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ViaSat to modify Air Force JSC
Published: May 13, 2008 at 2:07 PM
CARLSBAD, Calif., May 13 (UPI) -- The U.S. Air Force announced it has contracted ViaSat Inc. to implement a new communication link on the joint communication simulator. -
DynCorp International names new president
Published: May 13, 2008 at 1:51 PM
FALLS CHURCH, Va., May 13 (UPI) -- Defense contractor DynCorp International Inc., based in Virginia, has named a new president and chief executive officer. -
HemCon selected for LHP development
Published: May 13, 2008 at 1:30 PM
PORTLAND, Ore., May 13 (UPI) -- The U.S. Army announced a contract with HemCon Medical Technologies Inc. for the development of battlefield resuscitation lyophilized human plasma.
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Analysis: China copter deal -- Part 1
Published: May 13, 2008 at 4:58 PM
By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News Analyst
WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- The long freeze in Russia's enormously lucrative arms trade with China may be coming to an end as the Kremlin has agreed to sell Mi-171 transport helicopter assembly kits to Beijing. -
Military Matters: A time to cut -- Part 2
Published: May 13, 2008 at 11:03 AM
By WILLIAM S. LIND
WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- How can the United States seriously cut its military spending while retaining and improving its national security? -
Defense Focus: Numbers count -- Part 2
Published: May 13, 2008 at 10:46 AM
By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News Analyst
WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- Wars destroy lots of weapons systems as well as lots of people. That is why major powers still need lots of soldiers and lots of relatively cheap, easily manufactured and easily replaced weapons systems. -
Outside View: Russian-Iran nuke moves
Published: May 13, 2008 at 10:31 AM
By PYOTR GONCHAROV
UPI Outside View Commentator
MOSCOW, May 13 (UPI) -- Has Russia decided to join the U.N. sanctions against Iran? Will the new president shift Russia's policy regarding Iran to the West? -
Analysis: European defense contracts
Published: May 12, 2008 at 2:58 PM
By LEANDER SCHAERLAECKENS
UPI Correspondent
BRUSSELS, May 12 (UPI) -- U.K. Ministry of Defense announces FRES contract; After France, U.K. sells to Libya; Saab profits drop on back of Gripen costs -
Military Matters: A time to cut -- Part 1
Published: May 12, 2008 at 2:45 PM
By WILLIAM S. LIND
WASHINGTON, May 12 (UPI) -- At a recent book party for Winslow Wheeler's new history of the military reform movement of the 1970s and 1980s, I was asked for my views on the prospects for genuine reform. I replied, "So long as the money flow continues, nothing will change." Chuck Spinney, a reformer who spent decades as a polyp in the bowels of the U.S. Department of Defense, agreed.
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Military Matters: Armor lessons -- Part 1
Published: May 7, 2008 at 2:50 PM
By WILLIAM S. LIND
WASHINGTON, May 7 (UPI) -- Bruce Gudmundsson, author of the best book on the development of modern tactics by the German army in World War I, "Stormtroop Tactics," has a new book out. Its title is "On Armor," but thankfully it is not another book about tanks. Most books about tanks, like most books about fighting ships and combat aircraft, fall in the category of children's literature. Their invariable theme is "Look at the big tank/cruiser/fighter go bang/boom/splat."
In contrast, what "On Armor" offers is tanks and other armored fighting vehicles in multiple contexts. The contexts, not the tanks, make this book valuable and important.
One context is combined arms. That tanks fight as one element of combined arms may seem obvious today, but as Gudmundsson notes, it was not obvious to many early tank theorists.
Much of "On Armor" is devoted to discussing the evolution of armored units and the many types of vehicles other arms required if they were to work with tanks. Armored personnel carriers, mechanized Sturm and anti-tank artillery, and armored cars all share the limelight here with tanks.
More important than the vehicles are the functions other arms performed when working with tanks. Gudmundsson correctly writes that in World War II, the Germans always made an initial breakthrough with infantry, saving the tanks for exploitation. Furthermore, when they tried breaking through with tanks, they failed.
