Monday, April 16, 2007

For Rico


From the p. 166 of Robert Leonhard's book Fighting by Minutes:
What type of developments could produce a similar revolution in the future? The goal would be to equip, organize, and train our best fighting formations to move in a controlled manner with great velocity--at a rate, that is, that enemy formations could not adapt to. Alternately, we might approach the problem by focusing developments on our fast, light organizations. If we could maintain their mobility but yet increase their usable combat power, we could again challenge an enemy in a manner he could not handle.

As example of this type of innovation might be to equip the infantry with powered armor suits, similar to those described in the late Robert Heinlein's science fiction novel, Starship Troopers. In his book (a recommended title for students at Command and General Staff College), Heinlein describes infantrymen who can jump hundreds of meters at a leap. The platoon's communications net facilitates a dispersion over great distances, so that one platoon might cover frontages that we would equate with a division today. In fact, such developments are already under way in the army . . .

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