I've always wondered that. Thanks for the edjumuhkashun.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
THE DESERT RATS
We had plenty of them when I was in. They were called the M880.
A lot of good pickups out there for “upgrades.”
A missile the size of my young nephew’s forearm can destroy any tank in the world at a range of hundreds of yards.
A dozen fired from cigarette boats can cripple an aircraft carrier. (An exaggeration—trying to make a point here.)
The days of big armor. Big Navy, and big air fleets is over.
The future is SF strikes, drones, and cyber/economic warfare.
Eleven crazies using TWO commercial planes f##cked this country up right good. That was no army that struck enough fear in the peasantry that they were willing to surrender their rights as sovereign citizens—it was crazies striking at society’s nerve centers.
That’s how one wins the war of the future.
The countries where Pickup trucks rule don’t have appreciable air support.
Not much left of them after the Blackhawks, Apaches and Warthogs. Not to mention the Spectre AC130 gunship.
You know what? If naming things after Indians is so bad, what are we doing naming our Helicopters after them?
Why let the Air Force A-10's have all the fun?
Ask Saddam's "Army" about technicals.
The idea that a pick-up is a real war machine is ludicrous. It is nothing more than a target in war.
And for all you pining to wage a revolution in your 4WD pick-ups in the woods and rural areas of America, same thing. Nothing but targets.
Stay on foot and travel ONLY in daylight hours, stealthily. Disperse and cover at night.
I would love to have met the fellow who discovered that driving over antitank mines was fine at speeds in excess of 60 mph. The one who discovered that it isn't at speeds less than that is no longer with us. That is a hell-for-leather approach to warfare Custer would have found familiar; he also is no longer with us.
Speed and cover, a sudden concentration of force at a weak point, surveillance, harassment, sabotage, hit and run, all of this is cavalry warfare. Try to imagine what it would be like in the United States.
Would not a unit of properly equipped and American-manned F150s be superior to anything that the ragheads could conceive or fabricate?
Compared to a conventionally-equipped column, such a unit could move faster, with greater stealth and navigate cross-country, away from the IEDs. And do it at far less cost.
Wouldn't a modern equivalent of the Long Range Desert Force have a place in today's desert and back-country theaters? There would be no threat from the air as, presumably, we would have complete control of that front.
Just askin'...
4th Generation Warfare.
Soviet troops vs Taliban pickup trucks in late 1970s:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnHgC4WSRyU
Any questions?