Infantry Discussion Thread part 11: Gallas Razor edition.

[Champagne Socialist Sharifistan]

Is this a believable profile of a typical infantry Private:
- 17.5 years old
- male
- born in Sharifistan (the country he fights for)
- Muslim
-Pashtun
-Has 1 wife and 1 mistress
-Apart from the mistress he's practising (doesn't drink, prays 5 times a day when operational demands permit etcetera).
-Son of a factory worker and his wife (a housewife)
-Political ideology: Islamic constitutional monarchism, Sharifistani nationalism.
-Height: 5 ft 11 inches

[Crookfur]

Is this a believable profile of a typical infantry Private:
- 17.5 years old
- male
- born in Sharifistan (the country he fights for)
- Muslim
-Pashtun
-Has 1 wife and 1 mistress
-Apart from the mistress he's practising (doesn't drink, prays 5 times a day when operational demands permit etcetera).
-Son of a factory worker and his wife (a housewife)
-Political ideology: Islamic constitutional monarchism, Sharifistani nationalism.
-Height: 5 ft 12 inches

Absolutely not. This is the most unrealistic thing I have ever seen, 5ft 12 is totally impossible!

[TPFII]

-snip-

If recoil operating firearms that employ a rotating barrel don't have such a restriction, why would a rotating barrel blowback? It's going to end up with a long bullet to cheat the wind better, so that would help.

-snip-

It's more realistic than my soldiers are tbh. I like it.

[Crookfur]

-snip-

If recoil operating firearms that employ a rotating barrel don't have such a restriction, why would a rotating barrel blowback? It's going to end up with a long bullet to cheat the wind better, so that would help.

-snip-

It's more realistic than my soldiers are tbh. I like it.

On short recoil rotating barrel designs, it's the rearward movement of the barrel along a cam that turns the barrel not torque generated by the bullet

[TPFII]

Perhaps, but rotating recoil-operated firearms can still use energy captured by the rifling to help time the system. The Beretta PX4 is a pertinent example, as it has rifling and locking lugs that are intentionally cut in the opposite direction. Since the operating mechanism is only serving to unlock the action around a rotational axis I don't know think it would require additional energy, and could potentially be more precise than a recoil operated rifle as a result of the barrel inherently moving less.

[Gallia-]

Is this a believable profile of a typical infantry Private:
- 17.5 years old
- male
- born in Sharifistan (the country he fights for)
- Muslim
-Pashtun
-Has 1 wife and 1 mistress
-Apart from the mistress he's practising (doesn't drink, prays 5 times a day when operational demands permit etcetera).
-Son of a factory worker and his wife (a housewife)
-Political ideology: Islamic constitutional monarchism, Sharifistani nationalism.
-Height: 5 ft 12 inches

Absolutely not. This is the most unrealistic thing I have ever seen, 5ft 12 is totally impossible!

List of longest things in the world:
1) A piece of string.
2) The ideal rifle barrel.
3) The distance between 6' and 5' 12".

[TPFII]

How about a reversed muzzle booster to drive the barrel forward and unlock a flapper locked bolt, which is then blown back? I'm not sure what that would do for the recoil, but I almost wonder if it'd be BARS-like since the action doesn't start reciprocating until after the bullet leaves the barrel.

[Triplebaconation]

Think about that for a moment.

[TPFII]

The bolt carrier could telescope onto the barrel trunnion, the barrel is driven forward shearing the locking lugs open, and the bolt is driven backwards by residual gas pressure. What doesn't work about it?

[Triplebaconation]

If you visualize the forces at play you'll see you're relying on exponentially-decreasing residual pressure to perform at least three times as much work as a typical automatic action with more energy available.

There were some weird 19th-early 20th century designs with similar concepts but I'm not aware of any that bothered with blowing the entire barrel forward - again you should reflect on why this is impractical.

[TPFII]

Admittedly I don't see why it would require 3x the work, but I can acknowledge that I'm not a mechanical engineer. It's supposed to be lighter weight and outrange the IJA, and be accepted by military brass averse to adding a gas tube because of the local biome. It sounds like I'm stuck on recoil or blowback operation, so now I'm just trying to decide on how they would employ that. They probably get a gas-operated rifle later so it doesn't need to be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

[Austrasien]

The bolt carrier could telescope onto the barrel trunnion, the barrel is driven forward shearing the locking lugs open, and the bolt is driven backwards by residual gas pressure. What doesn't work about it?

