NS Military Worldbuilding Thread No. 12

[The Manticoran Empire]

Can I use my fictional army to rp war?

Yes but you should have factbooks for any RP companions to look at if they have questions.

[Cossack Peoples]

What do you think would be the key components of the most effective ASW warship? Right now I've got it in my head that it would be a relatively speedy design (frigate/corvette sized) with IEP, equipped with a LF bow-mounted sonar with a towed variable-depth array, armed with some VL-ASROCs backed up by regular torpedo tubes and rocket propelled depth charge launchers, and finally cloaked with some kind of Prairie Masker system, Nixie towed decoys, and then some hard disposable noisemakers to shake off any fish. Anything you would add or leave out?

Edit: add a helicopter or two to that list.

[The Dolphin Isles]

I believe I may have already asked something similar to this in the past and apologize in advance if I have, but can one employ infantry AGL teams in a suppressing fire role enough to supplant an MG? I have been intrigued for a while of putting the Russian AGS-30 in the weapons platoons of my light infantry rifle companies (3x rifle platoons, 1x weapons platoon). However, the weapons platoon already feels weighed down with an MG squad, ATGM squad, marksman squad, and 81 mm mortar squad. Is the concern of adding an AGL squad causing more bloat an issue or is this fear unfounded?

If it did seem top-heavy, can I make the AGL and MGs swappable or is a heavy MG a necessity for near-peer conflict? (Maybe even 2x MG teams and 1x AGL team?)

Or is this all trying to put a square peg in a round hole and the AGL belongs in its own company at the battalion level akin to its place in Russian and American units? I remember people here saying the 30 mm AGL could work well at the tactical level, but I am seemingly just having a hard time fitting it in and justifying it especially when I already have a combination of mortars and MG teams (and infantry rifle grenades ).

[Gallia-]

What do you think would be the key components of the most effective ASW warship?

A big helicopter with a datalink. Everything else is ancillary, none of the other stuff will make a small helicopter better, and the helicopter is the most important ASW weapon/sensor of a warship.

I believe I may have already asked something similar to this in the past and apologize in advance if I have, but can one employ infantry AGL teams in a suppressing fire role enough to supplant an MG?

Yes but the ammunition is heavy. A machine gun like a PKM can carry two or three times as much ammunition as a AGS-30 and shoot for that much longer. Which is probably why you wouldn't carry an AGS around all the time. An unmotorized rifle company will probably just want 60mm mortars and not much else. ATGW and 81mm mortars are usually in battalions for obvious reasons (they're heavy and rarely needed) and a marksman squad can probably be replaced by a sniper in each platoon with a long range rifle like a SVD.

[The Dolphin Isles]

A big helicopter with a datalink. Everything else is ancillary, none of the other stuff will make a small helicopter better, and the helicopter is the most important ASW weapon/sensor of a warship.

Could I actually make the US LCS classes worthwhile by extending their hangars so that they could include 2 helicopters and removing the modular mission bays to create aviation crew quarters? Of course, this is similar to what the USN wanted anyways in a "modular" vessel, so it may be possible but just not on a vessel as small and minimally manned as LCS.

Of course, at this point one must ask what niche am I trying to cover that isn't already covered by existing aviation on carrier strike groups, attack submarines, and land-based aviation. Granted, having a few corvettes for convoy escorting would be nice but making these vessels larger and more expensive would hurt their mission goal of being as prevalent as possible.

Yes but the ammunition is heavy. A machine gun like a PKM can carry two or three times as much ammunition as a AGS-30 and shoot for that much longer. Which is probably why you wouldn't carry an AGS around all the time. An unmotorized rifle company will probably just want 60mm mortars and not much else. ATGW and 81mm mortars are usually in battalions for obvious reasons (they're heavy and rarely needed) and a marksman squad can probably be replaced by a sniper in each platoon with a long range rifle like a SVD.

Right. A hypothetical team of 3 could carry ~150 rounds. Which is good enough for a single fight but not much more. It probably compares itself more to an HMG team vs 7.62 mm MMG team that a company would find more use with. Maybe the motorized/mechanized can have a 2/1 mix of MMG/AGL similar to Soviet BMP companies in Afghanistan.

