Interesting Back Story To The Iranian Missile Attack.

[willie-pete]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/iran-missiles-battered-iraq-us-lost-eyes-sky-015042600.html


"The volleys of missiles, which soldiers said lasted about three hours, slammed into sleeping quarters directly adjacent to the pilots' operations rooms.

"No more than a minute after the last round hit, I was heading over to the bunkers on the far back side and saw the fire was burning all through our fibre lines," said First Sergeant Wesley Kilpatrick. "

" Those lines link the virtual cockpits to antennas then satellites that send signals to the Gray Eagles and pull the cameras' feeds back onto the screens at Ain al-Asad.

"With the fibre lines burnt, there was no control," said Kilpatrick.

The soldiers could no longer locate the drones and were left blind to events in the air -- and on the ground. "

[TXUSMC]

Good lesson learned... bury those fiber lines next time, if that’s possible.  Might want to build some redundancy in the system, too.

We have come to expect air supremacy, because we think primarily about countering manned tactical aircraft. Defense against UAVs — with guns, lasers, or ECM — is anti-air warfare in a different spectrum. Hopefully, some of our brightest minds are working this issue. Same with force protection of satellites.

Our real peer adversaries, the Chinese and the Russians, are watching this closely.

[janice6]

This is the story in every war.  Sometimes squads are out of communications, and sometimes platoons.  But this is no indication of the condition of the rest of the Army/Airforce/Navy.  Don't assume that because a few have lost some ability, that the rest can't wipe you out!

Edited January 15, 2020 by janice6

[TXUSMC]

As a military retiree, I am subject to recall as needed. Truth is, I served in the pre-digital age, and my skill set is next to useless. Everything we use today is more lethal, higher speed, lighter, etc. Iron sights on rifles was normal for us, except for snipers. Hell, the Marine Corps retired the Ka-Bar some years back...  it was the last link to the Corps of my time ?.

I mention this only in full disclosure of lack of knowledge in the capabilities of modern equipment. That said, ain’t giving up my Ka-Bar!

[janice6]

2 hours ago, TXUSMC said:

As a military retiree, I am subject to recall as needed. Truth is, I served in the pre-digital age, and my skill set is next to useless. Everything we use today is more lethal, higher speed, lighter, etc. Iron sights on rifles was normal for us, except for snipers. Hell, the Marine Corps retired the Ka-Bar some years back...  it was the last link to the Corps of my time ?.

I mention this only in full disclosure of lack of knowledge in the capabilities of modern equipment. That said, ain’t giving up my Ka-Bar!

Some basic things have functions that are irreplaceable!

[Dric902]

3 hours ago, janice6 said:

This is the story in every war.  Sometimes squads are out of communications, and sometimes platoons.  But this is no indication of the condition of the rest of the Army/Airforce/Navy.  Don't assume that because a few have lost some ability, that the rest can't wipe you out!

Always have the basics taught and practiced. Land nav, small unit tactics, etc

.