The pressure has already dropped a lot by the time the bullet reaches the muzzle. Using a muzzle brake to drag the barrel forward and unlock the bolt isn't going to be very fast with a reasonably designed muzzle brake (you cannot just direct the gas straight back into the operators face...), and now you are relying on whatever is left of the pressure to cycle the whole action.

Having a high-efficiency muzzle brake aka "reverse booster" is essential to this action and the downsides of these are well known.

[Triplebaconation]

Three times the work just refers to the times the residual pressure must actually arrest and reverse the momentum of a major component compared to normal operations. Actual joules that need to be extracted will be much higher since barrels are heavy.

The "I need a weird rifle because of my culture/jungle etc" is a trope that won't die, but if you really want to avoid a gas port because there are trees or something obviously the entire barrel doesn't have to move. You can blow a cup or sleeve or whatever forwards or backwards. Note that every military initially opposed to gas ports quickly changed their minds after the first batch of rifles.

[Arkandros]

Is this a believable profile of a typical infantry Private:
- 17.5 years old
- male
- born in Sharifistan (the country he fights for)
- Muslim
-Pashtun
-Has 1 wife and 1 mistress
-Apart from the mistress he's practising (doesn't drink, prays 5 times a day when operational demands permit etcetera).
-Son of a factory worker and his wife (a housewife)
-Political ideology: Islamic constitutional monarchism, Sharifistani nationalism.
-Height: 5 ft 11 inches

Why do you insist on mistresses? Also, statistically speaking, this implies that there is a 2 to 1 female to male ratio, or a significant number of Eskimo brothers amongst your armed forces.
Besides that, your “average” is also rather young, since assuming a fairly typical 4 year service, the average soldier must have enlisted prior to his 15th birthday (since “career” soldiers will be much older and drag the average up rapidly).

[Countesia]

Hi.

Possibly stupid question.

How are modern armies transported to battlefields across the sea? For example, almost 200,000 American and British troops invaded Iraq, would this have been done through troop transports or by plane?

[Gallia-]

Hi.

Possibly stupid question.

How are modern armies transported to battlefields across the sea? For example, almost 200,000 American and British troops invaded Iraq, would this have been done through troop transports or by plane?

Troops by plane and equipment by ships.

[Amidia-]

I have come up with the basic permutation for an Amidian rifle platoon but have no real idea what to do for special weapons in a squad that replaces LMGs with just a lot I IARs with bigger magazines, also not a 100% on keeping around a platoon guide but I like having spare leaders to reduce the load on command and control.

Platoon Troop (1 Officer and 5 enlisted)
Platoon Commander (OF-1) IAR, GL
Platoon Sergeant (OR-5) IAR, GL
Platoon Guide (OR-4) IAR, GL
Radioman (OR-1) IAR
Mortarman (OR-3) IAR
Assistant Mortarman(OR-1) IAR
Combat Medic (OR-1) IAR**
Forward Observer (OR-1) IAR**
Forward Observer Radioman (OR-1) IAR**

Rifle squad (10 Enlisted)
Squad Leader (OR-4) IAR, GL
Deputy Squad Leader (OR-3) IAR, GL
Rifleman (OR-1) IAR, Disposable Rockets
Rifleman (OR-1) IAR, Disposable Rockets
Rifleman (OR-1) IAR, Disposable Rockets
Rifleman (OR-1) IAR, Disposable Rockets
Rifleman (OR-1) IAR, Disposable Rockets
Rifleman (OR-1) IAR, Disposable Rockets
Rifleman (OR-1) IAR, Disposable Rockets
Rifleman (OR-1) IAR, Disposable Rockets

[Spirit of Hope]

Hi.

Possibly stupid question.

How are modern armies transported to battlefields across the sea? For example, almost 200,000 American and British troops invaded Iraq, would this have been done through troop transports or by plane?

It is going to depend a bit, based on the types of troops you are deploying, where you are deploying them, and the agreements you have with any neighboring or near by nations.