As for the ATGW squad, they simply use a NS-ified version of the French MMP, so it's not necessarily something like TOW or Kornet and more like a lighter ATGW like javelin or spike. Ironically enough, I restructured my squads a month or two ago and ended up with a convergent evolution to what you recently posted except with the 84 mm group having a 3rd man and only having 1 of each MMG and ATGW team attached at the platoon level from the company weapons squad.

As for the mortars, I guess I just assumed that 81 mm shells weren't too much worse than 60 mm and a +67% in manpower (5 man teams instead of 3) would compensate for this. I was moreso looking at Soviet VDV companies which had two teams of two mortars with the assumption that while the light infantry are designed to theoretically be able to operate with little to no motorization, in practice, they would almost always be given at leave a few unimogs, land rovers, etc. that would be airdropped/sealifted with them.

The marksmen were an iffy one. I considered just giving the best rifleman in each squad a better scope and figured it would be overkill to also give the platoon HQ a marksman and decided on the wishy washy compromise of giving the company 3 teams of 2 marksmen/FOs to either act independently or be attached to a platoon HQ anyways if needed.

[Gallia-]

Three people would probably be able to carry closer to 60 rounds of 30-mm grenades. If you're using it off of the Landie you'll probably just shuttle ammo cans from the back of the truck to the firing position and dump them with the gunner and his assistant. They aren't something you're really going to be moving around with your legs if you can help it though.

If they have Landies or Humvees or something then they will just carry the big guns on those and take them off if they need them. A .50 cal/AGL mixed machine gun platoon makes sense, but a rifle company would probably just have a few guys with tripods and machine guns like an M60 or PKM. Dumbla IIRC has a sniper and 60mm mortar in every motor and light infantry platoon, two 60-mm mortars and a weapons platoon with 4x M60s and 4x PF-98 rocket launchers in every company, and a motorized weapons company in every battalion with .50 cals/40mm AGLs, an anti-tank platoon with TOW/Javelin missiles, and an 81-mm mortar platoon.

[The Dolphin Isles]

I can see what you mean on the AGL team. It just simply wouldn't have the mobility necessary for a company's tempo of operations in a conventional conflict. For defensive positions or asymmetrical fighting (about to enjoy a colonial war), they'd probably just be shuttled down to a company HQ as needed.

I thought about having commando mortars at the platoon level but figured that I still wanted mortars at the company level for concentration of fires if needed, so (similar to my snipers) I just put in 3 teams of 5 man mortar crews. Although, I might want to drop that to two.

This kind of lends the company the resources to accomplish its goals mostly independently. This falls in line with the "Regimental Combat Team" system which is basically just a combined arms battalion system similar to an MEU or French combat battle group. My nation is based on being a middling/regional power so these units are meant to be the little brother of a coalition. For independent actions, an RCT should be good enough and in rare cases, the brigade combat team system might be used. However, the divisional and corps structures have been mainly relegated to administrative functions.

Having said this out loud and realizing the implications of it, should I transition my army aviation down to the brigade level or is it inherently something that benefits from the theater level commands of the division and being lent to units as needed from there?

EDIT:

[Austria-Bohemia-Hungary]

A big helicopter with a datalink. Everything else is ancillary, none of the other stuff will make a small helicopter better, and the helicopter is the most important ASW weapon/sensor of a warship.

Could I actually make the US LCS classes worthwhile by extending their hangars so that they could include 2 helicopters and removing the modular mission bays to create aviation crew quarters? Of course, this is similar to what the USN wanted anyways in a "modular" vessel, so it may be possible but just not on a vessel as small and minimally manned as LCS.

Of course, at this point one must ask what niche am I trying to cover that isn't already covered by existing aviation on carrier strike groups, attack submarines, and land-based aviation. Granted, having a few corvettes for convoy escorting would be nice but making these vessels larger and more expensive would hurt their mission goal of being as prevalent as possible.

