Watching the tube...

I was watching the military-industrial-entertainment channel a couple of nights ago and saw a documentary on the new infantry fighting vehicles and how they were being used for combat.

It was amusing to see how each vehicle now employed a communicator/planner who kept track of where the sections were at all times as well as the other vehicles so they could coordinate fire support, rapid extraction, over-watch, etc.

Why I found this amusing is because nearly 20 years ago I had proposed something very similar to the Canadian military in terms of a fundamental shift in some of our tactics when I was working in the Combat Development Division of Army Headquarters.

Of course, I was told then that young officers had better things to trouble themselves with than section and platoon level combat; I should be concentrating on combat team and battle group tactics and operations.

Maybe its just me – but doesn’t the whole “divide and conquer” principle start by mowing down your sections and platoons?

Aah... I’m sure Caesar was just a confused Lieutenant like I was.