meaningfully).

So now you need to...

1. Send information to the satellite from your ballistic defense sensors (other satellites, ground RADAR, whatever).
2. Have it reorient itself (turn, basically) in orbit and begin shooting at the incoming projectile. It is unlikely to hit (even a tiny deviation means missing by hundreds of meters in space) but maybe you could do so with good fire control software and firing like a hundred shells?

I am not very knowledgeable about the mathematics involved.

[Imperializt Russia]

This was what I meant.

I think it's also clearer if the bottom magazine is in front.

Samozniy PSA platoons have 7x43 Samozniy, 5.45 Samozniy, 9x19/.357 SiG
Where specialist weapons are employed, this adds 7.62x54 for the PKP (either I'll adapt the PKP to .280 or upgun to a 9mm machine gun) and 9.3mm Brennecke for a specialist heavy rifle (and eventually for the MG).

[Gallia-]

If you go really far back, like the 1980s, the basic load was 150 rounds of ammunition rather than 210.

120 rounds of ball and 30 rounds of tracer.

When men were men and less was more.

To quote my father: "If your men are fighting with one rifle per three men, it's not that your soldiers are braved. It's that your country is too poor to supply them."

well i mean it's the western world so of course it's super poor

[Husseinarti]

IIRC, most irl forces do issue the RPG gunner a handgun (the Soviets certainly did).
When I said "step", obviously they are staggered above each other, I meant step as an a step, ie above and to the side, so it is more readily apparent there are two magazines there.

In PSA rifle platoons, everyone but the grenadier has a 7mm rifle, while his backup weapon is a 5.45mm short-barrel carbine. I'm considering only issuing two (maybe three, one loaded) magazines and debating making them all tracer.
The machine gunner, armed either with an automatic rifle or a belt-fed weapon, is issued a handgun. Section marksmen carry the same carbine as the grenadier.

In TOEs a bunch of launcher-equipped infantrymen only had sidearms. However in most instances in real combat these were supplemented by available rifles instead.

[Schwere Panzer Abteilung 502]

Bad driving or failed VBIED attempt? You decide!

[Gallia-]

>trucks
>offroad

[Korva]

the humvee actually does pretty well in the full video that gif is from

replace all stryker death traps with tracked humvees?

[Spirit of Hope]

I have been looking into something, but I was not able to find some things I needed. I have been looking into a space-based Anti-Ballistic Missile System. I have been looking at a satellite-based small-round kinetic gun as well as a satellite-based laser (like the US is developing for ground and air units). Which of these is more feasible (in the MT setting), assuming that I have the funds for it (either way would be expensive and I just want to see how feasible it is prior to implementing either one).

As others have noted the former has sort of already been done, the later still has many hurdles till it is feasible. IIRC the only gun to be used in space was mounted on Salyut 3. There isn't much information available on it that I know about. Honestly I don't think it would be all that useful, the speeds a bullet travel at aren't that high compared to orbital speeds, which would limit the effective range of such a system. Given you're also dealing with orbital ranges I think you would be able to effectively guard against ballistic missiles, without using a lot of satellites.

Reliable ground based lasers capable of taking out a missile are just beginning to be demonstrated. They have high power demands and create a good bit of waste heat. Things that are't good for a satellite system.

[Gallia-]

the humvee actually does pretty well in the full video that gif is from

replace all stryker death traps with tracked humvees?

why not something more radical

like tanks

and ifvs

[Imperializt Russia]

IIRC, most irl forces do issue the RPG gunner a handgun (the Soviets certainly did).
When I said "step", obviously they are staggered above each other, I meant step as an a step, ie above and to the side, so it is more readily apparent there are two magazines there.

In PSA rifle platoons, everyone but the grenadier has a 7mm rifle, while his backup weapon is a 5.45mm short-barrel carbine. I'm considering only issuing two (maybe three, one loaded) magazines and debating making them all tracer.
The machine gunner, armed either with an automatic rifle or a belt-fed weapon, is issued a handgun. Section marksmen carry the same carbine as the grenadier.

In TOEs a bunch of launcher-equipped infantrymen only had sidearms. However in most instances in real combat these were supplemented by available rifles instead.

There's that article from Afghanistan where anyone issued an AKS-74u would do everything they could to get their hands on an AKS-74 instead, for whatever reason (except the article author, who preferred a Stetchkin pistol - he was a driver).