Upgraded BMP-2.
Socom does all kinds of training to defeat insurgent and terrorist forces. What it doesn't do and what always gets it into trouble is when they're faced with fighting conventional forces.
That's the dirty, filthy secret of SOCOM units. When faced with conventional (or conventional acting) forces, they always come out second best.
1. Scud Hunt in Iraq. Special Ops units were either hunted down and killed, hunted and harassed or aborted their missions due to the threat of running into an Iraqi Rifle Company or larger.
2. Assault on Panama. A heavy SEAL unit was tasked with taking out Noriega's plane. The unit ran into a buzzsaw of alert security, security that stood and fought and a blown approach to the objective.
3. Assault on Grenada. A SEAL unit got chopped up and had to be rescued by the 22nd Marine Amphibious Unit (love that name...we need to drop "expeditionary" and readopt "amphibious"...everyone is expeditionary now...amphibious is unique). The only thing that prevented annihilation was a brilliant move by one of the SEALs to use alternative forms of communication.
4. Small Unit Ops in Afghanistan. The stories are legion and legendary about small units being fixed, fought and damn near annihilated in the Afghanistan mountains. I've been told that its worse than the official record indicates and that several missions resulted in "bad days" but they've been classified. I list such talk as nothing but hearsay, but it must be considered.
I said all of the above to point out the obvious. SOCOM and small units are always at risk of being destroyed by conventional units with superior firepower and mobility.
Heading into the Pacific the question must be asked.
Why is the West emphasizing Special Operations Forces while China is doing everything in its power to improve its conventional forces?
The answer is obvious.
In a war between China and the West, SOCOM will be a bit player. Regular US Army and Marine Corps units will either carry the day or lose and die.
The Counter Insurgency Mafia is leading us astray. Raids, Raids and more Raids will not work in the Pacific. Instead of facing unorganized and poorly trained insurgents, those SOCOM forces will be facing military styled internal security or regular infantry formations.
And against such a force, getting to work by parachute or scuba tanks will matter little. What will matter is the weight of fire that can be brought to bear. In such a scenario 16-30 rifles along with anti-tank weapons will be small comfort against 100-400 well trained infantrymen supported by artillery and armored vehicles.
What concerns is that leadership is aware of this. But for some reason they've convinced themselves that for the foreseeable future Special Ops and airpower will be what is needed to hold the line until economic conditions improve for the US to modernize its forces.
I think its a fool's bet.
I think that China will notice, will bide its time until the cuts are deepest and make some type of move to gauge US reaction. No reaction or simple protests to the UN will embolden them. But that is probably the best that we can do even now.
If China makes a land grab in the Philippines then there is nothing anyone can do to stop them.
The military decline of the US has truly begun.
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