Particularly good is the book's discussion of the evolution of the Sturmeschutz and Panzerjager in World War II. In the 1970s, in a small group discussion with Gen. Hermann Balck, someone asked him how, on the Eastern Front, he had used these two vehicle types compared with the way he used tanks. He replied, "I used them all the same way."
Balck is widely regarded as the finest divisional armor commander of World War II in any army, especially for his exploits on the Eastern Front in trapping and destroying three Soviet armies in the early 1943 fighting in southern Russia after the Battle of Stalingrad. When Balck was asked about the utility of motorcycles, another vehicle type covered by "On Armor," he said, "Their only problem was that I could never get enough of them."
Another context that runs through "On Armor" is the tension between two characteristics armored vehicles require if they are to be effective: operational mobility and tactical combat power. Gudmundsson establishes this context at the outset, on the book's first page.
"On Armor" is not just another book about tanks. Rather, it is an attempt to make sense of nearly a hundred years of interplay between the two definitive characteristics of armored fighting vehicles -- tactical utility and operational mobility. The former is the ability to fight. The latter is the ability to rapidly travel over long distances in the absence of significant enemy forces.
--
Next: Designing armored vehicles for operational mobility and not just for tactical utility.
--
(William S. Lind, expressing his own personal opinion, is director for the Center for Cultural Conservatism for the Free Congress Foundation.)
WASHINGTON, May 7 (UPI) -- Bruce Gudmundsson, author of the best book on the development of modern tactics by the German army in World War I, "Stormtroop Tactics," has a new book out. Its title is "On Armor," but thankfully it is not another book about tanks. Most books about tanks, like most books about fighting ships and combat aircraft, fall in the category of children's literature. Their invariable theme is "Look at the big tank/cruiser/fighter go bang/boom/splat."
In contrast, what "On Armor" offers is tanks and other armored fighting vehicles in multiple contexts. The contexts, not the tanks, make this book valuable and important.
One context is combined arms. That tanks fight as one element of combined arms may seem obvious today, but as Gudmundsson notes, it was not obvious to many early tank theorists.
Much of "On Armor" is devoted to discussing the evolution of armored units and the many types of vehicles other arms required if they were to work with tanks. Armored personnel carriers, mechanized Sturm and anti-tank artillery, and armored cars all share the limelight here with tanks.
More important than the vehicles are the functions other arms performed when working with tanks. Gudmundsson correctly writes that in World War II, the Germans always made an initial breakthrough with infantry, saving the tanks for exploitation. Furthermore, when they tried breaking through with tanks, they failed.
Particularly good is the book's discussion of the evolution of the Sturmeschutz and Panzerjager in World War II. In the 1970s, in a small group discussion with Gen. Hermann Balck, someone asked him how, on the Eastern Front, he had used these two vehicle types compared with the way he used tanks. He replied, "I used them all the same way."
Balck is widely regarded as the finest divisional armor commander of World War II in any army, especially for his exploits on the Eastern Front in trapping and destroying three Soviet armies in the early 1943 fighting in southern Russia after the Battle of Stalingrad. When Balck was asked about the utility of motorcycles, another vehicle type covered by "On Armor," he said, "Their only problem was that I could never get enough of them."
Another context that runs through "On Armor" is the tension between two characteristics armored vehicles require if they are to be effective: operational mobility and tactical combat power. Gudmundsson establishes this context at the outset, on the book's first page.
"On Armor" is not just another book about tanks. Rather, it is an attempt to make sense of nearly a hundred years of interplay between the two definitive characteristics of armored fighting vehicles -- tactical utility and operational mobility. The former is the ability to fight. The latter is the ability to rapidly travel over long distances in the absence of significant enemy forces.
--
Next: Designing armored vehicles for operational mobility and not just for tactical utility.
--
(William S. Lind, expressing his own personal opinion, is director for the Center for Cultural Conservatism for the Free Congress Foundation.)
© 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
This material may not be reproduced, redistributed, or manipulated in any form.
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Defense Focus: High-tech limits -- Part 3