Saturday, September 07, 2013

We can do COIN and Nation Building (sort of)...but can we do Combined Arms?



The above video shows the Chinese Type 99 MBT operating on their high desert.  I have yet to read a good intelligence assessment on it or any other piece of Chinese armor.  What I have seen are years old productions that link Chinese to Russian gear and gives the impression that they're the same.  I highly doubt that.

But the bigger question should be this.  We CAN do COIN and Nation Building (what do you think Afghanistan is?) but can we do Combine Arms?

I'd love to see an Army Brigade or/and a Marine Corps Battalion deploy to Ft Irwin and go up against their OPFOR (do they still exist?).  If they're still around and if they're still good and if they've modernized and are now using Chinese tactics (do we even have visibility on Chinese tactics????) then it might be at best a close call...at worse an ass whipping for our guys.

We definitely need to get up to speed.