If you want a Merlin/MH-60 carrier what you want is this, or this
40 knots on expensive turbines on an allegedly expendable corvette that has nothing is just obscene.
Have like:
1. A big helicopter with datalink
2. A frigate to carry said helicopter
3. Add some VLS-based supersonic antisubmarine rockets if you want to :assist: the helicopter.

[Immoren]

Make weapons platoon one teal lighter by throwing marksmen into whatever your equivalent of HQ platoon is instead of divying them across rifle platoons obv.

81mm mortars are not that weird at company level, but I guess it depends on experience what are better.

Also I know two types of infantry companies that have at least had 1 AGL at company level but those are more special cases than norm.

[The Dolphin Isles]

Thanks for the advice on the sniper team. I am now waffling on if I even need proper snipers if I already have a DM in the squads. Although, I am pretty set on moving it down to the platoon HQ at the very least.

Right but 3 might still be a little hefty with a total of 16 people. I do like the idea of going heavy on the mortars if I am removing the AGL team.

Yeah. I really only saw one example of a company that had 82 mm mortars and AGL teams and they were both from the Soviets in Afghanistan. So maybe not the best example to follow for what I'm looking for.

[Gallia-]

81mm is fine if you want to use mortars to kill people. Dumbla has 60mms because it likes mortars for smoke throwing instead and its brigades have 120mm mortars, 105mm howitzers, 152mm infantry guns, and 227mm rocket launchers.

[Immoren]

Thanks for the advice on the sniper team. I am now waffling on if I even need proper snipers if I already have a DM in the squads. Although, I am pretty set on moving it down to the platoon HQ at the very least.

Right but 3 might still be a little hefty with a total of 16 people. I do like the idea of going heavy on the mortars if I am removing the AGL team.

Yeah. I really only saw one example of a company that had 82 mm mortars and AGL teams and they were both from the Soviets in Afghanistan. So maybe not the best example to follow for what I'm looking for.

I forgot Soviets had AGL at company level and thought more coastal infantry companies of Finnish Navy and urban infantry companies trained by guards Jaeger regiment of Finnish army.

Sniper team could be like only secondarily for sniping and primarily being recon asset for company commander, providing overwatch for company headquarters and brewing coffee for XO or first sergeant. depending on mission.
Although obviously it could be but under one of the infantry platoons depending on situation.

[Dtn]

Super-serious snipers should be at battalion level so they aren't micromanaged. Platoon and company commanders tend to put them in dumb places.

Marksmen, on the other hand, should be as close as possible to squad leaders.

[Cossack Peoples]

How feasible is it for aircraft to intercept and destroy incoming missiles? For the kind of missiles I'm talking about, I was thinking specifically something from nikocado avocado to something more reasonable. I figure the largest problem would be being in the right place at the right time to actually engage, and then problems with acquiring and hitting a small target, in the case of the latter target.

[New Vihenia]

How feasible is it for aircraft to intercept and destroy incoming missiles? For the kind of missiles I'm talking about, I was thinking specifically something from nikocado avocado to something more reasonable. I figure the largest problem would be being in the right place at the right time to actually engage, and then problems with acquiring and hitting a small target, in the case of the latter target.

US and Soviet/Russia back then developed very specific aircrafts for such mission. the F-111B, F-14 and Soviet with MiG-31.

Those aircrafts address the problem by having large radar and IRST. To search large area and engage the missile as soon as it's acquired plus they're equipped with long range missiles like Phoenix and R-33's. They are also tightly connected with datalink like NTDS or Russian one APD-518.

So yeah it is a feasible regime. Then it would be the numbers game. where the missile's RCS/signature will determine how many aircrafts is required.

I did a little bit of "modeling" back then, comparing several different aircrafts.

You can see the smaller the missile's signature... the more aircrafts are needed to find and destroy it. In the other hand the more powerful the radar the fighter aircraft has.. it can handle more targets with smaller signatures thus lessening the amount needed to handle saturation attacks.

The aircraft with "smaller" radar will have to rely on AWACS for designation, which the problem then become whether the aircraft have adequate weaponry to engage the target. or whether it has enough kinematics to get there and get the missile down.