Generally it is just about as fast to ship the vehicles of a mechanized force by ship as it is by air, while a ship takes longer they can carry a lot more per ship and the amount of large cargo planes that can handle armored vehicles is rather limited. That said, aircraft that can move troops are plentiful and troops can be crammed into spaces rather effectively. So it wouldn't be unexpected to move the vehicles by ship and troops by air.

A note to add to this is that the US has a lot of pre positioned equipment, either on ships already pre positioned in the ocean or at supply dumps located in friendly nations. This way the US doesn't need to ship equipment from the US to a conflict, the equipment is already in place (or almost in place) and they just need to bring the troops to the equipment.

I have come up with the basic permutation for an Amidian rifle platoon but have no real idea what to do for special weapons in a squad that replaces LMGs with just a lot I IARs with bigger magazines, also not a 100% on keeping around a platoon guide but I like having spare leaders to reduce the load on command and control.

Platoon Troop (1 Officer and 5 enlisted)
Platoon Commander (OF-1) IAR, GL
Platoon Sergeant (OR-5) IAR, GL
Platoon Guide (OR-4) IAR, GL
Radioman (OR-1) IAR
Mortarman (OR-3) IAR
Assistant Mortarman(OR-1) IAR
Combat Medic (OR-1) IAR**
Forward Observer (OR-1) IAR**
Forward Observer Radioman (OR-1) IAR**

Rifle squad (10 Enlisted)
Squad Leader (OR-4) IAR, GL
Deputy Squad Leader (OR-3) IAR, GL
Rifleman (OR-1) IAR, Disposable Rockets
Rifleman (OR-1) IAR, Disposable Rockets
Rifleman (OR-1) IAR, Disposable Rockets
Rifleman (OR-1) IAR, Disposable Rockets
Rifleman (OR-1) IAR, Disposable Rockets
Rifleman (OR-1) IAR, Disposable Rockets
Rifleman (OR-1) IAR, Disposable Rockets
Rifleman (OR-1) IAR, Disposable Rockets

A platoon probably doesn't need a dedicated forward observer, that is probably a company or battalion asset depending on how much artillery you have and how you control the fire missions for artillery. For the mortars in the platoon your mortar men and squad leader can control the lay of fire fine.

As for special weapons, something heavier than a disposable rocket (what type) for explosive throwing. RPG-7, Carl Gustaf, SMAW, etc. are all options to think about. You could also think about a medium/universal MG, potentially something like the M240 or MG3. you could also just not have any special weapons in the platoon outside of the mortar, it isn't a requirement.

[Amidia-]

the asterisks are attached from higher, I should have specified. I was going to issue rockets from LAWs if there shouldn't be tanks all the way up to AT12s for actually killing tanks.

[Spirit of Hope]

the asterisks are attached from higher, I should have specified. I was going to issue rockets from LAWs if there shouldn't be tanks all the way up to AT12s for actually killing tanks.

Every platoon shouldn't have a forward observer, maybe every company could get one attached to them, the level of guns that a forward observer is directing are going to impact a larger scope than a platoon can really exploit.

Every platoon doesn't need a medic, but that isn't as big a deal. I have medics at the platoon level as well.

[Dayganistan]

Squad composition made in Arma because I can't draw.

This would be an armoured infantry squad, as would belong to an armoured brigade. The distinction between armoured and mechanized infantry in my armed forces is primarily that armoured use tracked IFVs and are attached to armoured brigades, mechanized have wheeled IFVs and have their own mech infantry brigades. Light infantry and airborne would replace the vehicle crew with an MG3 team.

Sig 550 series rifles were adopted in the early 2000s. They're likely to be phased out and replaced with an AR-15 derived design during the 2020s.

[Countesia]

Back again with another question, one i've done a bit of research for but found nothing that really answers my questions. Mostly trying to sound realistic here.

How are smaller units like Brigades and Battalions typically numbered?

For example, if i have an army of 1,000,000 and I decide my battalions are on average 5000 soldiers strong. Am i looking like an idiot trying to have a "170th Brigade" or a "405st Battalion"

What i've been doing, trying to not sound ridiculous, is anything smaller than a brigade the numbers start over. For example, A soldier from Countesia might be designated as being from "67th Brigade, 2nd Battalion, 1st Company, 1st Platoon" Is this a good way to go about it, or am i overcomplicating things?

