Learning by Fighting in the Early Twenty-First Century
The US Army continued its tradition of learning through combat experience and battlefield survival in the early 2000s. Hastily-trained National Guardsmen and volunteers learned while fighting and surviving in the deserts, villages, and cities of Iraq.
Stateside trainees focused heavily on marksmanship and skipped entire segments of instruction to fulfill manpower needs overseas. The army conducted few live-fire exercises due to the limited availability of weapons and equipment for instructional purposes. It was not uncommon for an artillery crew to fire their first live rounds in combat.
The army made profound combined-arms progress within its infantry squads. Many infantry squads in Iraq were mobile, mechanized, combined-arms fighting units. Squads of five to ten soldiers employed a variety of arms and equipment, including light machine guns, anti-tank guns, grenade launchers, and communications. The army provided squads with armored fighting vehicles for mobility, firepower, and protection.
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As the US Army tries to focus on Large Scale Combat Operations, it is important to study recent irregular warfare in Iraq. Between the Rivers offers trenchant analysis of combat operations in Iraq between 2003 and 2005 just as the insurgency erupted.
https://lnkd.in/gbNY5BmM
MRAeS. MA&SPA(UK). BAE Systems (Air) Chairmans Award for Innovation. Combat Aircraft Senior Airframe Structural Design Engineer R&D. (UK British). Happily Married.
3wGood little overview, there is also a very good in depth overview in the Royal Aeronautical Society Aerospace magazine May 24 issue.