[Immoren]

Probably asked this before. But if you've national service, or something like that, where you've part time soldiers and full time soldiers. And instead of having system where these part time and full time soldiers and different "tiers" in ranks, but their ranks overlap. Do you have insignia and/or uniform standards set in such way that outsider can immediately recognize at the glance if this corporal is professional enlistee or particularly compentent conscript, or if only way to differentiate by going to through persons papers.
Like irl in Finland before end of Winter War reserve officers had word "of reserve" in their rank title and wore silver instead of gold insignia.
Or when it comes to NCOs, conscript NCO and reserve NCOs wear different cap badge in peace time to career NCOs, but in war they'd wear completely same iconography, with perhaps what would give hint to if they'd reserve or career NCO in how fit they look or something.
Well and I forgot that career sergeants have extra sword in their insignia.

[Gallia-]

No. Much like tree you need to be able to cut into the uniform and count how many times it's been starched to determine if the wearer was professional or conscript. OTOH Dumbla doesn't have conscript NCOs outside of lance corporals, which are basically just a captain or something saying "you're pretty good and we think you'd work well in this organization" but in an Army sort of way. There's no real way to tell if a Lk. is a conscript or a professional soldier just starting their enlisted career unless you ask though. They get a single chevron instead of a stripe on their uniform.

I guess if it did it would have you put a flower or something over the stripe/chevron though if you're a professional soldier. But generals have flowers on their shoulder boards (I forgot what junior officers have but field officers have crowns iirc) so...

[Austria-Bohemia-Hungary]

-Handguns - Uh Walther 38 i guess
-SMGs - FAL in 8x33 Kurz
-Service Rifles - FAL in 8x33 Kurz
-Sniper Rifles - Steyr M95
-Shotguns - ???
-LMGs - Bren in 8x57
-:gpmg: - MG 42
-Hand-grenades - Uh some egg shaped thing

I got bored and decided to do this list for myself in like 1955-1960.

[Gallia-]

chad mills bombe

[Spirit of Hope]

-Handguns - Uh Walther 38 i guess
-SMGs - FAL in 8x33 Kurz
-Service Rifles - FAL in 8x33 Kurz
-Sniper Rifles - Steyr M95
-Shotguns - ???
-LMGs - Bren in 8x57
-:gpmg: - MG 42
-Hand-grenades - Uh some egg shaped thing

I got bored and decided to do this list for myself in like 1955-1960.

I'm imaging a FAL in 8×57 with like an 8 inch barrel for your SMG.

[Austria-Bohemia-Hungary]

I got bored and decided to do this list for myself in like 1955-1960.

I'm imaging a FAL in 8×57 with like an 8 inch barrel for your SMG.

i guess there's some sten guns and mp40's here and there but we're trying to replace it all with FAL in 8 Kurz.

[Spirit of Hope]

I'm imaging a FAL in 8×57 with like an 8 inch barrel for your SMG.

i guess there's some sten guns and mp40's here and there but we're trying to replace it all with FAL in 8 Kurz.

I figured it was an actual FAL, but the insane image popped into my head.

[Austria-Bohemia-Hungary]

i guess there's some sten guns and mp40's here and there but we're trying to replace it all with FAL in 8 Kurz.

I figured it was an actual FAL, but the insane image popped into my head.

nah

[The Adunes]

Since they are giant muscular beings that mostly range from 6'5 to 9 ft tall, and therefore produce a lot of body heat, in addition to the desert being hot asF, I was thinking about having my desert troops go in with nothing but their underwear, a pair of sandals, a heavy metal helmet for shade and protection, and a rather large body shield (made of the same material as their heavy tanks), with their weapons and equipment strapped onto the back.

[Spirit of Hope]

Since they are giant muscular beings that mostly range from 6'5 to 9 ft tall, and therefore produce a lot of body heat, in addition to the desert being hot asF, I was thinking about having my desert troops go in with nothing but their underwear, a pair of sandals, a heavy metal helmet for shade and protection, and a rather large body shield (made of the same material as their heavy tanks), with their weapons and equipment strapped onto the back.

No clothing is actually bad in a desert. It means the sun is directly hitting (and heating up/burning) your skin. You are far better off with light, loose, light colored clothing.