Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!amdcad!military
From: fly@blake.acs.washington.edu (Michael Griesbaum)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: The Death of Mobile War
Message-ID: <26747@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Date: 14 Aug 89 07:34:14 GMT
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From: fly@blake.acs.washington.edu (Michael Griesbaum)
Advances in technology will do anything but kill mobile war.
Traditionaly, offensive capability precedes defensive in effectiveness 
(one has to know what to protect from before it can be done) but at the
same time, offensive capabilities are often overstated.

The F-4, for example, was originaly designed as a platform for missiles
so sophisticated that dogfighting would become obsolete.  The existence
of the F-16 should awaken anyone who is not aware of the early preformance
record of air to air missiles over Vietnam.

Even with increasing sophistication in both theory and execution in 
munitions, the problems of cost and production limit the newest and
deadliest munitions and weapons from being used on the battlefield.

Strategic anihilation weapons dictate that a large scale war is not
practical, at least as far as superpowers go.  Large scale war (in
proportion to beligerents) is an option only for relatively small
nations (Iran/Iraq; Libya/Chad; Israel/Syria).

The combination of deadlier munitions and strategic deterent allows
for high intensity, small scale involvements, such as El Salvador.
(No political judgements, just application of _tools_ discussed
here)  In an incredibly small nation the airmobile army fights a
very mobile counterguerilla war.  Until the fall of the base at Guazapa,
the battery of 105s there could hit almost anything in the country, and
the half dozen ES AF Hughes 500s could engage in close support in minutes.
The high tech weapons make for a very mobile war in a very small area.

Because greater force can be delivered in a relatively short time,
With the ability to muster great force quickly, large scale conflicts
slow, but high intensity small scale conflicts increase.  The destructiveness
of a single soldier has vastly increased, but the ability of an individual
soldier to withstand destruciveness does not increase proportionally.

{please don't post, but any reply would be appreciated}
fly@blake.acs.washington.edu

All you have to do to fly is lift one foot off the ground, then lift
up the other one without setting the first one down. -HHG