Long-Range!

This is coolbert:

"in Nam, the majority of firefights occurred at a range of twenty meters or less!" - - Bert.

Here thanks to the Small Wars Journal, American and NATO infantry, engaging an insurgent enemy in Afghan, confronted by a situation that is the opposite of what was encountered by the American soldier in Vietnam. Gun battles, rifleman against rifleman, mano-a-mano in many cases, gun fire at extreme long-range rather than the very close.

Gun battles - - firefights, occurring at distances over which the ordinary combat infantryman is neither trained or equipped to deal with.

* "52% of the fights in Afghanistan begin at 500 meters and go out from there."

* "a majority of the fights in Helmand Province are between 500 and 900 meters."

Ranges and a situation, counter-insurgency in the "tribal" environment - - for which automatic and heavy weapons fire is proscribed, prohibited!

"Because we are fighting a counterinsurgency campaign against a tribal warrior society we have and increasingly continued to limit the use of supporting arms."

[the tribal warrior of the Pashtun society. As encountered by the British on many occasions!]

The rifleman is the man of the hour. And again - - not having the training or the equipment for the most part. Combat as fought in the open and barren terrain of Afghan requires and mandates skilled shootists to deal with a wary and very skilled enemy!

"The result is that we must rely more and more on our riflemen to engage and defeat the enemy."

The American or NATO infantryman, the common soldier equipped with a standard infantry weapon of .223 caliber, the M-16 or SA-80 rifle, NOT capable of careful aimed and accurate shooting over long ranges at a distinct disadvantage here. NOR firing a round that has adequate "stopping power" for distant targets.

Comments:

* Rifles of larger caliber are needed for accurate shooting at such extreme long distances, in excess of 500 meters! Rifles firing the 7.62 mm NATO round and such. Rifles of the type M-14 and FN FAL! Rifles of the caliber as advocated by Appleseed! EVEN THE OLD-FASHIONED BRITISH SMLE RIFLE IS PREFERABLE IN SUCH A SITUATION!

* The extent of this problem has been recognized and been addressed to some extent by the American military? I am thinking of the Designated Marksman [DM] program and the adoption by the U.S. Marines of the Designated Marksman Rifle [DMR]!

* The American military has had to buy back from foreign nations M-14 rifles to equip those troops trained as part of the DM program!

* A possible alternative here is to use Dragunov sniper rifles as captured in Iraq? The Dragunov fires the same round [7.62 X 54R] as the PKM. U.S. units standardizing on Soviet weaponry?

There is no easy fix to this problem. There has to be an entire "sea-change" here! Ever since the era of World War One and subsequent to, the machine gun has been the primary weapon of the infantry squad, riflemen firing merely in the "supporting role" relying upon VOLUME OF FIRE.

That is not the case now!

coolbert.