[Kassaran]

Back again with another question, one i've done a bit of research for but found nothing that really answers my questions. Mostly trying to sound realistic here.

How are smaller units like Brigades and Battalions typically numbered?

For example, if i have an army of 1,000,000 and I decide my battalions are on average 5000 soldiers strong. Am i looking like an idiot trying to have a "170th Brigade" or a "405st Battalion"

What i've been doing, trying to not sound ridiculous, is anything smaller than a brigade the numbers start over. For example, A soldier from Countesia might be designated as being from "67th Brigade, 2nd Battalion, 1st Company, 1st Platoon" Is this a good way to go about it, or am i overcomplicating things?

Generally they're numbered according to whatever organization system works best.
I will say that your battalions are pretty massive, given that companies are generally 100-200 people apiece.

For me, I have units labelled on a Corps, Division - Brigade level with Battalions and Companies being paired together before it to denote their specific role.

The 1st Corps has the 11th Infantry Division which has the 1-11th or First of the Eleventh Mountain Combat Brigade, which contains the 1st Mountain Infantry Battalion and it's five companies.

This fictional unit, taking the whole designation in stride, appears as A/1 1-11th, or Alpha Company, First Battalion, First of the Eleventh Infantry Brigade.

[Spirit of Hope]

Back again with another question, one i've done a bit of research for but found nothing that really answers my questions. Mostly trying to sound realistic here.

How are smaller units like Brigades and Battalions typically numbered?

For example, if i have an army of 1,000,000 and I decide my battalions are on average 5000 soldiers strong. Am i looking like an idiot trying to have a "170th Brigade" or a "405st Battalion"

What i've been doing, trying to not sound ridiculous, is anything smaller than a brigade the numbers start over. For example, A soldier from Countesia might be designated as being from "67th Brigade, 2nd Battalion, 1st Company, 1st Platoon" Is this a good way to go about it, or am i overcomplicating things?

Very generally platoons, companies, and battalions are numbered with regards to their higher unit. So yes: "67th Brigade, 2nd Battalion, 1st Company, 1st Platoon," is perfectly acceptable. Sometimes the brigade/regiment to battalion relationship will be shortened to something like "2/67," i.e. the 2nd Battalion of the 67th Brigade.

Though you might use/see letters for companies: "67th Brigade, 2nd Battalion, Alpha Company, 1st Platoon."

That said for specialty battalions that don't belong to brigades you might start seeing some weird numberings. Like the 440th Signals Battalion. That said it wouldn't be to insane to have all of your battalions of a certain type follow one numbering scheme, which is why you get things like the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion.

[Countesia]

Very generally platoons, companies, and battalions are numbered with regards to their higher unit. So yes: "67th Brigade, 2nd Battalion, 1st Company, 1st Platoon," is perfectly acceptable. Sometimes the brigade/regiment to battalion relationship will be shortened to something like "2/67," i.e. the 2nd Battalion of the 67th Brigade.

Though you might use/see letters for companies: "67th Brigade, 2nd Battalion, Alpha Company, 1st Platoon."

That said for specialty battalions that don't belong to brigades you might start seeing some weird numberings. Like the 440th Signals Battalion. That said it wouldn't be to insane to have all of your battalions of a certain type follow one numbering scheme, which is why you get things like the 555th Parachute Infantry Battalion.

Generally they're numbered according to whatever organization system works best.
I will say that your battalions are pretty massive, given that companies are generally 100-200 people apiece.

For me, I have units labelled on a Corps, Division - Brigade level with Battalions and Companies being paired together before it to denote their specific role.

The 1st Corps has the 11th Infantry Division which has the 1-11th or First of the Eleventh Mountain Combat Brigade, which contains the 1st Mountain Infantry Battalion and it's five companies.

This fictional unit, taking the whole designation in stride, appears as A/1 1-11th, or Alpha Company, First Battalion, First of the Eleventh Infantry Brigade.

Thank you both for your answers. They were incredibly helpful